I don't think the number of clicks DU gets in a day is very important. What is important ...

[NanceGreggs]

72. Thank you for so amply demonstrating ...

... what is, IMHO, one of the biggest problems with DU these days.

It's the black-and-white group-think, where one's position on any issue is a matter of being at one extreme or the other.

I replied on two threads about DU's dwindling Alexa numbers - therefore, I am "gloating about DU's supposed demise". I was neither gloating nor dismissing the Alexa ratings out-of-hand. But the current group-think on DU dictates that if one doesn't accept one position, that automatically means they accept the exact opposite position.

I saw it happen with threads on Occupy. Those who stated that they didn't think Occupy was being effective were asked why they "hated" Occupy, and everything it stands for. They were labelled "water carriers for the 1%", "happy with the staus quo", and/or having an "I've got mine, so screw everyone else" mentality.

I saw it happen with threads about Snowden/Greenwald. People who expressed any distrust of either, or questioned their motives, were labelled as "NSA defenders", who were happy to have the NSA spying on all Americans.

Most recently, I saw it happen with threads about protestors interrupting traffic and/or shutting down mass transit. Anyone who pointed out that such actions were having an impact on people trying to get to jobs on time, job interviews on time, get home in time to pick up their kids from school or daycare, etc., were labelled as not caring about what happened in Ferguson, or what is happening all over the country with respect to police behaviour. (Ironically, many of the same posters who decried Christie's traffic jams on the GWB as presenting a danger to the citizenry due to emergency vehicles being tied-up, innocent commuters being kept from their jobs, medical appointments, etc, are the same posters who described recent protests doing the same thing as presenting a mere "inconvenience" to commuters.)

DU has become a "you're with us or against us" website. And there are no shades of grey permitted. If you express a belief that not ALL cops are thugs, you're siding with the cops who gun down innocent civilians. If you don't believe Snowden is a hero, you're in agreement with the NSA over-stepping its bounds. If you raise a single question about Darren Wilson's history of being bigoted or a racist, you are in agreement with cops shooting young black men without consequence.

DU once decried the idea of such black-and-white group-think when they saw it happening among Republicans. And now that same group-think is prevalent here. If you question A, it means you are in complete agreement with its opposite, being Z.

There are a million shades of grey between A and Z - but DU now, for the most part, neither acknowledges those shades, nor has any tolerance for those whose views fall in between those extremes.

The fact that you see my replies on a thread about DU's dwindling Alexa stats as "gloating" is a prime example of that group-think attitude. "You're either with us (i.e. you dismiss the Alexa numbers out-of-hand) or you're against us (you reply to an OP that states DU's numbers are dwindling)," There is NO in-between here. You're either with us or against us - and I have been around DU long enough to remember when that kind of attitude was only attributable to RWers who lacked the intelligence to recognize that there were positions to be taken that were neither A nor Z - but fell somewhere in between.

If you are more concerned with "quality over quantity" as per DU participation, that's your prerogative. But you might keep in mind that DU is a business, and the Admins aren't putting their time and effort into the site as a hobby. DU represents a financial return on investment, and when the financial return doesn't cover the cost of the time invested, DU will cease to be.