Reply #315: "Not true" wasn't referring to her prediction.

[Pithlet]

It was referring to her statement that people are against it merely because they don't like change. I'm not the kind of person that automatically bristles at change. It's not true for me, and I don't see how anyone can assume that it's true for most of the people who hate this idea, especially since there are legitimate arguments against it, whether a person likes the idea or not.

I'm not against it because of any fears of what it may or may not do for DU's overall quality. I'm against it in principle. I don't think it's right that people can be shut out of areas of DU without consensus from mods and admins, even if there may be some benefits. It's very existence is also a non-benefit, particularly for the people being shut out. The argument against that has been it's only one thread and the blocked person can always start their own. But some DUers are more prolific than others, and are read more than others. Starting another thread isn't a guarantee that people will read it or see it, particularly in the bigger, faster forums. It's shutting them out of the discussion. They may or may not have deserved it, but it's still a subtraction from the freedom and openness of discussion.

I always liked that aspect of DU, the freedom of discussion. The fact that people have this power in their hands means it's no longer so. I don't have to wait to see, it's the way it is right now. Someone was blocked out of the SOTU official threads last night. It was only one DUer, and they may or may not have wanted to participate anyway. It might not be a big deal to some people, but it is a big deal to me. I won't like this feature as long as it is a part of DU. It doesn't mean I hate DU now. But I think a bit of DU was lost the minute this feature went into effect, whether there's any benefit to it or not.