Eggshells

[SandersDem]

(This is the Bernie sanders Group, please respect that)

I want to say that I enjoy this portion of DU, pretty much exclusively. It is encouraging to talk with other Sander's supporters, share opinions meant for this group and get active with contributions, etc...

That being said, I am feeling more and more like I have to temper my opinions to please people who pop into this group and post replies not understanding where they are. I get the mistakes, I made a few early too. We get read here and I know it pisses off others who read us, but if this is my only real home on DU, please can we stop the home invasions?

In the future, I won't respond to trolling post/replies to my thread. I won't stop posting here, because then it's simply like they won and made another supporter go away...

I honestly have doubts that I should even post this for fear of being shushed or violating some rule somehow. I keep seeing Sander's supporters getting bounced from the site and when I take a look at it, I just don't get it. It is a primary race, there are going to be strong opinions from every side, but weren't these spots made to be a haven?

Anybody else feeling this way?

[Snotcicles]

1. I feel completely safe here. You should too. The moderators here do a very good Job.

Chat with them when you get a chance.

[Snotcicles]

2. By the way, glad your here. nt

[RobertEarl]

3. Welcome to DU

In the long run the only thing that matters on DU is the good stuff.

All the rest is garbage. So don't take any of it too personal, just keep working toward the good things.

And remember, this is a privately owned business wherein we enter. This is not a free-speech zone. But the owners of the site are definitely good Democrats who we are all thankful to for their good works.

In six months the primary will be over and DU will transition. In the meantime feel the Bern.

[merrily]

4. Despite the yeoman's work of our wonderful hosts, this Group is not a safe haven at all.

Our hosts receive alerts; posts in this forum get alerted on for jury review and L0onix was banned without warning for a post made in this Group that consisted solely of a copy and paste from a liberal site--and after a jury voted to leave it.

You can be careful or you can risk hides and bans. This is not a free speech zone.*


*Personal trivia: The first time I heard that heinous expression was the in Boston, a blue city in a blue state, as it prepared for the blue Democratic National Convention of 2004. The zone itself was a small area, located under an elevated street car/subway track on a busy street--so lots of noise. It was a good distance from the entrance to the building where the convention was to occur, so interviewing people entering the building from the zone was impossible. The zone was fenced with a metal fence with barbed wire at the top. When I saw it, I was deeply ashamed of so many things.

[daleanime]

7. Remember reading about that....

and thinking it had to be the low point for our nation....


Just to prove that I'm wrong every once in a while.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. There's an ignore option.

You can put specific people on ignore and not see any of their attempts to irritate you.

I'm probably well over 300 on ignore now.

[villager]

10. I'm deploying the ignore list more than ever. Since the "master baiters" will egg you on....

....without consequence to themselves, waiting for that "gotcha!" moment, it's best not to give 'em the chance, or to open the door for the "home invasion," as it were....

[HassleCat]

6. Yes, with a few rather narrow exceptions

One feature of the rooms I don't like is that some of the hosts appear to be far too zealous about stamping out dissent if there is any criticism of the candidate, the way the room is run, or anything else. To give due credit, the Bernie room is more tolerant that most of the others. For example, I could say, "I support Bernie, but I think he's weak on gun control," and I wouldn't get banned from the Bernie room. (That is my actual opinion, by the way.) And I encourage the hosts here to keep on being tolerant. Just as Bernie Sanders is a different kind of candidate, this should be a different kind of room, one where visitors can come and ask questions, admit to supporting Hillary, etc. as long as they are polite, and not trolling, snide, disrespectful, sarcastic, etc. If they want to discuss the issues, that's fine, but they should be required to keep it positive and friendly, as if they were speaking to fellow Democrats.

[smokey nj]

8. If you don't like the way the group is run feel free not to

participate.

[HassleCat]

9. I like this room

1. It supports the candidate I support. 2. It's tolerant. I do like the way it's run, and I hope there was no doubt about that.

[eridani]

11. Stick to issues and never go after personalities

It's my personal policy to never click on poll threads or psychoananalytic/meta threads, no matter which candidate they are about. Don't engage with sneering or emoticons. Just the facts. Channel Mr. Spock. And remember that when you are arguing facts and policy with people who are more interested in fandom issues that this site has a lot of lurkers, and you have just demonstrated that the Sanders campaign is about better policies for the 99%.

I don't have an Ignore list, but I do ignore (in addition to the above) certain posters in real time.