Be Prepared for Election Day on DU: Make Sure You Are Registered, and Know Your Password!

[Skinner]

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST BEFORE YOU RESPOND

As usual, the Democratic Underground administrators (especially Elad) have been planning for a while to get ready for Election Day. We've been through this process two times before, so we have a pretty good idea of what might happen, and we have done everything that can reasonably be expected to prepare. But we aren't the only ones who need to prepare.

As a visitor to DU, you also need to also be prepared -- by making sure you are properly registered for DU, and by learning what to expect on Election Day.


WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

1) Make sure you are a registered member of Democratic Underground.

If our election-night spike in traffic is exceptionally large (which is likely) there is a chance that we might be forced to block out unregistered members from our website in order to keep the site available for our registered members. We hope that we don't have to do so, and we will do everything in our power to avoid it. But as an emergency last resort, it might be the only option left.

If you do not want to be blocked out, take a moment RIGHT NOW to make sure that you are a registered member of Democratic Underground with a working username and password.

To register for Democratic Underground click here, or else click the link on our homepage that says "First time visitor? Please register."

2) Make sure you know your password.

If you don't know your password, then you won't be able to log into Democratic Underground. Take a moment right now to make sure you know your password. If you are registered and logged in, you can change your password by clicking "Options" then "Change your password."

If you are a registered member of DU, but you forgot your password, you can assign yourself a new password by clicking the link on our homepage that says "Retrieve lost password" or by clicking here.

3) Make sure you can login.

To login to DU, click the "Login" icon at the top of any page. If you have any problems, here are some ideas to help you login: 1. Assign yourself a new password by following the instructions above. 2. If that does not work, make sure your web browser is set to accept cookies. 3. If that does not solve the problem, delete all cookies from BOTH democraticunderground.com and www.democraticunderground.com and then try logging in again.

4) If you are a DU Donor, make sure there is a donor star next to your username on your posts.

Under our absolute worst-case scenario, we might have to block out everyone except donors. If you are yourself a donor, make sure you don't get blocked out. If you have donated to DU in the previous year and you're not showing a donor star, please send an email to [e-mail] immediately to get the problem fixed. Include your forum username, your real name, the approximate date of your donation, and your method of donation.


WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT ON ELECTION DAY


High Traffic, High Bandwidth, and Poor Website Performance

Election Day will be an extremely busy day here -- perhaps the busiest day we have ever had on this website. We have done, and continue to do, everything in our power to prepare for the worst. But we cannot promise that it will be enough. In fact, our best guess is that during peak times the site may be unusable. Expect the worst.

In order to decrease the strain on our servers during periods of high-traffic, we have a system in place to gradually remove certain functionality. Expect a loss of features such as avatars and signature lines, searching, ignoring members, hiding threads, etc. We may also strip out most images, so the site will look quite different.

If, despite our best efforts, the website is still experiencing serious performance problems, then we will be forced to consider the possibility of blocking people from the site. This will only be done as a last resort. To avoid getting blocked out, read the section above under the title "WHAT YOU NEED TO DO."


Where to Post Election Results

We know that we cannot force people to post specific thread topics in specific forums, so we are not even going to try. There will be so many people posting so many different topics in so many different forums that you should expect election night on DU to be chaotic.

Still, we are going to make an effort to provide special threads for election results -- for those DU members that wish to use them. At any given time, there will be three separate "official" threads -- one each for the House, Senate, and Governors -- where members can post and follow election results.


Special "I Voted" Avatar



After you vote, you should assign yourself an "I Voted" avatar. Click on "Options" then click "Edit your Profile." Look for the words "Avatar Image" and type ivoted.gif into the space provided. Click "Update." We hope that all of our American members are showing "I Voted" avatars by the end of election day.


Disruptors

We will be taking a number of precautions to keep out disruptors on Election Night, but invariably some will slip through. If you see a disruptor, please hit the "Alert" link on their post so the moderators can deal with them quickly. Do not assume that someone else has hit alert. In most cases, nobody has.


WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU

This is a great group of people, and we're looking forward to spending election day with all of you. All we ask is that you keep a few things in mind.

- Make an effort to avoid duplicates. We don't need 200 threads on the same topic. It's okay to respond to threads instead of starting your own whenever a new thought comes into your mind.

- Treat other people with respect. This place will be plenty chaotic on election night. Don't make things worse by acting like a jerk.

- Take it easy on the moderators. They've got a tough job, and it's even tougher at busy times.

- EXPECT PROBLEMS. There will be problems on DU on election night. If you expect the worst, you might be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.


We Reserve the Right to Change Any of this at Any Time

This message reflects our thinking as of this moment. But we do not know for certain what is going to happen on Election Day. As always, we will do whatever we think is appropriate or necessary to run the message board, and may even completely change our approach if the circumstances require it.


And Finally

After two disappointing election cycles in a row, it looks like this year (finally) things are going to go our way. We plan on celebrating on Tuesday night, and when we do there isn't anywhere in the world we'd rather be than right here on DU, with the greatest group of people on the planet.

GO DEMS!

Skinner
EarlG
Elad

-The Administrators of Democratic Underground

I'm going to let this thread float for a while so people will see it. Please feel free to give it an occasional kick.