How to restore civility and polite discourse to GD:P

[Coexist]

Click on thread full of posts from plants/extremists/mean people in either candidates camp.

Smile slightly at the absurdity of it all.

Scroll down on the OP and click the "Hide Thread" feature.

If the same poster makes numerous OPs that push the good ones off page 1... The "Ignore" feature is awesome, you even get to choose to Ignore ALL THREADS started by that poster.

The remaining threads/comments are generally thoughtful, and more a representation of political discourse, as opposed to blowtorch-and-pitchfork-style divisive 'diplomacy'.


... If you are like me - you tried really hard not to use these features for a long time because of the whole "free speech" thing, but the wonderful, informative threads kept disappearing because the mean ones seem to breed faster.

[KennedyGuy]

1. I always thought that renaming it DUforobama.com would help...

[NoBorders]

2. Same here

That approached has worked for me, and this is the first time in the years since I joined that i've used these features. But it makes this forum much more tolerable. I don't mind a debate, but the ridiculous flamebaits server no purpose except for the demented pleasure of the flamebaiters.

[NightWatcher]

3. I love "hide and ignore" but they will go away tomorrow when we go to level 1 or 2

luckilly, I'll be getting out the vote and attending a rally and results party

[Coexist]

4. crud - I forgot about that.

[jkshaw]

5. NightWatcher, have a couple of questions --

1) What is Level 1 or 2?

2) Juvenile name-calling. I've been a lurker for a long time, a registered member since 2004, and have posted only occasionally, so I haven't come into this kind of treatment so far. But I thought it was against DU rules to call another DUer names. I just read a post that called another DUer, who had started a thread he or she didn't like, a "braindead idiot." Rather harsh, I think. Junior high schoolyard talk. But even junior high kids would hesitate to call another kid a braindead idiot to his face. (Especially if he or she were bigger or owned the ball or the jump rope or whatever.)

I read this kind of talk and feel as though I'm on recess monitoring duty without the power to send the little twerps to the principal's office.

Is the ignore or hide buttons the only answer here?

[Coexist]

6. when there are too many people on this site,

some of the "extra" features are shut off so the site can handle the traffic (i.e. ignore, Search, avatars, etc.)

In re: calling out a DUer, I think that only counts if you call them a Freeper, or come right out and say they are a troll. Namecalling happens all the time (unfortunately).

Ignore works quite well. Those posts just show up as the word "Ignore" and you don't have to spend any emotions on them.