Alert socks would be a useful tool for what are, generally,

any inherently subjective, dishonest individuals/groups of posters.

FDR traditional Dems at DU don't use alert socks, won't alert for malevolent purposes, and are collectively far more objective in their evaluations of posts in the capacity of juror than the more conservative groups of posters.

Posters from generally subjective, inherently dishonest group(s) can, and do, frequently, use the jury system as a weapon, because they are permitted to alert at will, and they will almost universally automatically vote to hide even the most innocuous alerted on post that is made by a traditional Democrat.

It's somewhat like the integrity gap between traditional FDR Dems and Republicans. The farther to the right of the political spectrum that a juror is, the more likely that juror is to use the jury system as a weapon.

The 7 - 0 rule is relatively ineffective in protecting traditional Dems here because of this integrity gap. There's almost always one subjective member on a jury from an inherently dishonest group. Therefore, there's no 7 - 0 result, and subsequently, the alert stalkers are allowed to continue to alert stalk traditional FDR Dems with impunity.

An added bonus for the dishonest group is that each time they hide a traditional Democrat's post, they significantly lower the traditional Dems odds of being selected for a jury. Each hide a poster gets lessens their chances of being selected for the jury, effectively stacking future juries on the side of the dishonest group.

The system works!


***An effective, and simple, solution to this problem would be to allow each individual member 4, or maybe 6, alerts per year. Having been a member of DU for almost 13 years, I believe that this should be acceptable to any reasonable DU member who would never consider using the DU jury system as a weapon for punishing and/or silencing, without reasonable cause, those who disagree with her/him.

Just FYI, a prolific poster's alert sockpuppet was exposed for trying to circumvent the alert system a few years ago. The sockpuppet was tombstoned, but the poster was not tombstoned, or suspended. No telling how many socks are out there.