Is it possible to get GLBT turned into a Group, instead of a Topic Forum?

[LostinVA]

I know posters can be banned from Groups if they're "issue stalking."

[Maat]

1. It sure would be nice.

I'm going to recommend this thread; maybe the Powers That Be will consider that.

[LostinVA]

2. Thanks, my Good Egg!

[Maat]

3. Thanks, Lost!

:hug:

[gaspee]

4. Good idea... except

If you don't have a star, you can't participate. I had a star for a couple of years, but it expired two days before the election and I can't afford to donate right now.

Maybe after the first of the year.

People will be excluded if it's turned into a group.

[gaspee]

8. Ow wow

Some kind person just gave me a star!

When money is less tight (first of the year) I will pay it forward.

Thank you to whomever did that - I really appreciate it!

[galledgoblin]

19. that's the first thought I had

perhaps we could move most discussion to a group, but a forum accessible to all posters should be maintained.

[Phredicles]

20. Yeah, it would be a loss for those of us who are sympathetic but poor

and/or cheap.

Maybe there could be this board and a group? Or would that take up too much bandwidth?

[Zuiderelle]

5. Oh, is THAT the problem?

I was wondering. How about leaving it as it is but making it possible to ban people from a forum for stalking? I only worry that making it a group will remove it from the Greatest page (which of course would also apparently eliminate some of the stalking). A quandary.

[LostinVA]

7. I forgot about the donation thing -- damn

I wouldn't want to exclude someone like Gaspee.

[Zuiderelle]

9. Yeah, we're excluded from too much already. :)

[wildflowergardener]

6. Group

Here is the link of how to do it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=206x10

I wonder why both a group and topic forum couldn't exist at the same time? - I suppose there would be some redundancy though? - I didn't realize at first it was not already a group until I saw some of the posts about proposition 8.

I love having the Kerry group cause we have a safe negative free place to talk about him - I think it would be great if there was a safe GLBT group as well - so there was a place bashers couldn't come into.

Meg

[Book Lover]

16. There is a Woman's Rights forum and Feminists Group

so I can see there being a GLBT forum *and* group. I agree that excluding people who can't/don't donate from posting is a problwm. Maybe certain threads could on a case-by-case basis be cross-posted?

[Jamastiene]

33. They can and do.

R/T is a Topic Forum
the various religious groups are Groups.

There is overlap in that instance.

[KitchenWitch]

10. That is a good idea.

why not request that this forum be moderated by a member of the GLBT community?

[peruban]

11. Would that limit participation to donors only?

I don't know the difference between a group or a topic forum around here. If so I'd rather just ignore trolls than not be able to put in my two cents.

[ZombieHorde]

12. What sort of issue stalking occurs here?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. Homophobes coming into here to post

[DarkTirade]

14. Mostly just people who come in here and say "For shame, caring more about your issues than the ones

I think are important!"

And of course the occasional homophobic asshat.

[ZombieHorde]

15. "For shame, caring more about your issues than the ones..."

That is a funny way of putting it. Bwahahahaha!

[DarkTirade]

17. I'm not gonna link to it to call anybody out

but there was a thread locked here recently that was just that. Also inside someone else's thread recently somebody started going off about how we don't care about the homeless problem. I almost chewed the guy out but I realized there was just no point. Non-thinking reactionary asshats are non-thinking reactionary asshats, and no amount of common sense, truth, or logic is gonna change that.

[bluedawg12]

18. Looks like a busy day today in some places

:evilgrin:

Just finished work-- and stopped over--eegad!

It's locked?

Well, if you start a forum please don't leave me out. :hi:

[yardwork]

21. I think it's valuable to have this Topic Forum for anyone to read and post.

As I've said in the other thread, I don't mind this forum being a Venus Fly Trap where closet homophobes come to drown. On the positive side, a great many gay-friendly straight folks post here as well. It's a good forum.

If folks want to start a separate Group for members-only, that's ok with me, but I would hate to see our efforts diluted into two separate parts of DU. I understand how stressful it is to be posting about a subject and constantly having to bat away homophobes and other juvenile DUers who are bored and think it might be fun to go taunt the GLBT. I'm already a source of amusement for drunken frat boys and other cretins in the real world. It is dull to have to encounter them here as well, but that's life.

[bluedawg12]

22. Some of the juvenile taunting that I've seen here

is really similar to frat boy bull sh*t, or someone's inability to tell that this is about the real lives of real people and not World of Warcraft-GLBT edition.

I do agree about the risk of dilution.

The real homophobes are easy to spot they take themselves soooo seriously, while the WoW hijinx crew are just silly.

[yardwork]

24. Agree.

[Chovexani]

40. What is with the random gamer bashing?

You do know gamers are queer too, right? And post in here?

Can we please stop using "gamer" as shorthand for "immature douchebag"?

And hilarious you would use WoW specifically as an example, considering we pretty much took over a server, to the point where we have virtual Pride events on it.

[LostinVA]

25. I think if we could have a different level/type of Modding here it would be okay

I mean, in this Forum. I know we have people active in here who were Mods.

[meegbear]

23. Hear! Hear!

An excellent idea.

[Midlodemocrat]

26. You want to ban me?

:cry:


Good idea.

[yardwork]

29. No, I don't want to ban you! It's important to have this as an open forum.

[racaulk]

30. You closet freeper! If I were an admin, I would tombstone your ass in a second!

:P

No, seriously, you're one of the good eggs. I hope that you will continue participating in the GLBT area of DU, no matter what form it takes. :pals:

[LostinVA]

31. You could still come, unless you turn totally crazed and homophobic

Wish could happen, if what I've heard about Ped Eggs is true.

[racaulk]

27. You know, before today, I would have disagreed with this.

But based on the events of this morning and the fact that some people get a kick out of coming to this forum to rabble rouse for NO FUCKING REASON, then I'm totally on board with this.

I'm OK with educating and having productive discussions with those that want it. But if we have to consistently be subjected to those that want to cause trouble just to reach those that want to learn and discuss, it's not worth it to me. Not any longer.

If we become a Group, and someone truly wants in that has good intentions and that person is not a donor, then I will donate on that person's behalf.

[bluedawg12]

28. Rabble rousing seems to come from varying agenda's.

Some come and are genuinely confused on our issues, start off agruing and then, respond to debate and reasoned replies.

Some come out of shear hatred and they seem to flame out quickly.

Some are a little more sociopathic and sneaky and harder for a mod to pick up, they just want to be the focus,regardless of what the point is they will not relent and remain obtuse and contrarian. Maybe those epitomize the old maxim: don't feed the trolls! :rofl:

[LostinVA]

32. I wouldn't mind at all donating for a few people, too

IF we ever became a Group.

[LeftCoast]

34. Wouldn't that force us to donate?

I'd still rather not do that at this time.

[Moloch]

35. I think GLBT should be a group and a topic forum...

I wouldn't be in the group (and that would probably make everybody happy) and the topic forum could be a place to discuss GLBT news and issues.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. Why wouldn't you be in the group?

[Moloch]

37. I really only check GD:P and GLBT forums on here...

no real reason to check another group...

plus I need to donate to post on groups... I should do that anyway.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

38. Ah, so you only distribute your joy in two forums

:loveya:

[readmoreoften]

46. Do they have to pay you more if you hit other threads?

:shrug:

[Zuiderelle]

41. It would make me happy if you didn't post anywhere on DU.

[Solon]

43. Don't you have some Transsexuals to kick or something?

Why you were never banned for that shit, I'll never understand.

[RedLetterRev]

39. Long as I can read my favorite posters

I'm totally in. I'm used to ignoring trolls from the DNC Kicking Ass blog where the mods didn't give much of a care, so I'm good here, but the comfort-zone of a safe forum would be nice. Donating is part of the price of participating in DU and the benefit is good modding. I'm good with that.

[Jamastiene]

42. I agree.

:kick:

[Solon]

44. Maybe make it like the I/P Topic Forum, with special rules just for here?

This would allow some flexibility in how the forum is moderated, but also minimize the homophobes and issue stalkers from flooding the forum.

[LostinVA]

45. Whoa --PERFECT solution -- how do we go about doing that?

[Solon]

47. Petition the Admins would probably be the best idea...

I don't know how a petition could be organized though, at least not on this board, maybe a thread to recommend or a poll, I'm not sure.

ON EDIT: The only reason I don't like the group idea is because I'm planning to NOT donate to DU until they clean up their act in enforcing the rules equitably. As seen over the past two days, there are still problems. So I'm going to lose my star in about February of next year.