As a newbie, I am curious as to how we all found the DU.

[Tipperary]

How did you learn about this place?

[Throd]

1. I first heard it mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh show.

[Tipperary]

4. Now, THAT is funny.

I have lurked here for some time. I think I first heard the DU mentioned on Ed Shultz' radio show.

[cwydro]

25. I did too.

A long time ago.

Thanks, Rush!

[Tom Ripley]

2. The Horse brought me here

RIP Media Whores Online

[Ron Obvious]

3. Top 10 Conservative Idiots

Someone used to crosspost it to the old seattle.general on usenet. Boy, does that seem long ago...

ETA: That used to be a favourite column on the old DU. Sadly defunct now.

[Tipperary]

5. I only just realized how long the DU has been around.

Obviously I discovered it late. But it certainly looks to be an interesting time here!

[fizzgig]

18. i loved top ten conservative idiots

i miss it.

[sarge43]

6. My nephew (RIP) gave me a head's up. n/t

[Tipperary]

7. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about your nephew.

But thanks for responding

[sarge43]

8. Thank you. His handle was 5thGenDemocrat. He's on the DU Memorial Page

He was one of the original gang.

Welcome to DU.

[Tipperary]

13. I didn't know about the memorial page.

I'm going to check that out if I can find it.

[Rhiannon12866]

20. Here you go. It's not easy to find unless you know where to look.

And welcome to DU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=inmemoriam

[Tipperary]

22. Thank you for the link and the welcome.

I'm kind of stumbling around blindly.

Somehow I ended up in a gun forum, but I escaped unscathed.

[LaurenG]

86. I went to his June party the last year he had it.

I was sad to hear of his passing.

[sarge43]

87. Thank you, Lauren

It's heartening to know he's remembered.

[femmocrat]

9. Welcome to DU, Tipperary!

It was so long ago, I can't remember. Seriously, I was searching for anti-bush sites and found a link to DU.

[Tipperary]

14. Thank you!

I appreciate the welcome.

[LP2K12]

10. Volunteers

Was doing some work with the local Dems in my area for the first time and a nice lady named Bev told me about it. Wrote it down on a piece of paper and I've been here since.

[fizzgig]

11. from my mom

she stopped posting years ago, but i'm still around. you won't usually catch me in gd, though.

[Tipperary]

15. I've sort of noticed that protective gear might be necessary in that particular forum.

Flame retardant suits perhaps.

[fizzgig]

19. oh, and welcome to du!

i spend most of my time here in the lounge or in the groups. please make sure you check out the groups

[Tipperary]

21. Thank you.

I've begun exploring a little bit. There are a lot of groups here! I was tickled to see the loners group. I am kind of a loner irl, and it seems funny to have a "group of loners"!

[CrawlingChaos]

36. Don't let that get you down

Or stop you from posting there if you feel like it.

Besides, getting insulted by the right people (depending on your perspective) can be a badge of honor.

[Tipperary]

50. Thank you for that.

I'm not very confrontational, so most likely I will watch from the sidelines and post innocuous comments if at all.

[Tom_Foolery]

12. I found DU in a Google search in March of 2004...

And I've been here ever since. Welcome to DU!

[Tipperary]

17. Thank you!

I love your name btw.

My family has a running joke where we adopt new members into an extended family. Easy Grace, Private Parts, Major Infraction, General Principles, Black Jack, the Irish folks Patty O'Furniture and Tam O'Shanter, many others, and yes we have Tom Foolery. All of us have to approve before a new member is accepted.

[Tom_Foolery]

32. Every group must have a Tom Foolery...

[hrmjustin]

16. I saw a man with a sign advertising DU during the 2001 inauguration protests.

[steve2470]

40. I'm guessing that was Skinner ? nt

[hrmjustin]

41. I think it was him or earlg.

[Rhiannon12866]

65. It was Skinner and EarlG, holding up a banner with the name of the site on it.

They did that at the Today Show on the day that W became president in 2001...

[Xyzse]

23. I came from CommonGroundCommonSense.com, when that disappeared...

I migrated here.

[a la izquierda]

24. Stumbled on it by accident...

after moving from Los Angeles to Oklahoma in 2004.

I found myself in a red-state wasteland and was very depressed.

[arcane1]

26. I think it was after China shot down our spy plane in 2002.

There was a Will Pitt piece about it, and somehow or another I got linked to DU. I don't remember where the link originally came from.

And I could be totally misremembering this

[Tipperary]

30. Interesting!

The place is well known for sure.

[IcyPeas]

27. I found it in 2003 via a link from SMIRKINGCHIMP

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/

[vanlassie]

28. I came from Bartcop. He is on the memorial page too.

Gone but never forgotten.

[laundry_queen]

71. That's how I got here too. I loved that site.

So, I followed a link on Bartcop back in '03. I only lurked/read here though until '04 when I got locked out during heavy traffic due to not having an account. I panicked and registered so I could get in, LOL.

[Blue_Tires]

102. +1

Started reading Bartcop in November '02, and found DU a couple months later...

[Worried senior]

29. I found DU by

searching the internet for liberal forums.

[auntAgonist]

31. I have thought about this for a bit and I have no clue as to how I found DU.

welcome.

aA

[lovemydog]

33. From a friend.

I read here for about a year before joining.

I hope you enjoy it here Tipperary. Welcome here. Have fun!

Yes, definitely check out the groups. There's a lot of really cool people here.

[Tipperary]

52. Thank you for the welcome!

My longtime lurking has made me aware that there are certainly some good people here.

[CrawlingChaos]

34. Found it in 2006 (I think) from a Google search

Lurked for a long, long time before joining.

I've seen some shit.


Welcome Tipperary

[Tipperary]

53. Thank you very much for the welcome!

This is a fun site from what I've seen. Full of drama earlier today, which was kind of sad/amusing all at once.

[MADem]

35. I found it two days after it was created.

I was bummed about the election theft.

I could not post much but I could read from my work.

Then, when I left my job, I lost my login details and had to begin anew a decade and then some ago.

[NJCher]

37. googled it

Like Worried senior, I found it via a search engine, but the reason I was looking was that I was angry about bush stealing the election, so I teamed up with a lawyer from NYC and we commissioned buses to go to D.C. to protest. We did several protests, filling as many as 40 buses per protest.

I tried to go it alone in NJ, but there weren't enough people who got it here back at that time, so I had to combine forces w/NYC.

I was hoping to post here at DU about the buses, but it turned out we were overwhelmed with people who wanted to go, so I don't know if I even posted about it.

Been here ever since. By reading this forum, you will know what's happening way before anyone else does. I read GD, but rarely post there. I'm more a Lounge/Cooking & Baking/Gardening type of person. Discussions get heated, but I can't get too carried away with any of it. Live and let live, and whatever your opinion is, you're entitled to it--that's my take on it, anyway.


Cher

[Tipperary]

47. I have been reading here for some time.

I agree with you that frequently one learns about things quicker here than anywhere else!

[fizzgig]

69. you're one of my favorite people here

and i am happy to know you

[NJCher]

93. Likewise,

My dear fizzgig.


Cher

[steve2470]

38. My employer the Republican National Committee told me to sign up

!!!!! in case I need to!


No, I was searching for something political in October of 2004 and stumbled upon it. People didn't crucify me back then for asking ignorant questions (and boy was I ignorant of some things). I only got accused of being a troll once I think.

[greendog]

39. When SmirkingChimp went offline on 9/11/01, and the rest of the web was running real slow...

...I searched around and found DU.

[Tipperary]

48. You won't forget that date.

Never heard of SmirkingChimp but I was (and am) not really too knowledgeable about the internet.

[Paper Roses]

42. Back in 2005 I heard a speech by Elizabeth Edwards during which she mentioned DU.

Checked it out, signed on, been here since. I may not post a lot but I pay attention.

Great folks here, welcome and have fun.

[Tipperary]

45. Oh wow, that is a great way to have learned about the site.

I still have to remind myself that she's gone.

Thank you for the welcome.

[hifiguy]

43. A link on

SmirkingChimp.com in 2005.

Welcome to DU!

[Tipperary]

46. Thank you for the kind welcome!

[Aristus]

44. I was still bruised and dazed by the outcome of sElection 2000 and the inauguration.

I was surfing the net sometime in March, 2001, desperate to find someone who felt the way I did. I spent some time on a site called BushWatch, and one day, I saw the link for DU. I clicked on it, and have felt at home here ever since.

Welcome!

[LiberalElite]

49. I thought a friend told me about it but -

when I mentioned DU to her, she said she'd never heard of it. Guess I don't know how I found DU after all.

[Avalux]

51. My ex was a member and recommended I check it out.

We weren't compatible for marriage, but get along famously when it comes to politics.

[Tipperary]

54. Well that is funny. Because my exes and I never seemed to agree on politics.

Maybe one of them. Most were just not political in the least. It's frustrating when you have to PUSH someone to go vote.

[qnr]

55. In 2001 or so* I followed a link to Free Republic, saw what that was, and

saw them talking about Democratic Underground so I joined up.

* My profile says 2002, but I was actually a member from early 2001.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

56. My ex showed it to me in 2003.

I lurked till I retired and had more time. It's my first and last news stop everyday. I miss the top conservative idiots lists almost as much as the DUzy Awards.

[TM99]

57. Bartcop in the early 2000's.

I had a membership back then, but never posted (too busy).

When dial-up became cable, I just never re-registered for many years. I lurked and read daily but didn't join until a few years ago. Being chronically ill, I sadly have more time these days to post plus I mostly work from home now anyway.

The change from DU1 to DU2 didn't seem that dramatic, but wow things have sure changed since DU3 went online.

[UTUSN]

58. Also Bartcop (rip) & Media Whores Online. Really, this place saved my life after Coup-2000 n/t

[progressoid]

59. I was searching for info on Depleted Uranium (DU)

[Codeine]

60. Another Bartcop person here.

Back in the old days an awful lot of us ended up here because of him.

[murielm99]

61. My brother told me.

I think he found it through Bartcop. I started lurking in 2002, and joined a year later.

[mackerel]

62. I found DU by accident, surfing the net, while taking care of my

very liberal, dying father. It was Obama's first election.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

63. I woke up with a terrible hangover one day,

and after a shot of penicillin, got to know DU better and eventually came to love the occasional rashes and burning sensation when I pee.

Actually I think I stumbled across the top ten Conservative Idiots sometime around 2003, and found myself hooked on the whole site. But I didn't actually sign up until 2011 when I thought Occupy needed more discussion.

[gvstn]

64. Welcome to DU.

I found it after seeing it disparaged as too liberal/left-wing on many of the big Democratic sites such as DailyKos and Americablog (used to be one of the main sites c.2000). lots of comments on those about how Du was the lunatic fringe.

So I stopped by and couldn't see anything fringe about it. Great Latest Breaking News section to get all the headlines and an easy to post Discussion forum to present your opinions. Over the years it has become the place where I spend a great deal of time just reading the discussions and getting some clarity and perspective on older events that I wasn't paying attention to at the time.

I hope you enjoy the forum.

[Tipperary]

79. Thank you for the welcome!

[Socal31]

66. Ah yes, 2007.

Sigh.

[KMOD]

67. I found it in the

yellow pages.

[Tipperary]

82. I remember the yellow pages!

I wonder do they still exist?

[cyberswede]

68. The legendary Plaid Adder

I know her from another online group, and years ago she wrote a regular DU column, so I came over to check it out & ended up staying.

I wish she still posted here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/plaidder/

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Plaid%20Adder

http://www.democraticunderground.com/~Plaid%20Adder

[Cassidy1]

70. I knew there was forum,

but could not think of the name. Can't remember where I heard it (news article?) but I googled something like forums democrat and there is was at the top of the list. I hate google as a big corporation, but they do make a good search engine.

[hobbit709]

72. From a now defunct website Bushflash.

[bigwillq]

73. In 2003, I Googled Howard Dean

and came across DU. Lurked for a bit and then registered in 2004. The rest is history.............

[frogmarch]

74. About 10 years ago

I heard about DU from a poster named Britt at Websleuths (not Jameson’s Webbsleuths). Websleuths was, and is, a crime discussion website, and its main focus then was the Jonbenet Ramsey case. I was a BDI (Burke Did It) and Britt was a PDI (Patsy Did It). We got along fine anyway.

[gvstn]

80. O/T

So what's your final verdict--still BDI?

[frogmarch]

81. Yes, and

I'm even more BDI now that I've read A. James Kolar's book about the case, Foreign Faction. Kolar was a leading investigator on the case.

http://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Faction-Really-Kidnapped-JonBenet/product-reviews/0984763201

HuffPo article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/jonbenet-ramsey-case-jame_n_1687905.html

Sorry for the OT, everyone, especially to Tipperary. (Welcome to DU, Tipperary!)

[Tipperary]

90. Thank you for the welcome!

I'm afraid I do not know what any of those initials mean, but that is normal for me. I only recently learned "smh".

smh.

[LWolf]

75. I accidentally wandered in

in 2002; I don't remember what I was looking for. Having lived my entire adult life in a Republican stronghold, it was refreshing. I read for awhile, and registered in early January in '03.

Ironically...

I was a moderate on this board at that time; there were so many who were MUCH further left than I...and, at the time, DU billed itself as a "left-wing" discussion board.

The "left wing" identification changed to "liberal" with the roll out of DU3, and the climate changed with the election of a Democratic President in '08.

These days, I'm not a moderate on DU. I'm the fringe, the "loony left." Yet my positions on issues and politics have not changed at all. Go figure.

[BarbaRosa]

76. I use to hang at a place called Turn Left,

but it was not well managed and after awhile the repugs polluted to point it was shut down. Did some searching and found BartCop which led me here. That was back in 2001.

[TBF]

77. I saw a list to the top 10 conservative idiots of the week

(the list EarlG used to do) on a music forum of all places. I had just signed up to volunteer for Obama here in Houston so it was good timing.

[LostOne4Ever]

78. Bartcop

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Though i did not post till 2013, I had been lurking causually off and on for many many years.[/font]

[Tipperary]

83. Thanks to all who have responded here. I think it is interesting all the different ways

that we found this place.

[riderinthestorm]

84. I followed Raindog here from Beliefnet.

hard to believe she's gone now and I'm still here. She was so excellent I was curious about this other board (DU) where she was bringing over excellent material to share on BN. After my first day here lurking, I simply never went back to BN.

RIP Raindog

[OldEurope]

85. I searched for information ...

... without Murdoch bias when Bush junior happend. German newspapers were not sufficient. Lurked in for several months until 9/11. Then I started posting to tell you about my commiseration and sympathy. But I do this (contributing) only once in a while, because I don't feel qualified: I'm German and I've never even visited your country. Also, my English is --(troublesome?)-- not good.
From time to time there are discussions about European politics or habits, and then I'm happy to contribute.

Greetings from Munich

:cheers:

[Tipperary]

91. Your English seems great to me!

I could not possibly write a post on a German website. I know a little bit of German, but not much. I've visited Munich and I love that city.

[bikebloke]

88. 2001

It was linked from some other site.

[Blue_In_AK]

89. I was searching the Internet after the 2004 theft

and trying to figure out how Kerry lost. Searches ultimately brought me here, and I found the discussions interesting.

[Enthusiast]

92. I completely forget how I discovered DU.

[Ahpook]

94. Oddly enough

I think it was Howard Stern that mentioned this site on his program. Sounded good to me

[rurallib]

95. suggested by a friend

[3catwoman3]

96. I established a very small left-leaning discussion board...

...President Obama's first campaign, and one of our members kept linking interesting threads from here.

[Momgonepostal]

97. I can't even remember...

but I was an early fan of the Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

[BainsBane]

98. From my mother

Yet one more thing to hold against her.

[Kali]

99. I got here via the Top 10 list.

I was on a small local forum and there was this bozo who really had the hots for Ann Coulter - I think he rode in an elevator with her once or something. anyway I was not into politics that much and hadn't had a tee vee in a long time, much less cable so I had no idea who she was. I was looking for critiques of her books and other perspectives. EarlG sucked me in.

Then Bob Boudelang. eventually I joined the discussion forums and have been here ever since.

[Pakhet]

100. I was working my second job at Krispy Kreme

and someone came in with a t-shirt on. I checked it out that next morning. This was early 2001, I think

[applegrove]

101. I was so angry at the glee and bad winners the GOP

were when Bush won re-election that I looked for an American discussion forum to join. I found an open discussion forum and was there for a while. GOP members there were just baiting the Democrats. They didn't have the issues behind them. They were un-curious. And so smug with their narratives on everything
I wanted to find a discussion forum where I would not have to deal with their propaganda and stereotypical theories on everyone they deem as keeping them away from lots and lots of money. They were not hard at all to shoot down. However I did not want to spend my time on them. Someone mentioned the DU and I joined 10 years ago. There is the odd troll but for the most part people here are like me: ready to fight the good fight and learn novel stuff along the way. I sometimes am really sensing in my observations. But I enjoy keeping up with the news. I was also traumatized by a psychopath messing with my life in many ways. So fighting the GOP and their machinations has been a way to put to good use all that I unfortunately had to learn in my own life. It has helped me transcend the trauma. It also gives me a casual community that makes me feel safe. All my life I have wanted to help make the world a better place for all. Fighting the GOP and their ideas is a first step to making sure humanity does not unlearn the lessons of the last 100 years. And that we connect to each other with clarity and humility.

[OrwellwasRight]

103. My friend Frylock suggested it to me.

We were both so pissed about the stolen election, the Iraq war, black box voting, "Healthy Forests," "Clean Skies," the USA PATRIOT Act and pretty much every crazy ass lie told by the Bush administration.

I almost quit my first day though. I had never been on any kind of online forum before in my life, and I had some kind of misapprehension that the peeps posting were all insiders/experts, so I blurted out some question I had been dying to ask and was immediately called out for being a troll -- why else would a newbie dare to ask questions!!!! Anyway, after I got over non-welcoming welcome, I stuck around, mostly lurking, often reading SCE's Sunday LOLcats, and sometimes making a nuisance of myself in debates about guns, GMOs, trade, and NewDems. You'll find LBN is the best news aggregator on the web!

Welcome!

[CBGLuthier]

104. I went to yahoo and turned left

I read a lot of news and even back in 2001 Yahoo news comments were a sewer so i sought somewhere else to read news that was not so polluted.

[valerief]

105. Someone told me about it during an antiwar roadside vigil. nt

[nadine_mn]

106. Stephanie Miller show n/t

[Tipperary]

108. Until I just read your post, I had forgotten I heard about the site on Stephanie's show as

well as on Ed Shultz. Is she still on?

[PeaceNikki]

107. My mom - she was an OG from 2001.

[B Calm]

109. I was on a MSN Democratic Board when DU first started up and it was the topic of the day!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

110. A teacher in Collage.

been hooked ever since.

[sakabatou]

111. I think it was on here

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/

[LanternWaste]

112. Excerpts from Ask Auntie Pinko led me here in 2001 or 2002.

Excerpts from Ask Auntie Pinko Long defunct part of DU) led me here in 2001 or 2002.

[shenmue]

113. I don't know

[Agschmid]

114. My dad was one of the first members, and a DU1/2 moderator.

[Jamaal510]

115. I Googled some anti-GOP terms out of boredom. eom

[Islandurp]

116. 2012 election was going to be the first time I voted in anything.

So I was getting kind of excited and looked for the largest democrat forum and here I am.