How many forums have you left for this one?

[mrgorth]

I used to post in several discussion boards. They're my "thing" on the web. One was a forum for prog-metal band Fates Warning. Another is for the Philadelphia Flyers and one for The Lord of the Rings. All of these forums have turned into quasi-political boards as political opinion becomes further polarized in this country. Unfortunately, these forums have become to frustrating for me to visit as I can no longer handle reading ignorant conservative opinion. It simply enrages me. This place I love. Yeah, it can get frustrating on here too as people voraciously defend and promote their candidate of choice but at least we all tend to have similar values. Anyone else have similar experience?

[Guaranteed]

1. Yeah, it ain't perfect

but it's home. :)

[speckledgator]

2. Yes

I am addicted to this site. And there is some dissent in here. I'm glad the stuff found in the hate mailbag is filtered out, though it is fun to read for a laugh. If it was allowed in the main rooms, it would be a real waste of scrolling enery to get past it! Thanks mods for recognizing that letters such as those found in the hate mail bag are not dissenting opinions, they are the same opinion spewed out of different mouths!

*edit=is "spewed" a word??? Should it be "spewn"?*

[supernova]

5. Yes

"spewed" is a word.

[speckledgator]

7. Thanks...it just sounded funny

[eyesroll]

3. I haven't left any forums I was active in,

but I've been online since the early 1990s, and I've seen most forums that weren't actively policed by their admins for on-topic-only posts degenerate.

But a side note -- one of the forums I used to participate in was...prog-metal. I was a member of "Chemical Youth" on Prodigy in the early 1990s. It was a Queensryche fan group, but lots of overlap into other prog/rock/metal. I used to trade tapes occasionally with the people on there, and one of my favorites to send out was "The Spectre Within." (There is a statute of limitations on audio piracy, right? :-))

Small world.

And welcome to DU!

[supernova]

4. Dropped on and added one

I really enjoy DU. To much information to take in at once. And some very good, very elloquent debaters here. I post to DU and a forum dedecated to the very talented, cute guy in my sig. :D

[AmandaRuth]

6. big time

I love to garden and take a lot of pride in growing as much from seed as I can, and I enjoy participating in seed exchanges and stuff. There is a huge forum for all things garden called www.gardenweb.com. This forum advertises in Horticulture, is mentioned in other gardening mags as well, supposedly THE forum for gardeners in the US. I used to participate in the discussion daily, and for a time, considered supporting financially. One of the "absolute" rules was you couldn't post political discussion.

Well, I learned to steer clear of the personal dissuasions, they seemed to carry a right wing flavor and of course, being rightwingish, people are so into name calling and shouting down , with the way they load words with negative meanings, you know the liberals are socialists blah blah blah.. However, I was so into the gardening end of things, I didn't really notice that there were editorials were masquerading as discussions, and of course anything progressive or liberal soon disappeared with the excuse "we don't allow political discussions".

Imagine my surprise one day when I was reading a thread about organic gardening and rose growing, which soon turned into a heated debate regarding the merits of organic and dangers of chemicals. It got so bad that the webmaster "Spike" had to step in and mediate. He deleted the discussion and put up a warning that no can use his forums for any type of "agenda" unless they paid a "sponsorship" fee, and then he posted several organizations who apparently had paid a "sponsorship" fee. You know who was listed along with the American Rose Society and the Seed Savors Exchange --- The Heritage Foundation! Yes the one right wing propaganda organization who it seem has a number one goal of eliminating the minimum wage. Ahhhh, now it all makes sense.

I am sure the Heritage Foundation pays people or hires PR firms to spread propaganda and I have no doubt that these people or similar have visited the forums you mentioned. I think it is another assault by the right-wing control all media outlets, and by extension, control the discussion and what we think.

Another thing is that on the Garden Web, the logo for the Heritage Foundation disappeared from the sponsorship page almost as soon as it appeared. Perhaps the webmaster realized he was alienating paying members and did not want to lose that financial support from his users. Now the logo may be gone, but the "Agenda" influence and propaganda lives on. I am sure the rightwing uses many sites like this.

[TrogL]

8. Free republic

They kept complaining about this board and I figured any board they hated that much must have something going for it.

[ZenLefty]

9. None.

DU is my first and so far only discussion forum that I participate in.

As for the candidate wars, I ignore them. They have no value. But that's just my opinion. :)

[mac56]

10. Dropped one to come here.

Used to post regularly at MetaFilter, until the freeps infiltrated. I like the atmosphere better over here.

[VermontDem2004]

11. This one-if you look at it you'll see why

http://messages.yahoo.com/?action=q&board=csco It's a csco message board but it is really left wingers and right wingers flinging insults back and forth, sometimes it can get pretty funny but if you want to get involved in a real debate don't go there.

[Kamika]

12. everquest board

thank god!