Howdy! gkhouston here. A few things about DU. [View all]

[gkhouston]

Last edited Mon Jun 18, 2012, 10:22 PM - Edit history (1)

If you haven't had a chance to check it out, it's worth your time to read about how moderation works here at DU.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus

If you don't understand it all, feel free to ask. If you feel like there's an inside joke or reference you're missing, ask about that, too. Some DU terms/acronyms you're likely to see a lot:

TOS -- Terms of Service. Read these, ASAP. Most DUers who are actually here to discuss Democrats have no problem observing the Terms of Service. You can have your posting privileges revoked for violating TOS.

OP -- original post or original poster. The post that begins a thread, or the person who made the OP.

SOP -- Statement of Purpose. Each forum or group (forums are large and anyone can participate; groups are small and members who misbehave in a group can be blocked from that group) has a statement of purpose, a sort of charter, that tells you what that forum/group is for. The SOPs are listed underneath the forum/group name when you're viewing a list of forums, and can also be accessed by clicking on the "about this" button near the top of the screen after you've entered a forum/group.

SOP violation -- This means someone has posted an OP in the wrong place. Hosts for that forum/group will lock the thread, and usually indicate where they believe that OP would be appropriate.

CS -- Usually means Community Standards, could also mean Creative Speculation. Conspiracy theory-type posts belong in a group called "Creative Speculation". Note that the Terms of Service specifically forbid some conspiracy theories from being discussed on DU at all.

CS violation -- Usually this is being rude to another DUer or disruptive in some other way. A jury will decide whether to hide such posts. The posts won't be deleted, but you'll have to click the "show" link to see them.

MIRT -- Malicious Intruder Response Team. A group of people who handle alerts about DUers who are relatively new. They deal with spammers and other low-post-count problem DUers. We have a handful of people who sign up again and again, just to be disruptive. MIRT's job is to bounce them.

PPR -- Posting Privileges Revoked. That's a new term for DU3 and many still use "tombstoned" (TS'ed), "banned", "nuked", "got a pizza delivery", or "ate the granite cookie". On DU2, the profiles of members who had their posting privileges revoked (i.e., their accounts were involuntarily closed), displayed a picture of a tombstone reading, "Here lies a disruptor. He disrupted... poorly".

Sometimes, a banned DUer is allowed to return, but not always.