Well, after one day, my opinion of the Unrec feature has done a complete 180

[WeDidIt]

I used to hate going to the Greatest Page because it was always filled with utter crap. During any single issue meltdown (e.g. Michael JAckson, Sarah Palin, shiny object du jour), it always got worse.

Looking at it now, it's filled with good threads!

I think the unrec feature has had a good effect and I'll now start actually using the Greatest page instead of looking to see what new shiny poutrage is hot.

I admit it. I misjudged the effect this would have. I thought there would be rec v. unrec wars, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

[Richardo]

1. I think we've seen the last of the "Rec this thread" threads on the Greatest page

:thumbsup:

[peace13]

2. I think we have seen the last of some of the free thinking as well.

But not to worry, my boots are polished and I am ready to get in step. Well not really, but it will be better if I spend less time here anyway. An example of how your censorship is working is the 911 video. That thing will stay buried because immediately the haters pounced on it. The cleansing is complete captain.

[Orrex]

3. Are you only able to think freely about threads that other people rec?

And I'm curious about how you think a privately-owned internet forum can be guilty of censorship of its own content.

[dionysus]

6. it's facism i tells ya! holy smokes, some people on here are insane aren't they.

[peace13]

7. I am sure that you are aware that recommends determine how long a post lives.

Yes private! You crack me up. We all keep this place alive with donations. If donations plus advertising does not equal profit then bye bye. Time will tell.

[scheming daemons]

9. Um really... no they don't. Recs have no effect on how long a post "lives"....

...not in the least.


The ONLY thing recs affect is whether the post goes onto the Greatest page for 24 hours.


That's it.


That's all.

[Orrex]

10. Your misunderstanding of DU's ownership is not my problem

DU is a privately owned forum. Do you dispute this? On what possible grounds? Donations are not purchases of stock nor rights of control; advertisements do not transform a private entity into a public entity.

Did I claim in this thread or any other that DU is a non-profit organization? I don't think so.



And if you're worried about 9/11 threads disappearing, I can point you to a place on DU where they live forever and ever and ever.

[arcadian]

21. It's user generated content,

and censorship is censorship. It's just that you agree with this particular brand.

[Orrex]

23. So I should be able to post whatever I want, and DU is required to host it?

You agree to the TOS every time you hit the "post" button. You thereby "agree with this particular brand" as much as I do.

[arcadian]

30. Then you agree it is censorship.

And all social networking sites write their TOS very loosely so they can do pretty much what ever they want.

[Orrex]

51. Only insofar as you yourself are endorsing censorship

[arcadian]

59. How am I endorsing censorship?

Sounds like you are blaming the victim.

[Orrex]

60. From reply #23

You agree to the TOS every time you hit the "post" button. You thereby "agree with this particular brand" as much as I do.

[arcadian]

61. That is a pathetic attempt

So you must endorse Cynthia McKinney, because I saw a post on DU singing her praises the other day and you post on DU. What an incredibly feeble leap you have made there. :eyes:

[Orrex]

62. Your leap is nonsensical

When you post on DU, are you or are you not explicitly endorsing the TOS?

If you are, then you are endorsing what you call censorship.

If you are not, then you have misrepresented yourself by clicking the "post message" button.

[WeDidIt]

4. Look on the Greatest Page right now

Seriously.

Look at it.

The crap doesn't show up any more.

It's GREAT!


In fact, it's actually USEFUL now!

[dionysus]

5. omfg, you're comparing the evening out of the rec system as facist... you people really are nuts.

[peace13]

8. No , I am saying that posts that are not of popular view will be snuffed out.

Why is that so hard for some of you guys to understand. The least that the system should do is show how many UR's there are.

[scheming daemons]

11. Define "snuffed out". How is NOT being on the Greatest Page = "snuffed out"?

Because that is the ONLY effect of unrecs.

[LynneSin]

13. To me "snuffed out" means something died

and yet I found dozens of DU threads with <0 ratings but had over 50 replies and THIS next to them >>>

That's not snuffed out. That's just another system for DUers to see what topics are hot and what aren't. REC ratings have no affect on the . That's all related to how many times someone replied.

If the topic seems interesting people will read it even if they disagree with it.

[dionysus]

16. so... basically you want the minority view to have control of the greatest page.

you would think that threads that the majority of DUers like would end up on the greatest page, but no.

you actually think the opinions of a few dozen posters are more important?

and the threads will go nowhere, as evidenced by this thread.

people just won't see "OBAMA SUCKS HE IS LIKE BUSH" sprayed all over the greatest page.

[earth mom]

24. It's a "minority view" once everyone on the left or far left is purged.

Which is exactly what you want.

And you say you aren't trying to control this place?!

:wtf:

Your post is fucking disgusting and proves exactly what I said in the thread of mine that you trashed all to hell!

:puke:

[dionysus]

27. no one is silencing anyone you dolt. no one is purging shit. YOU are throwing a temper tantrum

because now it take more than 5 crybabies to plant negative shit posts on the greatest page.

admit it.

what is it about everyone having an equal say that offends you so?

[Forkboy]

38. +1 for the word 'dolt', which I've always been fond of.

:)

[dionysus]

40. thank you sir.

[peace13]

46. You have it backward.

If there are 26 votes with 6 recommends that means that a post that would have had 16 recommends shows 6. You have given the minority, 10 people, the power to displace posts that may be very important. This whole thing has become a game and undermines the importance of what a recommend once was. I used recommend very sparingly in the past but it seems that folks are hot on the button to UR a post now.

[dionysus]

47. to tell you the truth, i neither rec or unrec posts but... wouldn't logic say, the 10 negative peopl

would be outnumbered and outrecced by the majority?

[peace13]

49. The numbers don't lie. n/t

[dionysus]

50. you're right, they don't. now the majority has an equal say.

:shrug:

one DUer, one vote, can't beat it.

[CakeGrrl]

64. How does a post with +6 recs get "displaced"?

It's still makes the Greatest page with a net of 6 recommendations.

What posts are displaced by the 10 unrecs in your example?

No one's thread disappears just because it has more unrecs than recs.

Besides which, I don't need recommendations to tell me whether an OP's content is good. My cognitive skills do that for me.

The only thing recs tell me is the number of people in agreement with the OP, which does nothing for me if I disagree with the OP's statement.

[LynneSin]

12. How?

Seriously....How?

Threads that are less than <0 aren't deleted. Hell if anything those threads might have been debates going-on since for some reason people are reacting enough to look at the thread in the first place.

The only impact the rating system has is the home page. If anything before this system was there any type of 'supression'. If I saw something on the home page that I disagreed with or thought was void of facts or reactionary I had no choice but to deal with it. The new system gives all sides a chance to decide what is worthy of the DU Homepage.

[NeedleCast]

18. Ridiculous hyperbole

You tin foilers kill me.

If anything, the Unrec feature has been good for the level of comedic outrage it's produced.

[nichomachus]

20. I'm just wondering

how many staffers the DLC has whose first job every morning will be to come to DU and "unrecommend" any threads the DLC finds bothersome. Get 50 or 60 people doing that every day and DU can become a nice little DLC journal.,

Cool.

[peace13]

33. It won't take much! n/t

[dionysus]

37. if you think the DLC pays staffer to fuck with DU you're in a paranoid delusional state. seriously.

[Beetwasher]

55. OMGZ!!!! The DU Is A Threat! We MUST Deal W/ Them!

:rofl:

[dionysus]

56. with 50-60 dedicated staffers no less!!!111!!11!!! how many for kos, 100?

i mean i detest the DLC as much as anyone, but i don't blame them for my lawn weeds and poor short game...

[Beetwasher]

58. They Ate My Strawberries!!!

n/t

[earth mom]

26. Yep, this is exactly what I've been trying to tell people.

Got a link for that 911 video?

[peace13]

31. Here ya go.

6r's with 26 votes. We bury them hard at DU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x335122

[pipi_k]

14. Very likely...

Because like I stated in another thread around here someplace, I absolutely refuse to rec any thread where the OP has ASKED that it be rec'd for any reason.

I rec them on merit...not because someone begged.

[peace13]

36. I too voted only if I really thought something was important and would be of interest to others.

I think this change has totally invalidated that way of thinking. It has neutered the recommend, which isn't the end of the world...just a bad idea.

[KharmaTrain]

15. If The Greatest Page Is All You Look At...

You've missed a lot of good posts and posters here. Many of the best posts and discussions here never make the "Greatest Page" but get snowed under by the "Flavor of the moment".

I rarely use the rec. function (especially for those begging for their egos and pet issues to get pumped up) and am amused by all those whose nose and other body parts are out of joint about this "issue".

With that...I'm done with this topic...back to issues of substance....anyone been to Olive Garden lately? :hide:

[reflection]

17. It takes a lot of character to say something like that.

Kudos to you.

[JANdad]

19. Be careful...

Leopards don't change their spots...especially when the spots have been taken away from them...just sayin'

[nichomachus]

22. If by "good" you mean

nothing that even comes close to questioning what the corporatist DINOs are doing.

I was just imagining what DU would have looked like during the primaries if they'd had this Orwellian unrecommend feature. The thing would have been for each camp to have thousands of "unrecommenders" to trash any criticism of their candidate and anything good about the other guy/gal.

I imagine the entire primary season would have seen nothing on the Greatest page but recipes for rutabaga pie.

[Beetwasher]

25. Wow! So Dennis Kucinich Is A Corporate DINO??

2nd greatest thread is one defending DK.

3rd is one Robert Reich slamming the economy cheerleaders.

Oh, and #1 greatest? One about that well known corporatist Andy Stephenson and his medical insurance horror story.

:eyes:

Care for some crow?

[dionysus]

28. shush, stop silencing the dissenters.

:rofl:

[earth mom]

32. Exactly. It's about petty one-upmanship and trying to control everyone else. nt

[peace13]

41. It's life in the sixth grade here at DU! n/t

[Beetwasher]

42. Top Ten Threads, Not A Single One That Can Remotely Be Considered "DLC" DINO Or Silencing "Dissent"

Go look for yourself. Oh, that's right. I forgot, it might ruin your persecution complex if you did that.

[earth mom]

44. What I see on the greatest page is a lot more people recommending threads than ever before.

To counteract all the unrecs no doubt.

[Beetwasher]

48. Uh So?

That's called active Democracy. Sorry you have a problem w/ that. Where's the "silencing"?

[earth mom]

52. The whole thing is as skewed and fucked up as hell. You know it so quit the bullshit. nt

[Beetwasher]

54. The Only Thing Skewed And Fucked Up

Are the people whining about it. I know no such thing.

The only bullshit is the crap your spewing. Sucks for you you hate Democracy so much. Sucks for trolls that they and five of their idiot friends can no longer spam their crap to the greatest page. Boo fucking hoo! :rofl:

[fishwax]

63. a lot more people rec'ing threads is a bad thing?

[BlooInBloo]

29. Awwww.... No fun when somebody admits being wrong. Sigh.

:toast:

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. One day is not enough datapoints.

The primary experience is still fresh in my mind. I am really glad that this wasn't in place then.

[callous taoboy]

35. And a good thread would be .....

[peace13]

39. Ding ding ding...we have a winner! n/t

[Laelth]

45. ... a liberal news feed with little if any interesting discussion.

That's what the greatest page will become under the new system, I think, and that's fine if that's what we want it to be.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Swede]

43. That's my reaction,also.

I even unrecommended Skinner's post announcing this new feature. Sorry dude.

[TexasObserver]

53. Yes, it separates the wheat from the chaff, and disposes of the latter.

It's working!

[noamnety]

57. I'm still not convinced.

I logged in this morning and saw a post questioning US killings in Pakistan voted off the greatest page, and multiple posts about whether Obama did or did not check out some woman's ass voted onto the greatest page.