Who here knows the story of how Democratic Underground first started?

[LynneSin]

I mean other than the owners and some of us old-timers.

I just thought I'd start the post and see if anyone knows what day DU first started and how they first promoted their website (That would be Skinner and EarlG, Elad came in later)

Anyone??

I'll confirm correct answers or post a bit later if everyone is stumped

[kick-ass-bob]

1. I know their first "advertising"

but I won't spill it, yet.

[ZombieNixon]

3. Wasn't it a big *** at the *** ***?

I don't know, I've only been here a year.

Edited to keep the secret in case I was right.

[LynneSin]

4. Thanks, let's keep it guess for just a bit

:D

BTW, I first started to lurk when the rumors of Jeffords defection started and I first posted around Memorial day weekend.

The first post I started was about the NJ governors election and how important it was for us to win it. Dems had the senate and repukes were going after Sen Rob Torricelli out of NJ for campaign fraud. I figured if repukes got the NJ statehouse they would press forward against Torricelli so they could get the senate back. But McGreevey won instead

[matcom]

2. one rainy night Elad and EarlG were sharing a bottle of wine

in front of a nice fire. Elad looked lovingly into EarlG's eyes as EarlG softly carressed Elad's bare shoulder.

whispering into his ear, EarlG said, "I sure wish there was someplace where we could start a sex thread."

many months later, DU was born.

the end.

[LynneSin]

5. You do know that Elad didn't come into the picture until a bit later

so your story should really be about Skinner and EarlG!

[kick-ass-bob]

6. it was rainy? I thought it was snowy.

:shrug:

[matcom]

7. no. rainy

albeit a cool rain

[lumberingbear]

53. No, I believe it was a....

dry rain.

[LynneSin]

8. It was in January on a really bad day so it was just really nasty weather

I mean there was no sun on that day in 2001

[RandomKoolzip]

10. Okay, stopp teasing.

On Inaguration day, 2001, they held up a banner for DU, which was caught on TV, and that was the first day DU existed.

Doesn't EVERYBODY know this already?

[LynneSin]

12. Well, there are new people here at DU

it happens everyday silly!!!

:pals:

And I like to tease!

[Dr Fate]

15. I recall that it was a "Hot & sultry" night.

n/t

[matcom]

21. no.

Elad was hot and sultry but it was quite cool and rainy

[underpants]

23. If you aren't careful

that might just be mentioned in funniest post of the year thread

Too damned funny. Well done.

...and then SKinner said "Hell! help me find the mouse and we will CLICK our way out of here"

[matcom]

24. why thank you kind sir

wish i weren't at the office or i might have written a whole novel :D

[RandomKoolzip]

9. Yeah...you see, when two Admins love each other VERY much....

One admin lies down with the other, and nine months later, the stork delivers a website.

[LynneSin]

11. Especially when the Admins are this hot looking.....

[Missy Vixen]

38. Okay, this is the funniest thing I have read this week

>One admin lies down with the other, and nine months later, the stork delivers a website.<

That's right! It's a -- well, it's a website. Unknown amount of bandwidth, up to 77,000+ members, brightening the lives of true blue Democrats everywhere!

:applause:

Julie

[OldEurope]

13. I Don´t .

I started lurking some weeks before the invasion of Iraq.
And -boy- was I happy to find Americans who did not at all support GWB!

[no name no slogan]

14. Did it involve a man named Jed?

Who was a poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed?

[Midlodemocrat]

16. I think so.

Wasn't he the one who was out one day looking for some food and up from the ground came a bubbling crude?

[no name no slogan]

18. oil, that was

black gold. Texas tea. :P

[Arkana]

33. And then the next thing ya knew, ol'Jed's a millionaire.

[leftofthedial]

40. then one day he bent over in the woods

and up come a bear and give it to him good

[LynzM]

17. Me!

Someone posted a link to the 'history'... which I read! :)

[bertha katzenengel]

19. DU's first day was Jan. 20, 2001, wasn't it?

:shrug:

[dolo amber]

20. On Inauguration Day, 2001

Skinner got so mad his head exploded, and DU sprang fully formed from his brain. Then EarlG brought over some cakes, and elad supplied the X-box and they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

[Ikonoklast]

22. "It was a dark and stormy night......"

Don't know, got here late, found a bunch of lunatics, grabbed a chair by the fire and listened in on the discussion....but got no history lesson.


Is there some dark, forbidding secret involved? Code phrases? Dead bodies? Empty beer bottles?


I'm betting on the beer bottles having something to do with it.

[RetroLounge]

25. But DU didn't REALLY take off until

the Yaks appeared in the lounge!

RL

[LynneSin]

26. You know a long time ago there was DU but there was no lounge

it's true!

[hunter]

27. Where did people post sex threads?

or later, this is not a sex... threads.
:silly:

[billyskank]

36. They went in GD

Once upon a time, you could discuss anything in GD. I guess that's why it was called general discussion! :crazy:

If you take away all the kitten threads and all the "ask me anything" threads, the lounge is very much what GD used to be!

[LynneSin]

43. They started in the Lounge - you can blame Magic Rat for that one

I remember the post that put it over the top on the sex threads and trust me, I can't blame the admins


But you have to love Magic Rat - he meant well

[VelmaD]

55. Not quite...

you can blame me and short bus president for the sex threads...remember the Grotto? Though I will let Magic Rat take the blame for getting them banned. :(

[LynneSin]

57. When some posts a thread asking if your girlfriend gives you...

...a certain look during a certain something-something

Yeah, that was over the edge

[RetroLounge]

52. There WAS no DU before the lounge..

RL

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

48. And the cowbell.

It needed more cowbell.

[Orangepeel]

28. Here's the whole story

It's a great read!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html

[Midlodemocrat]

32. *sigh* makes me long for the hate mailbag.

[AbbyR]

41. Thanks for posting the link

Now that I know how it all started, I wonder how DU made it to this point. I'm not sure I would have been thick-skinned enough to hang in there. But I'm very glad they did - I need a place to remind me that I'm not the only person in the country who feels as I do.

[Zuni]

29. you are truly one of DU's elders

:bounce:

[Blue-Jay]

30. She's the *Official* DU Historian.

I wonder what the pay is like?

[matcom]

31. *snicker*

that means she is really old :hide:

[billyskank]

37. *snort* You can talk!

*checks profile* Oh, bollocks. :hide:

[Beware the Beast Man]

34. I am under your learning tree, old sage.

[StopTheMorans]

35. is there room for another who has only been here since before July 6,

2003 :shrug:

[Arugula Latte]

39. Be gone, Newbie!

Kidding ...

Hey, why do you have more than twice as many posts as I do ...

[stlsaxman]

42. Well at the first ANSWER rally I found the DU banner and the only

ones there were LynneSin, Kephra and Will Pitt... sure they didn't remember me but I sure was impressed. I had found it thru Bartcop, I think, or Cunningham Strikes, and had been posting ever since...

that was what- 2002?

I'd be considered an "old-timer" but I'm on everyones "ignore list" so no one ever reads my posts! ;)

[LynneSin]

44. Yes, the October 2002 protest - I made that banner

Spray Paint and a $5 sheet from Family Dollar. I don't know how people could sleep with sheets that feel like sandpaper.

That was an amazing weekend! Matcom, Underpants and DS1 decided to go invade the Freeper Portapotties

[stlsaxman]

47. This week-end will be even more amazing!

Glad you reminded me of the year. My brain has been addled lately thinking of how to get there this time, but i got it figured out....

See you there! :woohoo:

[LynneSin]

It was the weekend that Paul Wellstone got killed in the plane crash

:cry:

I remember where I was when I found out. RBNYC and I were crusing down the B-W parkway when I noticed WillPitt calling on my cell phone. Since I was driving I gave the phone to RBNYC to answer and she was like "No, No, No" and tears coming down her eyes. I thought maybe he or the other guys from boston (matcom/ds1) were in a car accident. But instead it was about Paul Wellstone.

I had to pull over I was so upset and I ended up getting lost in Virginia because of it and I rarely get lost in DC

[stlsaxman]

63. oh my god that's right-

i too was driving back thru the hills (upper Appalachians?) that Sunday when i heard it on npr. kept thinking someone took him out. someone took him out. my reaction was more anger than sadness.

later in that year when the news broke about MO senator Mel Carnahan, my reaction was much the same- Ashcroft took him out. i was just getting off stage at a gig when i heard about Mel.

[GalleryGod]

50. I Believe Ramsey was in attendance, also.

:hi:

[LynneSin]

60. Yeah, we had a party room: Me, RBNYC, Khephra and Ramsey

Ramsey came down for the protest and stayed for the weekend.

[Thtwudbeme]

45. This always reminds me of people I miss. OlaftheWhite

Keph, Jeff (Nostamj)...Playahata1 (Robin...we miss you) and on and on and on.

DUers we don't see much anymore....and omg, that list is long.

But, yes...I remember DU in it's first week.

[GalleryGod]

51. Yes. Absent Friends.

:grouphug:

[Catchawave]

46. When I was a newbie,

I remember a diary of the early days...is it in the Demopedia now?

But the story is a classic example of perseverance and overcoming the naysayers and Freeper spams. Probably why I'm so endeared to the DU Admin Boyx :) Otherwise, I'd still be on AOL Political Message Boards repeating, ad nauseum, "I know you are but what am I" :snork:

[TroubleMan]

49. "It was the best of times. It was ....THE BLURST OF TIMES!!???"

"You stupid monkey!"



(from a Simpsons episode)

[Yavin4]

54. I Remember....

A long, long time ago
In a galaxy far, far away...

[swag]

56. This again?

[sundog]

59. shhhh

i'm listening to swami lynne :D

[rasputin1952]

58. It was a dark and stormy night....

:evilgrin:

[Robeson]

61. They were born in the cabins, their dad's built.....

...and so the story goes....

[LynneSin]

62. They were so poor they used to wrap newspaper around their feet for shoes

:shrug:

[Sunkiss BlueStar]

64. Neat , DU is an Aquarius

will attract lots of Psychics and Musicians!
:headbang:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

65. It started out as a single cell organism 500 million years ago......

Why else do you think it pisses off right wingers?