STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, December 12, 2011

[Tansy_Gold]

91. Thank you, Loge23, and you are not entirely incorrect

And I will speak out a bit more here than perhaps would normally be welcomed, but so be it. And if anyone wishes to correct my comments on their factuality, I would welcome that.

We who posted regularly in the week-day Stock Market Watch and week-end Week-End Economists threads did so, as you correctly pointed out, in what we considered a safe haven. We did not hesitate to call it that in public view. In that sense, we may have been a bit defiant of the DU PTB (Powers That Be, for the uninitiated). We were often and openly critical of the Obama Administration's policies, especially Treas. Secy. Geithner.

At one point on a late Friday evening many months ago, an over-zealous DU moderator locked the WEE thread after Demeter had posted it. The reason given was that the criticisms of the President were uncalled for and over the top. Because I'm in Arizona and was up late that night, I caught the lock and initiated a dialogue, eventually through my personal email, iirc, with the DU Admins, stating that the WEE thread was an established feature, that the comments critical of the President were in posted editorials, etc., etc., etc. The end result was that the thread was UNlocked, and we were all a bit surprised that such a thing was even possible and no one would remember it ever happening before (or since, to my knowledge). But we also felt it indicated a level of respect that DU had for us, for our attention to accuracy and our desire to seek the truth however painful it might be. We might be rogues, but we were honorable rogues.

Some of our members were, over the life of SMW on DU2, tombstoned. Some were tombstoned more than once. But we watched out for each other.

Many of us went through serious personal crises -- deaths of loved ones, legal entanglements, financial difficulties, family struggles, births, marriages. We've been there for each other, through thick and thin, good times and bad, with a lot of laughter and tears and hugs and -- just for you, Fuddnik -- s.

The shift to DU3 was not expected to be without glitches. But I think it was expected that SMW would still have its well earned and deserved place on LBN, and that WEE would take its usual niche in Editorials, and that other than the mechanics of the site, all would continue smoothly as in the past.

But what happened was that the experimental posting of SMW into DU3 LBN was not in fact a live version; it was an archived version of the template and thus was in violation of LBN "rules." As such, of course, SMW had ALWAYS been in violation of LBN rules (or at least an "always" based on my experience with it) but because of the nature of the news -- literally tracking the markets as they were happening -- the thread remained safe in LBN. The dry run posting should have, I thought, been treated as such and excused on those first few hours of DU3, but instead it was locked up tight.

We always had moderators in LBN, and we had posts and subthreads that got alerted on and removed. We lived with it, as we did all around DU. I don't think we expected any of that to change very much with the implementation of DU3.

But before we -- and I'm speaking only as "we" being the "regulars" of SMW and WEE -- had a chance to figure out where we'd landed and what we were going to do, Hugin had posted a quick SMW template, about as half-finished as the rest of DU3, here in the Economy group. I'm on my computer a lot during the day -- and the night -- and so I see a lot of what was going on. Before the NYC markets were really open and the dust of the move to the new site had settled, Dixiegrrrrl had been nominated by seven people to be the Chief #1 Host in the Economy Group and Hugin, bless his heart, had already ensconced us here.

There was little opportunity for input from the SMW regulars -- Ghost Dog, Hugin, Xchrom, Hotler, AnneD, Demeter (who almost single-handedly does WEE), DemReadingDU, bread_and_roses, Fuddnik, Roland99, Pale Blue Dot, PO'd Mainiac , and dozens more I'm forgetting as I compose this off the top of my head. The deal was signed, sealed, and delivered before we were even assembled. It was a very quick and efficient coup.

And the new DU rules do make the group host an overlord. Dixiegrrrrl has the power/authority to lock any thread, and she does not have to give a reason. Anyone else who wants to be a subordinate host must be appointed/approved by Dixiegrrrrl. Dixiegrrrrl can fire any subordinate host at any time. Unlike Forum hosts who can only serve for 90 days (rather like the old DU2 moderators), Dixiegrrrrl is our leader, whether we like her or not, for life. No more virtually anonymous and temporary moderators -- now we are face to face every day with the person who controls our DU life. That's a bit intimidating and disconcerting and constraining.

I'm not saying she's going to be a bad overlord, because I can't see into the future any better than any of the rest of you can. I'm not saying she's going to appoint a bunch of whip-cracking task masters to keep every post strictly on topic, blah blah blah. This is not a criticism -- it's a statement of fact: by the current rules of DU3 and my reading thereof, the DUer known as dixiegrrrrl is #1 Host of the Economy Group forever, or until she steps down, or there's an uprising of the Economy Group membership and she's forced out. We did not have an election in which all regular members of the group got to vote, and there will be no scheduled elections for a replacement. She got in there first and got approved.

What I am saying is that we who enjoyed our autonomy in WEE and SMW may be feeling a bit constrained and uncomfortable. Not only are we suddenly thrust into a whole new -- and perhaps subordinate -- "group" instead of still in the LBN and Editorials "forums," but we now have someone who personally and in perpetuity holds the whip.

I will tell you right now that I'm not comfortable here. Some of my discomfort comes from the nature of DU3, its lack of ignore and hide thread features, the public shaming/preening of the "who recced this thread" lists. I have no difficulty navigating through the site at all, though I do think it requires more clicks than the old one and I don't like some of the features. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, and I don't expect it to be.

I cannot speak for anyone but myself. I'm seeing a lot of things here that do not make me feel comfortable, and perhaps that feeling will wear off in time. I can't say. I am not the leader of the SMW or WEE group by any means, and I don't want to be and you can't make me, and I may in fact be the only one who doesn't fit in with the rest. It wouldn't be the first time.

But those who know me, and know my history on SMW, also know I have a rubber stamp.