You've found the new Welcome & Help forum. I'm Skinner, one of the Administrators here at DU.
We've been here on our new software for a few months now, and the admins have been focused on making a bunch of upgrades and fixes to the software. But now we want to focus on doing things to help foster a sense of community -- to get to know each other, to welcome new members into the fold, and to provide help and support to each other. With this in mind, we have created this new Welcome & Help Forum. We hope all of our members -- both new and old -- will take some time to introduce yourselves and to say hello to other DUers who have taken the time to post in here as well. Be sure to make a special effort to welcome our new members.
My name is David, but here on DU I generally prefer to go by my username Skinner. I am the owner of Democratic Underground, and one of the three Administrators here on DU. (The other two are EarlG and Elad.) Here's the classic DU Admin photo, which was taken years ago and has been posted here a hundred times:
Democratic Underground was launched many years ago, on the very day George W. Bush took the oath of office to become President. For our first eight years, our shared contempt for the illegitimate, unelected moron in the White House was the glue that held our community together. Now he is long gone (Thank God), but DU is still here. The election of President Obama in 2008 represented a fairly significant change for our country and for Democratic Underground as well, where we have found ourselves in the unfamiliar position of picking sides and disagreeing about the president. Personally, I am a big fan of President Obama, and I think he's done a good job in his first term. I am very much looking forward to voting for him again, and I can't wait for his second term (fingers crossed).
I have spent a quarter of my life running this website, and I intend to spend much more time doing so. I was 29 years old when DU started, and I am 40 now. Over the last 11 years since DU was founded, I got married to an amazing woman, and had three sons. Here is a recent pic of my boys:
Jack (left) is 3; Isaac (middle) is 9 months; Lucas (right) is 5. And we've still got this guy:
Romeo is 12 or 13 years old now, and these days he spends most of his time lounging outside in the sun.
I love my job, and I am so thankful for all the great people we have here on DU. I look forward to getting to know all of you.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Love the picture of your kids.
We are frozen in time forever...
And that's not a bad thing!!
Who's gonna trust 3 teenagers????
You'd use it in the subject line, for instance, if you had a quick pithy remark and you didn't type anything in the body. That way people know they don't have to click to see more of what you wrote -- they know by the EOM there IS no more.
For example: I so agree with the Original Post! EOM
See? also nt or n/t (probably others) stands for "no text" - which means the same thing.
K&R means Kicked and Recommended. Just the mere fact of posting "kicks" a thread up. When you like a post and you want to Recommend it but don't feel like actually saying anything, a K&R will do.
I am the worst at explaining things, but I noticed no one had responded. Hope someone more concise and clear comes along.
See you around!! 
I think I was overthinking "fanned." I was thinking it was like fanning the flames, as though I'd built a fire and they were making it bigger. Thanks for the kick in the head. Now I totally get it. Thanks!!!
The time flies by too quickly. Your sons are all adorable & I know they must be very entertaining.
And here's something for Romeo:
Thanks so much, Skinner!!!
You have 3 squids now??!! It's like real life when your neighbors' kids start sending graduation announcements and wedding invites. Even though your kids are grown it seems impossible other peoples kids you knew as babies could be anywhere near as old!
before you know it they'll be graduating high school (like our twins are in about two weeks)
Thank you so much for all your work, and also Earl and Elad, and others, that makes DU such a great site! It's the first place many of us turn to for news, feedback, analysis, spouting off, and dare I say it 'community' (I know, sad huh?)
I would add to that insightful group: my fellow DUers... who know so much more than I, and usually restrain from telling me... (but I KNOW their eyes are rolling!)
I will think about writing up a brief intro soon, but for now
THANKS
Cheers,
F2C
Failur2Communicate
I seem to remember that EarlG had a giant spank graphic somewhere. I'll have to ask him if he knows where it went.
This place keeps getting better all the time.
They jumped straight in with sharing.
I make a pledge to read a newer DUers post's each day.
Tikki
....you guys are way handsome and the little Democrats are adorable - both the two and four-legged ones! Love the torn shirt, Elad! Doesn't Skinner pay you enough money to at least get a new T-shirt? LOL! 
I joined DU shortly after the fly-drawing turd known as George W. was appointed king - back in - I dunno, 2001 or so? I used to be known as 'Triana' here until Gibbers decided to toss a bitter comment at Obama's more progressive supporters calling them "Professional Leftists" because he felt we picked on Obama so badly. After that, I adopted the Professionalleftist handle in protest, or sarcasm, or whatever. I can't smack Gibbers upside the head physically, so that will have to do.
I've been here long enough to know that without a shred of doubt you guys have done an amazing job here! Incredible. Congratulations on the success of this site and all you've accomplished both professionally (leftist even) and personally.
Where else would we all go if not for DU?
Best site on the intertubes.
We're glad to have you here!
When you get up to 10 posts, I hope you will please come start your own thread in this Welcome forum so we can all give you a proper welcome.
Seems appropriate to mention. Well done.
Adorable kids and chihuahua! Thanks for creating, molding, and maintaining DU--it's the best! YOU GUYS ROCK!!! 
Thanks! As you might have guessed from my previous posts, I usually wait around a decade or two before watching TV shows and I haven't gotten around to the Simpsons yet. Seriously! This way I only watch proven quality, but it makes me speak as though I came from a time capsule. 
I got the first season of Lost in the mail and hope to start soon. Don't spoil it for me
The Simpsons has been on TV for 2 decades. It's probably the greatest animated television show of all time (Charlie Brown excepted)
Cute nerds, but...
I feel like a relative newcomer at jiust four years or so, but I can't say enough about how well you guys wrangle us all. Thank you mightily.
It's been a short 10 years since I "found" y'all ... and still haven't made it to DC to do brewskis with ya. Soon. (Hopefully.)
If not, I think we should take up a collection... 
I'll chip in for the shirt and I'm sure somebody here does hair...
Ashley Hames, British TV presenter and wannabe porn star.
Warning: Any Google searches on his name are likely to be NSFW
Guess I shouldn't have wandered straight into Meta - and the big gravedancing thread that's currently all the rage, to boot. I guess my post was a bit over the top, but it felt good getting it off my chest.
Well, for my second post I figured I should say hello, but turns out I couldn't start my own topic here yet:
"You don't have enough posts to start new threads. Please reply to some threads first."
So I guess this thread is the next best thing: HELLO!
I'm a South Dakota woman who currently lives abroad and who has been reading DU off and on for several years; probably since around the '08 election, and pretty much regularly since last fall. I never cared too much for posting stuff, and I still don't, but maybe you'll see me jumping in at times. Aside from the main forums, probably in my state forum, a few of the gender forums, and maybe also the Media forum since that's my line of work (I'm a print journalist, but that's all I'm gonna say, since I want to keep my DU identity separate from my real one. And no, I'm not somebody even remotely famous).
In my state, I don't have much to hope for in this election year. I live in one of the very few solidly Democratic counties, but it's probably a pipe dream to think Obama could carry the state. And neither Thune or the Palin clone we sent to the House are up for re-election and thus can't be given the boot. Still, I hope Obama will get re-elected, and I think he probably will. Like Skinner I think he's done a good job overall, but I do harbor some disappointment over opportunities lost, and what I view to be an in some cases almost maddeningly poor record on civil liberties. It's probably nothing I will go into further though, since I didn't come here to post negative things about our president in an election year - and I view the alternative to Obama as too terrifying to think I really have a choice as to how I will vote.
So, here's hoping for an exciting remainder of the year, and that DU - along with all other Democrats - will have reason to celebrate come November!
welcome you to DU.
You already know it gets a little crazy, but it's a good ride.
I missed the first year. Whatever happened to the intern?????
your age!
