Important message about the candidate supporters' groups.

[Skinner]

The purpose of the new DU Groups is to provide like-minded people with places where they can discuss issues free from disruption from those who disagree. The theory was that if we provided members with "safe zones" where you were not being forced to constantly defend yourselves, you might not feel quite so victimized by DU, and you might not feel the need to be constantly fighting with other people.

We still think the theory is sound. But it appears that it was not perfect. It has already become apparent that providing people with mini echo-chambers can have the opposite effect of what we intended. A few members have taken the candidate supporters' groups as an open invitation to fire up the old primary wars, and focus on the negative rather than the positive. It would be a real shame if these groups served as a catalyst to re-ignite the antagonism from the primary, and we hope everyone will make an effort to keep that from happening.

There is already a lot of great stuff being posted in these candidate groups. We believe that these groups are a good and useful addition to DU. Let's not undermine their purpose by falling back into old habits.

Thank you for doing what you can to make this idea a success.

The DU Admins