I was only a few hours ago "alerted" ...

[NanceGreggs]

... (you'll pardon the pun), to the fact that DU's "alert" criteria has been changed.

The previous "alert menu" option "Divisive anti-Democratic rhetoric", with all of it's subcategories, has been removed, while the statement that "We permit any substantive criticism of President Obama and Democrats -- even harsh criticism that may not seem constructive -- provided it comes from a liberal perspective," has been added.

I believe most members would agree this represents a substantive and far-reaching change to DU's previous rules.

In view of the aforementioned, I am wondering why the Admins have not made some sort of announcement about changes that reflect a considerable shift in DU's attitude towards what is admissible posting fare and what is not, and the fact that what was "alertable" yesterday is now deemed perfectly acceptable.

I find it somewhat curious - not to mention perplexing - that this change has been left to be hopefully "noticed" by those using the Alert feature, if and when they do so, rather than being directly pointed out by the Admins to DU's membership-at-large.

[Skinner]

1. We will be posting a thread to discuss this in the next few days.

We had a moderator switch yesterday, and our priority right now is getting all the moderators on the same page.

We will probably be fine-tuning that rule, based on real-world experience, over the next few days. So it's not completely set in stone. But the results of the member survey made clear that members wanted some limits on criticism of Democrats, but they did not want those limits to be overly strict, and they did not think it was necessary that all criticism be "constructive" in nature.

We believe that Democratic Underground should be open to a robust exchange of opinions representing the wide spectrum of Democratic and progressive opinion. Criticisms or defenses of Democrats that appear all over the liberal blogosphere should appear here.