How did you find out about DU?

[Joe the Liberal]

I'm curious how you all found out about DU, did you just stumble upon it while browsing the web? Did a friend or family member tell you about it? How did you discover this site and what made you want to join?

For me I just happened to stumble upon it, in fact it's kind of ironic how I found out about DU. I remember one day my brother had CNN turned on to Lou Dobbs show and I really couldn't stand listening to him. I had my computer on so I got the idea too see if there was anyone else who couldn't stand him as well. After some searching I saw a link to this site and clicked it. It took me to a thread about how one sided his polls are and I read through the thread and just browsed the site and I liked what I saw.

I had found a place with like minded individuals and free of right wing nut jobs that seem to plague any web site that is'nt moderated. I signed up that very day and have been here ever since, how did you find out about DU?

[dipsydoodle]

1. Watching C-Span back here in th UK in January 2006

We get that sometimes Sunday mornings and that particular day DU was mentioned as it was their birthday and some DU'ers were phoning in.

[struggle4progress]

2. googling "conservative idiot" produced Top Ten

[JI7]

3. bartcop or mediawhoresonline

maybe both by going through different links on both sites.

[SidDithers]

28. Yeah, me too...

probably about the same time as you :hi:

Sid

[lamp_shade]

4. From DraftClark.com

[brucefan]

5. Buzzflash

Went through most of the links at bottom of page,now DU is my homepage

[Kaylee]

19. +1

[northernlights]

6. Obama's bitter comment

MSM were all over it without actually saying what he said, so I wondered what in the heck he said that was sooooo awful. :shrug:

Googled it and DU came up. Yay!!! :woohoo:

So, I thank you for your crappy reporting, msm. :)

[ZombieHorde]

7. I joined a conservative message board to debate gay marriage and they told me I should come here.

I have to say they gave me good advice.

[Madam Mossfern]

8. From a right wing forum

Members would come here and "spy" and then post on that forum what silly things were being said on DU. Well, I agreed with those silly things. What was I doing on a right wing forum? I do like to visit places like that where I have the minority opinion; it leads to 'lively' discussions.

So....I decided to visit here and see for myself.

[santamargarita]

9. Mike Malloy when he was on Air America...

:think:

[DFW]

10. Link provided from another blog. n/t

[Broken_Hero]

11. My wife's co-worker

told me about the site. I started reading here hmm, the day after Kerry lost in 04, lurked for about 6 months, and joined up....:)

[Graybeard]

12. When Mike Malloy was fired by AAR.

When Air America fired Mike Malloy in 2006 Sam Seder, who also had a show on AAR, told his listeners about a "Bring Back Mike" petition on DU. It was just before the '06 elections and this place was wild and boisterous. I loved it.

[hootinholler]

13. I got here via the bitch who shall not be named who expliots voting issues.

After the 2004 primaries when I found out we had switched to unverifiable voting machines, I landed at BBV, quickly tired of the bitch and found what became the election reform forum here.

-Hoot

[leftofthedial]

14. Will Pitt,

back when he was a full-time teacher.

[Tammie]

15. Referral from DNC blog. nt

[Vinca]

16. I learned about it in the forum at the John Kerry campaign site in 2004.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

36. Me too. nt

[Hubert Flottz]

17. I was invited by Opihi and GinaMaria in 2001

Shortly after the DNC's freeper infested FreeDem board was demolished by the DNC. I understood what can happen if you give the freepers a free hand and I was happy to come to a chat board that knew how to deal with the freeper types.

[TheCowsCameHome]

18. Funny, I heard the OxyPig whining about it one day,

and if it gets under his skin I knew it must be worth a look.

[zipplewrath]

20. Raul Groom

Told me he was posting and it got me hooked.

[blondeatlast]

21. I Googled "democrat" and "underground" hoping to find a non-official site for activist Democrats.

That was in 2003. This Google thing is pretty amazing!

[MotorCityMan]

22. During the travesty of the 2000 election

I found a link for Democratic Underground from bushwatch.com and have been a daily visitor ever since.

[mdmc]

23. In 2003 I heard of this dem site that was really "anti-Dean"

but when I got here it was all Kucinich / Dean...

[PoiBoy]

24. MediaWhoresOnline...

I STILL miss that site...

:hi:

[Canuckistanian]

25. Link from Buzzflash

I always used to read the "Top 10 Conservative Idiots"

Then I saw the column with the thread titles and all those swear words. I joined right up.

[kentuck]

26. After the stolen election of 2000...

I knew that we were headed for some troubling times. My wife knew that I was looking for "some place" to help spread the word and to make people aware of what was happening to our country. She told me that DU was looking for "writers". (At that time, DU was advertising for writers) I wrote quite a few opinion pieces in my real name at that time. It was about April or May 2001 before I started participating in the discussion board.

I read all the sites and DU was the best place for me to get my opinion out to the most people, without having to battle the right-wing smoke machine that was so prevalent at the time. At one time, DU was probably the leader in Democratic activism on the web. It was not too small and it was not too big. It was a community that was able to get things done.

[trof]

27. Link from BuzzFlash a loooong time ago.

[OHDEM]

29. I don't remember.

It's been so long that I honestly can't recall.

[BlooInBloo]

35. +1

[lunatica]

30. In 2001, before 9/11 I started getting worried about not getting the real news

on TV so I googled 'Democratic sites' and found DU among others and I found out that indeed, I was not getting real news on TV.

[ljm2002]

31. Mediawhoresonline...

...that was such a great site, while it lasted!

What hooked me once I got here, was the "Top 10 Conservative Idiots". I looked forward to it every week. Then I gradually began participating in the discussion forums.

[bigwillq]

32. Did a Google for Howard Dean

and on one Dean site I went to, there was a link to DU.

[BoneDaddy]

33. The Randi Rhodes show about 5 years ago

now RR is gone (ridiculous) and I am hooked on DU

[Arugula Latte]

34. In 2001 I was on some political site (now defunct ... forget the name)

and someone was saying that he was the most conservative person on DU, and that everyone was super left-liberal on DU. I thought: "Hmmm ... That sounds like the site for me."

[raccoon]

37. Googling something or other, don't remember what, and I found it. nt

[spinbaby]

38. 9/11

We were at work desperately trying to get news on that day, but the Internet was jammed up and there was no radio or TV. One coworker was miraculously pulling news off the Internet. He was on DU.

[immoderate]

39. I saw Skinner interviewed by Brian Lamb after the 2000 election.

It might have been January or February 2001. So I signed up right after that.

--imm

[emmadoggy]

40. I was never interested much in politics and after

giving birth to twins in early 2002, I mostly just tried to ignore the Bush administration because I despised him so much. It was easy because I was so overwhelmed with new motherhood. After a few years, as things became a little less overwhelming, the news and political world started to seep in a bit more. Then I started to wonder about just what all that asshole had been up to! I got pissed off enough at what I was hearing, that I started to seek out like minded places to vent and commiserate. I was very dissatisfied with a political forum through Yahoo, so I did a Google search - something like "democratic" and "forum" and VOILA! There was DU. I was hooked. I lurked for 5 or 6 months at first, then signed up.

DU has had an enormous impact on me.

[HamdenRice]

41. I was pissed off one day and googled, "republican idiots"

and that pointed to "Top 10 Conservative Idiots".

:rofl:

True story!

[frylock]

42. buzzflash

[WCIL]

43. A "Prep" board I used to read for laughs

would tell anyone who voiced a different opinion to "Go back to DU". It took me a long time to figure out what DU was, but when I found it I was thrilled there was a board for MY kind of people.

[Forkboy]

44. I found it on the evening of 9/11 while scouring the web for any info I could find.

Signed up the next day.

[havocmom]

45. Forums on snopes & a non-mainstream spiritually board , actually

In DU's early days, it was mentioned by several snopes forum posters. They were bright and interesting posters on snopes, ditto on a spirituality board I belonged to, so I bee-bopped over here and lurked for quite some time before signing up.

[Brother Buzz]

46. Enron

I'm from California and was brand new to computers when the California energy scam struck. I started searching for answers, and, well, it seemed all roads led directly to DU. I came to realize the best researchers in the world were right here so I stayed.

[hfojvt]

47. hated.com

which I found when somebody mentioned it on a yahoo discussion board. A discussion board where the guy I was arguing with offered to shoot me (to which I replied, I can get guns too).

[TuxedoKat]

48. I found it

just a year ago. I think I found it through Daily Kos or Huffington Post, but I remember being so relieved and thrilled to find it -- LOVE DU.

[w8liftinglady]

49. a link from FreeRepublic

when I was looking for other parents who had children deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.After my son's first deployment,I was-to say the least-disenchanted.Finding DU saved my sanity.

[Arkansas Granny]

50. Kind of round about, actually. I had googled something and one of the

entries took me to Free Republic. I lurked there for a while out of curiosity and kept seeing references to DU and thought I should check it out. I've been here ever since.

[Mayor McCheez]

51. From my Dad

He is a veteran who shall remain un-named on the DU boards.

[Creena]

52. My college professor.

He mentioned it after learning my political views. I lurked on and off since 2003, but never seemed to find time for registering. Taking care of my mother doesn't exactly allow for meeting new people and I talk mostly with people in my condo complex. I think the constant fighting with my conservative neighbors led me to register because I desperately wanted sane, rational conversations with like-minded people.