DU has not "changed"

[NanceGreggs]

21. I beg to differ ...

I beg to differ.

To say that DU – or any other website of its type – has not changed since 2001 (when DU was launched) would be ludicrous.

Of course DU has changed. Everything changes over time. If DU was stagnant water, it would have dried up and disappeared long ago. People come, people go; and with each changeover of personnel, the dynamics change and take on new direction, new perspectives, new purpose. The question is really whether it has changed for the better or the worse.

During the Bush fiasco, DU was a community held together by its disdain for a common enemy – Dubya, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the gang – and that commonality was key. There was also the fact that the outrages from BushCo were daily occurrences – each opined on, spit upon, satirized, photoshopped, and often laughed at for the sheer sense of insanity of it all. It’s what drew people together here; it’s what made us feel like family.

DU’s first real turning point was the 2008 primaries. Suddenly posters who had been ad idem on everything during the BushBaby’s years were at each other’s throats over their own – Kucinich, Edwards, Hillary, Obama, et al. For the first time since becoming part of the DU family, brothers and sister were no longer screaming from the bleachers, but standing on the mound, up at bat.

In the end, everybody kissed and made up, and celebrated the election of one Barack Hussein Obama (D) to the highest office in the land.

But then things changed yet again, and site rules changed along with the times and the tenor of conversation. In the olden days (she said as she adjusted the light of the gas lamp, along with her bustle), the Mods ruled, and the rules were clear. Certain things were allowed to be said – and no amount of alerts would change things. Certain things were not allowed, and no amount of cries of “censorship” would change things.

Now there is the jury system, and what is allowed or prohibited fluctuates from jury to jury. Some think this is a great system; others think it deplorable. But despite your personal opinion of the jury system, one cannot seriously argue that it hasn’t impacted DU in a major way. Again, to say that DU hasn’t changed other than what you refer to as like... some rules here and there is naïve at best. DU would have to have been DOA for such a change not have had serious consequences.

Things that were once strictly verboten here are now considered acceptable. Things that were once acceptable are now considered verboten. Again, to say that DU has not been changed by “like – some rules here and there” flies in the face of logic. Certain changes in the TOS opened the site to certain participants denied access before; certain changes in the TOS caused certain former members to leave. That change is not a rocket-science analysis – it is a matter of human nature, and common sense. And DU has changed as a result.

Again, the question is not whether DU has changed (of course it has). The REAL question is whether that change has been for the better, or the worse. And that is a truly subjective question, and will be answered by each according to their own perceptions.

But to say that DU has not changed is to ignore the facts, along with the concept that change is inevitable – especially on a political message board, where the politics of the day are always a moving target, subject to change without notice.

P.S. Although we may disagree on many things, I think the term self-eulogize is brilliant!