DU Is Not Unique. Every Discussion Forum on Every Topic

[MineralMan]

Has spin-off forums that hate the original, successful forum. Looking for global conspiracies when someone attacks a discussion forum is a waste of time. Here's the reality, in a silly animation I created on a now-defunct website that explains it all:

[Hortensis]

1. Oh, no, LOL! What a hoot! MM, you managed to make Next Big Forum arguments

sound as tedious, repetitive, grandiose and devoid of intellect as they are. Quite a trick, and I'm impressed. Will watch for award nomination.

I confess to gratitude for some of these satellite forums. They peel away people who simply cannot understand the viewpoints of others, much less take the leap to respect. But after a few months of burrowing conspiratorially farther and farther into those dark, subterranean rabbit warrens, they can be really funny in a cautionary, creepy, "there but for the grace of my genetic code go I" kind of way.

[MineralMan]

2. Thank you kindly!

I miss that site. I did several short cartoons there, but they stopped letting you do it for free.

[Gothmog]

3. LOL

[Sunlei]

4. forums will never be civilized

[JoeStuckInOH]

5. I think the hive-mindset and exclusionary tactics of DU create more of an echo chamber v other sites

There is huge degree of self-policing on this site versus others I've seen. I'll start off by saying that I like it a lot and I wouldn't call it quite a mob mentality... but things appear to snowball and escalate quickly, too. As such, I've noticed there's certainly a bit more of an "echo chamber" effect here where popular views are VERY popular and disagreements are heavily scrutinized and typically require care/caution to keep the debate civil.

For some reason I can't figure out, this environment at DU also tends to create a lot more targeted/emotional infighting for some reason (will the 2016 primary fighting ever end?).

The only other online forum I've spent significant time at that was ardently as conscious as DU about exiling dissenters is probably AR15.com... and although they are not a political board, it's a huge gun owner board so it tends to lean VERY right wing. So it's pretty much the opposite of DU where they will eject you if claim to be a liberal and make ANY sort of antigun statement (ie: I vote dem and think magazine limits are not so bad... you get eaten alive and ejected.)