Has anyone noticed all the newer DU members lately?

[Think. Again.]

67. Yep, I can see all that happening...

...as a newbie, it's not really my place to criticize the community here but I do feel that the amount harshness toward posters "suspected" of division-trolling could actually be helping that divisive intent by turning off new members, chasing away older members, or giving casual non-members readers a really bad impression of who we are as engaged Democrats. I think that could harm the mission and convictions of the site itself.

The administrators have set up as good of a system as they can to weed out malicious posters and it works silently without calling out or accusing anyone who could be well-intentioned but clumsy.

When it comes to individual disagreements of positions between posters, I've seen some excellent, very civil debates go down here and more than once I have (gratefully) been corrected in my own wrong thoughts, but it's hard not to react with anger when someone starts off being snarky, rude, or subtlely accusatory and I just don't think public displays of nasty back-and-forth bickering is going to help build up a positive and productive leftwing base.

Some of all that could very well be the divisive work of trolls, but I suspect some of our own true members are also looking for a fight every now and then.