LET IT DROP!!!!

[peace13]

Let's take for example the insane number of abortion posts that are started to simply get the ranks riled and create a post with hundreds of responses. We need to go back to the very effective campaign of letting these OP's drop!

When you find yourself replying to one of these things simply hit delete and ignore. If you have to respond at all, post 'let it drop'. Before you know it the thing will drop off the page, never to be seen again! This has worked in the past. We need to focus on the real problems at hand and not follow the nuts down Squirrel Trail!

[quinnox]

1. I trash any threads with "abortion" in the title at this point

[Le Taz Hot]

2. I'm sorry,

who the hell died and made you DU Topic Sheriff? This is GENERAL DISCUSSION. We talk about LOTS of different things here. If YOU don't like a thread then YOU don't click on it. See how easy that is? And if you don't think open access to safe, legal abortion as a "real problem," then I think it is YOU who are on the wrong board.

[packman]

4. Agree

I come to DU because it helps me define what I feel should be points I can defend and support. The right to have control and access as Le Taz said should be one of the core principles of the Democratic party and by extension , the DU. And, if it is a major item that is talked to death, it must be an issue of concern to the readers in General Discussion. Like TV, if the channel is not for you- click to another. Go somewhere else if you tire of reading about what is discussed on this board.

[peace13]

6. Like it or not the discussion on DU reflects on the community.

The technique I was suggesting has been used for years here. It is not something that I invented. You have been around long enough to know that. A lot of energy goes into defending garbage OP's designed to start riots. They are distractions to the real issues.

You don't for one minute think that I was talking about threads regarding access to safe, legal abortions do you? Maybe you would like to defend the OP running now about how women have abortions because they are too selfish to give the baby up for adoption. You see, out of respect for women an OP like that demands a response.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. I don't care what the OP's motives are.

The fact is, access to safe and legal abortion is being severely threatened, again, by the right-wing abortion Nazis in this country. We need to be the first to defend that. When you suggest that discussion be curtailed to only the "right kind" of discussion, that's presumptuous to say the least and more attempt to control women at the worst.

Topics come and go in GD. There are a LOT of discussion topics that bore me to death. Guess what? *I* don't click on the topic. *I* utilize Hide Thread. A lot. What I don't do is demand, yes, demand, (look at the overuse of caps and exclamation points in this thread title) that EVERYONE ELSE not be interested either.

Yes, I know the OP's intent was to stir shit. Sometimes that works on here, sometimes it doesn't. The board itself will decide, by popularity, or lack thereof, if a topic or a thread is going to sink or swim, all by itself. That means we don't need the "guidance" of a topic nanny. We never have. What you are talking about is manipulation. "Hey kids! Let's freeze out this topic!" Doesn't work that way.

[peace13]

13. ........

You and I are not on the same planet at this time. I can not seem to make you understand my point.

At any rate you demeaning me, putting words in my post, is unfair and unkind.

I suggest that in the future you take your own advice and ignore instead of attacking. Until the next time...have a peaceful day!

[Le Taz Hot]

15. Your point is that someone started a shit-stir

thread and that EVERYONE ELSE should follow your demand and not "feed the beast" so to speak. I'm telling you the affect this thread is having. Sorry if it's not what you want to hear.

[ljm2002]

27. The OP in question...

...never, ever characterized women who choose abortion as being "too selfish to give the baby up for adoption". Those are your words and they are cynically misrepresenting the argument that was made in the OP.

Again: if you don't like a topic, you can ignore it or even use the "Trash Thread" feature, rather than starting your own thread to call out another poster's OP.

[Little Star]

3. How about we just let anything that peace13 posts DROP and ignore instead????...

How about that? That might save us from the nuts down Squirrel Trail.

[peace13]

14. Buddha ...was a wise being.

I am so sorry that I was not able to successfully communicate my point to you.

Peace and love to you and yours. Kim

[myrna minx]

5. Woman's healthcare is an important subject to many people here.

If you're not interested in the topic, perhaps you could hide the thread that offends and not try to police the topics of discussion on a political message board.

[theHandpuppet]

8. Agreed.

As far as I'm concerned, we don't talk enough about women's healthcare!

[peace13]

9. Abortion was one example, as stated in the OP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My point being that crazy op's that demean women, gay people, immigrants and a myriad of other topics grow like well fed cancers here. People like you and I feel obligated to defend our position and as a result the post grows. As a result of that another gets started and then another. Trust me, I use ignore. The tool that I suggest has been used successfully and could help rid this board of some tragic posts designed only to make rational people irate.

I am not trying to police in any way. Simply reminding people that by responding to these threads that are designed to derail we feed the poster and groups behind them.

[PeaceNikki]

16. exactly

[Sheldon Cooper]

21. Heh.

I suggested that she hide the other thread, and she hid me instead!

[Snotcicles]

7. Wouldn't want to deprive anyone of their right to a good Nader driveby. nt

[sharp_stick]

10. I make use of the ignore feature

as long as people have the brains and tact to actually put the topic of their comment in the subject line it does a fine job of filtering out the inane jabber.

Give it a week or two before you delete the ignore word and the rage du jour tends to dissipate.

[peace13]

12. Thanks for this.

I have never blocked for topic!

[winter is coming]

17. Take a break for a few days, and it should be over.

By the time the, "For the love of God, I'm sick of this shit! Stop creating new threads!!" phase has arrived, the locusts are nearing the end of their life cycle and it's almost time for a new topic swarm to hatch. I'm guessing the TPP will be the next Topic That Ate GD.

It's not just DU. I remember seeing cycles like this decades ago on Usenet.

[peace13]

20. Thanks for the laugh!

When my son was two and making me nuts my dear neighbor told me that at the point when I thought I couldn't take it any more the behavior would stop....and a new one would follow on it's heals. Your point is well taken. Thank you! Kim

[winter is coming]

22. You're welcome. Trying to find humor in it is my way of weathering the swarm. n/t

[Fumesucker]

18. You were here when Michael Jackson kicked the bucket

GD was all MJ all the time for a couple of weeks or more.

That's just the way DU rolls, GD in particular is a serial obsessive forum, it was guns after Sandy Hook, storms around and after Sandy and so on and so on.

[Sheldon Cooper]

19. NO!!!!!!

NO I WON"T!!!!!!!

[Kaleva]

23. I just skip over them.

Other DUer's wish to discuss it and that's fine with me.

[KoKo]

24. There's a little Button you can Push to "TRASH THREAD"...in case you

missed it. There's also a Keyword Function somewhere that allows you to block all posts that contain a certain word. I don't know where that function is...but, someone on this thread might know.

[PeaceNikki]

26. then don't forget to start a post about how you trashed the threads

Cuz you're so sick of other people discussing a topic important to them and can't possibly be inconvenienced by seeing them a minute more.

[ljm2002]

25. Take your own advice...

...and use the "Trash Thread" feature that our admins have so thoughtfully provided. That would have been a much better tactic than starting a new thread to complain about an OP that you apparently disagree with. This OP of yours is just another form of "calling out", IMO.

[dem in texas]

28. I totally agree

I 100% agree. I was wondering if DU had been invaded by right to lifers who are posting watered down messages on this board. There are way too many posts about abortion.

Folks it is a done deal, it is the law. If you don't like it, go over to Red State or go watch the 100 club.

Do whatever, but the the F*** off DU.

[HappyMe]

29. Discussions kind of go in cycles here.

When there are too many of the same damn thing, I just start trash canning them.

[boston bean]

33. yeah, I couldn't remember the banned posters name that thunk that stupid idea up.

Passive aggressive BS, as far as I was concerned..

[hootinholler]

31. Somebody mention squirrel's nuts?

[cyberswede]

32. Use the "trash by keyword" function.

Problem solved.

[whttevrr]

34. Fuck That...

Every day I hear about a new right wing republican proposing another law to curb women's rights. You may wish to stick your head in the sand and wish the icky talk goes away, but I think a few more people would like to exclaim a collective WTF!?

[PeaceNikki]

37. this ^

Thank you, btw. It's been a frustrating week or so (ok, 9 years) here.

[XRubicon]

52. ^ Not this

[jeff47]

35. So you decided to create a post to get the ranks riled up

which will have hundreds of responses. In order to stop the very thing you were decrying.

Yeah....trash thread if you want. The rest of us will talk about what we want to talk about.

[kcr]

36. Let this thread drop.

[whttevrr]

38. Should probably let it drop when pro-lifers drop their crusade to curtail choice.

[kcr]

39. I don't think the OP necessarily jives with pro choice concerns.

Just a suspicion I have. Maybe I'm reading wrong.

[whttevrr]

41. Ohhh...

I'll have to check back later. The brick and mortar world is intruding again.

[peace13]

45. Off base just so ya know.

Pro choice here. I actually lived in a time when women could choose birth control and had the choice of abortion if needed. Women born in the late fifties in the US are probably the only ones who will get to experience both affordable safe birth control and legal abortion. We had health care and the ability to make our own choices in the privacy of our doctors offices. We had it all!

The original OP was posted out of frustration after reading yet another abortion OP that wanted to hash out just why women don't use adoption as an alternative to abortion. In my opinion such threads step on the head of every woman. Why does it flourish here at DU. Is the country really calling for this or...are the lint picking, keyboard strumming in their underwear morons of the internet forcing this issue.

[kcr]

46. I did say it was possible I misread

And it's probably because being told to shut up is usually leveled by the pro-life crowd. It's also a common tactic on DU by those who aren't, shall we say, friendly on women's issues.

[peace13]

47. I most certainly never told anyone to shut up.

But you are correct, telling someone to shut up is a bad thing for certain. Being party to threads that are meant to give opportunity for women bashing is a bad thing as well. Unfortunately this goes on a lot here. Believe it or not that is what drew me to post this OP.

Never no mind. Sorry for troubling you. I didn't want you to think that I was for one minute a pro-lifer. I am a love lifer. Do no harm, be kind, reach out a helping hand whenever possible. Have a good one, Kim

[kcr]

48. I don't think you meant to

I'm just explaining why I jumped to the conclusion I did. You didn't make clear which abortion thread you were talking about in the OP, so it looked like you just meant abortion threads in general. There's usually only one side that wants to shut down the discussion. But if you meant don't give anti-choicers the time of day, well then that's different.

[whttevrr]

50. off base?

I think you are wrong to squelch discussion about abortion. If you do not like the topic, you can ignore the threads.

I do not believe you about the 50's.

Women born in the late fifties in the US are probably the only ones who will get to experience both affordable safe birth control and legal abortion.

Are we talking about the same US?

The good ole days are rarely good... they're just old.

[whttevrr]

51. This chart needs to be reversed...

[notadmblnd]

53. Yes, the lint picking, keyboard strumming in their underwear morons (aka trolls)

of the internet are forcing this issue.

[liberal_at_heart]

40. It's certainly a crazy world we live in when being for birth control is anti-choice.

I've put abortion in my auto trash by keyword list.

[peace13]

43. Thanks.

I didn't know that function existed until posting this OP. I will make good use of it. Peace, Kim

[NCTraveler]

42. What a poor idea.

If anything, these discussions have shown we have a real problem at hand. That is the topic of abortion. Instead of just not taking part in those threads, you start a whining op about them. Do you have control of yourself? Think you can just go to other topics? I guess not. They are getting hundreds of responses. You not responding to them will make no difference at all. Thanks Deputy Peace13.

Women rights are being taken everyday in this country.

[peace13]

44. Yes and many of the OP's here bomb woman back to the cave times.

I have learned a lot with this OP and that is that ignore is more important than ever. Just like out in the real world. By the way if you read the OP you will see that abortion was an example and I said example, because it happens to be the topic that has been beaten to death around here most recently. My own personal views on women's health and abortion are that of any evolved educated woman. My body, my mind, I will deal with me...you deal with you.

That being said, you are correct that my responding or not makes no difference here. That is a very good point. Thank you for your kind response.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

49. No.