Interesting post from Skinner in a thread

[TayTay]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2831928&mesg_id=2832749

I borrowing the whole thing and pray Skinner will forgive me for it. He was writing in response to a poster who wanted to know why DU was sort of shallow sometimes and argumentative and so forth. Read this:

I'm just going to boil this down to the most important points so they don't get lost. I hope this will get everyone to think. I am addressing everyone here, not just the OP.

1. I understand your frustration.

2. What people *think* they want, and what people *really* want is often quite different. If the posts and polls on this topic are to be believed, there is a huge consituency for more substantive and important discussion. But when someone takes the time to write something substantive or important, it often does not get responses. My guess -- and this is only a guess -- is that people want there to be a lot of substantive discussion so they can feel good about DU, but very few people particularly want to participate in these substantive discussions. I am not passing judgment here. Think of it this way: shooting the breeze with friends is more fun than doing homework.

3. The issues that attract the most responses are those where disagreement and/or controversy are greatest. I believe perhaps the most important reason why the so-called "big issues" drop like a stone is because everybody agrees. Consider one of the examples in the OP: How many DUers are going to disagree with the idea that profitable corporations should pay taxes? None or virtually none.

4. Leave the General Discussion forum once in a while. The most, um, "excesses" of DU occur here. There are other forums, and many of those forums are more substantive. I think of Latest Breaking News as our "crown jewel" -- threads are more serious and topical, and attention-seekers and flame-baiters are unable to post topics whenever a thought pops into their heads. The General Discussion: Politics forum has the spontineity of GD, but with more thoughtful responses and less bullcrap. (If you are unable to leave GD for an extened period of time, then I would direct your attention to point #2 above.)

5. There is plenty of good stuff on DU, the problem is finding it. Unfortunately, it takes work. Check the Greatest Page. Check the homepage. Put some forums in your "My Forums" list and check them regularly. Add some good Journals to your Journal Tracker. You can now sort forums by the time when new threads were posted, so you can easily keep track of what's new. Use the "Mark" feature to help find new stuff.

6. DU has always been this way. There never was a golden age. How people remember things and how they really were are often very different. Read this post for a long discourse on this subject.

Every so often we get upset in here because people are expressing opinions contrary to what people like about Sen Kerry, a stand he takes or didn't take and so forth. I think, by the standards Skinner had in this post, this particular group is an outstanding success at DU. We have taken the time to get to know each other. We can have small discussions and big ones. We can get into wonky discussions about policy and light-hearted ones about ties and eye color. (These things feed all parts of the soul, after all. LOL!)

I think Skinner is right, we do take some of DU too seriously. We have created a community in here and we use it to discuss the Kerry, but also to argue about him, tell each other when we think he's wrong or whatever and it is safe to do so here. I wonder if that isn't envied sometimes elsewhere on DU.

[beachmom]

1. I agree. The Kerry Forum is my #1 place in the blogosphere to go.

It's not just about Kerry; we talk about the most important issues of the day, but we also know that the type of people who admire Kerry and are very familiar with his public life are the kind of people you want to have a discussion with.

It's a niche blog, which is far more successful than big community blogs. There have now been at least 3 fraudulant or troubling personal diaries on dKos that I know of that made the Rec list. Because dailykos is so big, people just went along with it because they didn't "know" the poster. For me, that makes dailykos a scary, unsafe place where you have to be highly skeptical and suspicious (and that's apart from differing on candidates or issues). That just wouldn't happen here. You get to know people over time; if they were to mention a personal problem, we'd know they're telling the truth and try to help out, even with just a kind word. In short, it's about truly connecting with people; and some of you have already taken the step of getting together in person (and I'm looking forward to doing that in a week!). That's really what it is about. And it models after, oddly enough, Rick Warren's, of "Purpose Driven Life" fame, method in his megachurch of setting up sub bible study groups. This enhanced their personal connection to the church and led to more people volunteering for the church and charities, as well as understanding their religion better. Taking something big and subdividing it into a smaller group works, but is not always easy to achieve. I think we should be proud of ourselves for that.

[BlueIris]

2. "If you are unable to leave GD for an extened period of time..."

Snerk. Nice acknowledgement of the fact that some people there really do seem, er, hooked on the drama, as we sometimes say of a certain variety of the mentally ill. GD addiction is one of the real tragedies of this place. Because GD addiction kills.