DisgustipatedinCA (4,104 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
Here's the email I just received from MineralMan...threatening me with...myself
Next time, have the guts to air your veiled threats in the forum, because I promise, that's exactly where they'll end up the minute I see them.
MineralMan
Here's the deal:
Mail Message
You are completely within your rights as a DUer to find my posts and comment on them, even if your comments have nothing whatever to do with the thread they are in. It's very annoying, of course, but you may have noticed that I'm not bothered all that much by it. To be quite frank, I'm better at this sort of thing than you are, and you will only become more and more frustrated with whatever misguided campaign you're on.
Please note that I am not telling you not to reply to my posts. I would not do that. You are perfectly welcome to do it as often as you wish. However, you are quite wrong about me. I am, and have always been a dedicated liberal Democrat. You may not understand some of the places I've posted or the reasons for it, but that's not really my concern.
If you continue to reply to my posts in threads in areas not related to the thread, people will notice that you are doing that. I'll remind you, each time, that you are off-topic in that thread, but I will not engage with you on any differences you may have with me, nor will I discuss myself with you. Truly, you need another hobby or another person to bother, because I'm not bothered by you. I have answers for any such replies, and I will provide those answers, as needed. Eventually, that will be frustrating for you, and frustration often leads to saying things that are not acceptable by other members of this place.
My suggestion is that you leave off looking for posts of mine to comment on. You do not understand the Religion Forum, so your replies made no sense to those who do understand it and participate in it. That's the risk of carrying personal issues into threads not about those issues. Again, you can do whatever pleases you. Just be aware that I understand exactly what you're doing and know perfectly well how to thwart it effectively. You are out of your league.
As for whatever misunderstanding led you to engage in this futility, I have no idea what it might be. Something to do with the ASAH forum or something. I don't post there. I don't go there, except once in a while to see what's going on. I go to almost every group on DU at that level. I think the discussions in ASAH are silly, and I don't believe that any of what is discussed there has any basis in fact. In other forums, I sometimes mock such superstitious nonsense from time to time, and will continue to do that. From Astrology to homeopathy and from "light working" to any supernatural nonsense, I cannot abide it, and will comment about it anywhere it occurs, except for ASAH, which is a safe haven group. I'm not mocking people. I'm mocking foolish irrational beliefs. Scepticism, Science &Pseudoscience is also such a group. Those who hold silly ideas would do well to avoid reading that group. It is not friendly to those ideas. I participate in that group.
Do whatever you want. Keep replying to posts I make in threads, if that is your choice. I will continue to reply as you've seen me do in the past. You're wasting your time. Truly.
EFerrari (161,451 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
96. My abusive ex had a habit of telling me how much smarter, more able and right he was.
And how I had no hope of competing with him. It's not a relationship builder.
EFerrari (161,451 posts)
96. My abusive ex had a habit of telling me how much smarter, more able and right he was.
And how I had no hope of competing with him. It's not a relationship builder.
Even while peering through a dense drug-induced haze, Doug was infinitely smarter than poor, stupid Beth.
How sad for her.
Wasn't she claiming he had issues? I kind of remember reading about her drama, but then again I could be mistaken.Doug Ferrari was/is an alcoholic junkie derelict who for a while tried to be a comedian, with a repertoire consisting solely of George Bush jokes.
Doug Ferrari was/is an alcoholic junkie derelict who for a while tried to be a comedian, with a repertoire consisting solely of George Bush jokes.
He literally slept on the sidewalk in San Francisco, and probably still does, if he's still alive.
Only someone as classy as Doug Ferrari would marry poor, stupid Beth.
But, he dumped her. That has to count for something.
Most of the DUmmies are always accusing MM of something. He's just a lousy FReeper meanie.
EFerrari (161,451 posts)
96. My abusive ex had a habit of telling me how much smarter, more able and right he was.
And how I had no hope of competing with him. It's not a relationship builder.
ASAH? DUmp to English translation, please...?
(n) lazy bird, whiney beast, cranky bug and ocasional alpha monkey.
ASAH? DUmp to English translation, please...?ASAH is the DUmp group for Astrology, Spirituality, and Alternative Horseshit
It's very annoying, of course, but you may have noticed that I'm not bothered all that much by it.
Doug Ferrari was/is an alcoholic junkie derelict who for a while tried to be a comedian, with a repertoire consisting solely of George Bush jokes.
He literally slept on the sidewalk in San Francisco, and probably still does, if he's still alive.
Only someone as classy as Doug Ferrari would marry poor, stupid Beth.
Poor stupid Beth's memory as usual is flawed, way off.
The champion fund-raiser on Skins's island viewed Doug as a "project" on which she could work, and she really admitted so much, seven years ago. He was a raw piece of marble she was to sculpt into something.
Well, she must've applied the chisel in some wrong places.
Poor stupid Beth at heart is a controller, a manipulator. She hasn't succeeded yet, but damn, she tries and tries and tries, she wants to be a controller and manipulator so badly she aches.
Response to sufrommich (Reply #274)
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 05:12 PM
Durakell (1 post) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
336. The trouble with DU
What everybody here doesn't understand is that DU is, first and foremost, a business. It didn't start out that way, but that's what it is now. The transformation happened gradually, so I understand why people haven't noticed. So for anybody reading this, allow me to attempt to explain and expand on these truths.
First of all: This didn't happen with the transition from DU2 to DU3. Let's get that out of the way right off the bat. DU2 has sucked for YEARS, way before DU3 came into existence. The differences between how things are moderated hasn't made anything better or worse. There have always been the same old complaints, and they will continue into the future indefinitely.
The jury system and "community based standards" idea is about cutting COSTS. Mainly, the time it costs for the admins to appoint moderators, to have to deal with billions of idiotic alerts, to have to judge and debate whether or not to tombstone someone. These things took TIME, and the admins now have more time to sit back, relax, and let everybody else do the work of actively moderating a discussion forum. They simply don't want to deal with all of the bullshit anymore. Now they can collect the revenue, pay off the bandwidth bills, and go about their lives.
Tying in the ability to serve on a jury with a streamlined revenue system is nothing short of brilliant. You want to make DU better? Serve on juries! You want to increase your chances of being on a jury? Get yourself a star. Oh, and by the way, stars now cost X amount of dollars, no ifs ands or buts.
In order for all of this to work, the admins need a certain minimum number of users here. A certain number of eyeballs need to see the ads, a certain number of fingers need to click on the ads, and a certain number of people need to become star members. Once the membership here falls below that certain minimum level, the admins are forced to shut DU down. (This, by the way, is why DU2 is still up and running. In case you haven't noticed, there are still ads up on DU2. As long as people are going there, a little bit of revenue continues to come in. Why not leave it up?!)
And herein lies the real issue. There are hundreds of members here who ought not to be here. A lot of them aren't even Democrats, let alone liberals. Don't believe me? Here is what you USED to see when you clicked on "About DU":
http://web.archive.org/web/20010219071508/http://www.democraticunderground.com/about.html
Read that and tell me that 80% of the people who post in the gun forum would actually be allowed to post here back then. Or how about the evangelical Christian conservatives who post here now? Would they have liked the line about "preventing an unwanted pregnancy, or not wishing to be forced to pray in school."?
Another chunk of people who shouldn't be here are just annoying, while some are simply extremely skilled trolls.
But the vast, vast, majority of the people who shouldn't be here are just people with absolutely no sense of how the Internet actually works. They have this fantasy notion of an Internet discussion forum where nobody says anything to offend them at all, ever. Some of them hate seeing certain words, no matter the context. Some take things way too personally. All of them get really emotional because some anonymous person they've never met in real life called them a poopy head or some variant of that.
Anywhere else on any other discussion forum, those kinds of people are given the boot early. "Grow a thicker skin" is usually how the rest of us put it. It's a ****ing discussion forum on the Internet, not real life. Stop ruining the fun for everybody else. Get a life. Go outside. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, etc. The problem with DU is that the asylum is run by the inmates, and it HAS to be in order to keep things up and running.
Without all those star members, without all those eyeballs, the revenues don't cover the costs. Instead of banning these people, the admins are essentially forced to keep them happy. Here is your jury system, have at it. Here is ignore. Here is trash thread. Here is Help & Meta, go nuts. Complain, complain, complain. Just don't leave. We need you here. A lot of people love the drama. More drama, more eyeballs, more money.
When you get right down to it, this kind of tolerance for lamers and perpetual unlearning n00bs is the only business model that works for the admins. Unlike other websites, DU is primarily contentless. It doesn't really create articles like Huffington Post, or collect links like Reddit. The "top 10 conservative idiots" lists have long since retired. The primary hook, the reason people even come here is the membership itself. Without allowing all the drama and stupidity, people would stop coming. In a nutshell, the admins HAVE to allow this bullshit or else they can't afford to keep this place running at all.
So can it be fixed? Of course not. Like I've been saying, DU has to suck in order for it to continue. There is a reason all the other liberal sites out there are small and use cheap, ugly discussion forum software. Bandwidth costs money. Back in 2001, DU was a meeting place for LIBERALS to discuss and lament the "election" of one George W. Bush, not unlike all those sites which "shall not be named" here (lest you give away users to the competition).
Back then, DU was small, and bandwidth didn't cost so much. As it grew, there were two ways for the admins to keep up with demand: Start producing more actual content (there used to be a lot of original content back in the day), or appeal to the broadest possible spectrum of people. They chose the latter.
By as early as November of 2001, this is what you got when you clicked "About DU":
http://web.archive.org/web/20011021102458/http://democraticunderground.com/about.html
What a difference from the "DU Manifesto" linked to previously, don't you think? You can see that as early as then, the admins saw the money potential of this site. Slowly but surely, the content, (Hate mail bag, conservative idiots, etc) disappeared, and DU became the Jay Leno hosted Tonight Show of the Internet: Don't offend anyone, get the biggest possible audience, cut costs, make money.
Is it any wonder that things are the way they are now? Frankly, I'm surprised that so many here are surprised. It's no different than any other mass marketed tripe, really. It's capitalism at its best. What else can be said except "God Bless America!"
Hey Beth -
This one goes out to you. Love, Miskie.[youtube=420,315]z7Qb-FtXeeI[/youtube]
Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT and said: Just because DU has become more inclusive, does not mean that it sucks - to me anyway. And I suspect to many liberals. Hey, it's a big world. Accept it. My view is that this is divisive blather intended to peel off DUers - to where I don't know. As for the cost of running a web site - well -
this isn't the place to get into it.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: This poster is full of shit, but hopefully he'll see something shiny and just go away...
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: Post is rude, inappropriate and over-the-top and needs to be hidden. Definitely smells trollish as well.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT and said: Just because DU has become more inclusive, does not mean that it sucks - to me anyway. And I suspect to many liberals. Hey, it's a big world. Accept it. My view is that this is divisive blather intended to peel off DUers - to where I don't know. As for the cost of running a web site - well -
this isn't the place to get into it.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: This poster is full of shit, but hopefully he'll see something shiny and just go away...
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: Post is rude, inappropriate and over-the-top and needs to be hidden. Definitely smells trollish as well.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given