Is Dailykos in suicide mode?

[spotbird]

Why not just close the site to anyone but paying viewers?

It's ironic that I contribute here because of the soft sell, but would not give Kos a thin dime because of his aggressive approach.

[LiberalAndProud]

1. I'm not a regular kos visitor.

If I don't follow a link there, I'm not likely to visit, so what's up over there that's got you riled up?

[spotbird]

3. He has these horrible wrap around

ads that make the site unreadable. It doesn't really matter, he has lots of competition, but it is just so hateful.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Nnadir has been banned from there (liberal nuclear proponent).

Since that happened I no longer visit the site.

[havocmom]

9. golly, what happened?

I don't amble over there very often and am clueless on this incident

[spotbird]

12. Amble over there now

The site is worthless due to excessive ads.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Right now on DU's home page an anti-Democratic ad is being displayed.

That is right. A Carly Fiona ad is front and center on Democratic Underground. At least most of time, Daily Kos's ads are neutral or pro-=Dem.

[havocmom]

20. Yeah, I was having all kinds of trouble blocking some obnoxious ads here last week

Took a whole lotta serious additions to my software to keep from seeing some really bad shit.

[spotbird]

25. So what?

It doesn't disrupt your use of the site.

[Luminous Animal]

31. If I don't have a donors star, it does disrupt the use of this site.

I've never once donated to DU. People donate for me TO SHUT ME UP ABOUT THE UNDEMOCRATIC ADS ON DU. Every time my donation expires, I see the any un-Democratic advertisements and I start an OP to complain. Within a half hour, someone has donated to shut me up.


If you donated to DKos, you wouldn't see the ads there, either.

[spotbird]

33. Life's a bitch

But unsettling ads aren't the same as ads that are so persistently
distracting that there is no point in visiting a site.

[Luminous Animal]

35. You should see your OP! When I log out, there is an annoying flash ad embedded in your OP.

[spotbird]

37. Operative words being, "when I log

out."

Unrelated to the problem here.

[Luminous Animal]

38. It is precisely the problem.

If you donate to DU, ads are limited. If you donate to DKos, ads are limited.

You donate to DU so your experience is "friendlier". You don't donate to DKos, so you have a problem.

[Q3JR4]

43. People usually donate for me too,

but even when I've had a donor star I've kept the adds on because technically I wasn't the one to put money out for the star. Therefore in the case where my donor-star powers expire, like they have recently, it doesn't really bother me all that much.

I can see how it goes, but if your site doesn't bring in enough money through the usual channels what else are you going to do?

Q3JR4.

[shedevil69taz]

45. There are advertisements here?

I have become so used to blocking out all forms of ads from registering in my brain (at least conciously) that I can't remember a single one I've seen here or any other site I've visted in the past week.

[inna]

Are you referring to anything in particular?

:shrug:

I have a DK account, but I hardly ever go there.

[Luminous Animal]

4. I like the DKos. I don't participate in the comments but there are some....

very informative diaries. I particularly like the idea that I can click on a diary and, the majority of time, it isn't some low information post.

[inna]

8. I guess I never figured out how to navigate around there.

In my experience, DK is as hard to navigate as, say, FDL, and both sites have mostly "low information posts" at their front pages...
Typically, I can only find good posts at both sites via links from DU.

[sabrina 1]

16. Don't bother. If you did you would find progressives being

run off the site by gangs of 'enforcers'. It's like watching a violent train-wreck every time someone dares to criticize the status quo. They have the DLC visceral hatred for 'liberals' and spend most of their time on 'meta'. I doubt they have more than a couple of thousand regular contributors even thought they falsely claim to have 'tens of thousands.' Most real progressives leave that site fairly quickly, unless you enjoy soap opera. As for content, most of it is links to the MSM or a small circle of blogs associated with them. Not much original content. There were some great diarists, real liberal voices, but most were hounded off the site or left in disgust. Cindy Sheehan eg, was hounded off the site, she left voluntarily and has never returned, even though at one time when they were trying to falsely claim liberal creds to build up their membership, she was a hero there, like so many others. I think it's generally known that it is a gate-keeper site.

Thousands have been banned, including some very well-known liberal voices. In fact, among real progressives around the internet, it's generally considered to be a badge of honor to be banned from DK.

[spotbird]

21. That's partly my experience,

but they occasionally have truly enlightening conversations.

When there isn't "interest" spam, engaged people offer lengthy insights that were invaluable.

[Luminous Animal]

26. The exact same thing could be said about DU.

There are plenty of progressive voices here that have been banned. I think that there is very little difference between DKos and DU. Both of them are remarkably middle of the road. But, on DKos it is easier to find substantive OPs. On DU, you can go days before someone posts a well researched substantive OP. I wish there was some kind of auto-description that accompanied a post. Something like, "3 original sentences and a link" or "2 quoted paragraphs and a link".

[spotbird]

30. DU has become sort of a Twitter site.

There isn't much point in clicking through the comments, because there is likely no text. On the other hand, it is the perfect plae to vent. That has a value too.

[TorchTheWitch]

47. i was just thinking that same thing today

That (at least GD) most OP's are nothing but disjointed blurb thoughts. It's like for most people their every single thought has to be made into an OP. It's annoying as hell. Why does everyone feel the need to make an OP of the same damn thing everyone else is already talking about? Lately there's been almost nothing but posts about Arizona' new law. Before that it was almost nothing but posts about teabaggers. All of them saying the same thing.

Anymore you have to really dig to find a thread that's noteworthy or at least informational.

[sabrina 1]

39. No, no comparison ~ n/t

[inna]

44. Just saw your post... It's such a great description, it deserves a K&R in itself.

Fully agree with you on DK (among many other things). :thumbsup:

[sabrina 1]

46. Thanks, I could say a whole lot more and will some day

hopefully. Not that I haven't already. But the history of how the internet was taken over, how the microphone that should have gone to progressive voices was confiscated by tools like DK's kos, will one day be written. It is pretty common knowledge at this point.

Btw, I agree with you also, on this and other isssues :-)

[LiberalAndProud]

19. That's been my experience as well.

It's refreshing to find out that I'm not all alone.

:)

[Lex]

27. Same here.

Not laid out with a lot of information at the forefront. Not intuitive to navigate.

[spotbird]

10. That's what is good about it.

But the contributions of the users aren't enough, Kos wants their money too. He has these obtrusive wrap-around ads now that make the site too annoying to navigate. Ads are fine, but the ones that make the site worthless, are destructive.

[Luminous Animal]

14. DU is riddled with ads. Because you are a donor, you can't see them.

Not only is it riddled with ads but it regularly hosts un-Democratic ads.

[WillyT]

5. Aggressive On What ???

:shrug:

[Luminous Animal]

6. Shhh. Kos is bad. Kos is bad. Kos is bad.

It is merely enough that it is said. The details are immaterial.

[spotbird]

11. OK, have you tried to navigate

the site lately?

[Luminous Animal]

13. I navigate it several times a day.

The only difference is the wrap around ad. Navigation hasn't changed.

[spotbird]

15. Interesting

Maybe some people see the ads differently.

I'm serious here, I simply can't read the site the way it is now, but it doesn't bother you. It could be that the people who make the decision to run the ads see things as you do. Actually, that must be the answer.

[Luminous Animal]

32. Just like DU, if you donate, you don't see the ads.

[spotbird]

34. False

There are ads her for donors. And people who don't contribute are able to reasonably navigate the site here. That's not true at Kos.

[Luminous Animal]

36. When I log out and view this site, there are ads all over the place.

And that is a fact.

[pscot]

42. I check in there every day

and comment from time to time. I don't find navigation difficult and I hadn't really noticed the ads. There are regular diarists I enjoy reading and some of the conversations are worthwhile. Since the diaries stay up longer than they do around here, the discussions tend to be deeper. This place has the attention span of a flea. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[NoPasaran]

7. Daily Kos?

That's so 2004

[spotbird]

29. Point me to now. nt

[rurallib]

18. To each their own. I will be forever grateful to Kos for

being the site that showed I wasn't alone.
Don't some of his editors actually get paid?
Anyway, I won't begrudge him a few bucks. Some of the contributors over there are extremely informative IMHO

[spotbird]

22. DU showed me that

Kos is making it more lonely.

[Canuckistanian]

23. I stopped reading them years ago

The site became unreadable and too fast moving. It was impossible to follow favorite threads.

DKos still will be remembered as a beacon of progressivism during the dark days of 2000.

But I mostly ignore them now.

[BlooInBloo]

24. (shrug) I like both. And a host of other sites. To each their own.

[chrisa]

28. Never liked that site.

The design put me off. Can't explain it. I just found it to be kind of confusing and disorienting.

[Old and In the Way]

40. Read their front page a few times a day.

I enjoy their front page writers...very informative with great analysis, particularly on the legislation battles. I scan their diary sidebar and sometimes read ones of interest. I really don't pay much attention to the wraparound ads....if that helps pay their bills, no problems with me.

[Luminous Animal]

41. The "Congress Matters" section is fantastic.

http://www.congressmatters.com/