Against my better judgment ...

[NanceGreggs]

402. It was a call for civility.

Which is why I posted it "against my better judgment", because I knew in advance that it would, for the most part, fall on deaf ears.

There are some posters whose only reason for being here is to be uncivil - to disrupt, to steer any intelligent discussion into being a conversation rife with stupidity, to ensure that those who are normally like-minded are cajoled into divisive argument. They are the same posters who scream "don't tell ME what to do" when anyone dares suggest that they conduct themselves with even a modicum of courtesy.

DU's Alexa numbers have literally nosedived since the beginning of September and, after a short-lived move upwards over the holidays, they are rapidly dropping again. If that isn't a wake-up call to those who want the site to continue, I don't know what is. As you said, "no holds barred forums always break down" - and that seems to be evident here.

DU was once THE place for Democrats to gather for political discussion, education, information, and honest debate. It is sad to watch it devolve into internet Fight Club, where the ability to throw the hardest verbal punch at fellow members is cheered, where personal attacks have replaced actual debate on the issues, where being divisive is lauded as an means of ridding the site (and the Party itself) of those the most obnoxious posters deem to be somehow "unworthy".

I guess I keep checking-in here from time to time in the vain hope that the Admins will realize that their numbers were highest when the TOS was enforced, when Mods rid the site of uncivil posts and those who routinely posted them, when oh-so-obvious RW trolls were not given free rein to spew their anti-Dem rhetoric, and being courteous to fellow members was not only expected, but mandatory.

Alas, I hope in vain.