This board is unreadable if it decays into useless infighting. But it also becomes useless

[lindysalsagal]

if differing opinions about policies are stunted.

I don't want to wade through pages of angry personal attacks. Not interesting to me.

I also don't want to just read one party line, either. I want to read differing opinions so that I will learn something, even if it is that I don't agree with a position.

It seems to me that sometimes posts are shut down over policy and others are allowed to continue when they've become personal and ugly.

It's run by volunteers, and that's a good thing. It's not perfect, and that's a good thing.

I don't have time to comb the internet for news and politics, so this board serves my purposes. Personally, I'd like to see more differing opinions here and less personal insults. But I don't have the time to be a moderator, so I know they have to be allowed to make the calls as they come up.

It is human nature to attempt to build a following and gain supporters, keeping score, taking posts personally. But that is unsustainable, and erodes the quality of the discourse.

This board should be about learning, not winning. Reading this board may upset you, but that's OK, too. Challenge your own assumptions. If you can't take the heat, take up knitting.

I suggest that when a poster annoys you, make your policy case, cite your source politely, keep it impersonal, and move on. Or just ignore it. No one is forcing anyone to follow a thread to the end.

Making the moderators our parents, choosing between squabbling siblings, is a foolish waste of precious resources. So is shutting out differing opinions.

I don't think moderators should feel compelled to edit much at all. Except for LBN, let it roll, except in the most egregious cases.

Thanks to the moderators, and everyone who's taught me so much on here. I'm so grateful that I'm no longer among the uninformed.

[Ohio Joe]

1. Sounds good in theory

In practice, a board without enforced rules is a disaster.

[scheming daemons]

2. Should've stopped after the first four words of your subject

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Well some of us realize discussion can't happen here

so some of us are posting at other places, myself, my own blog.

Yup, you did nail it by the way.

[Sherman A1]

6. Agreed & Well Said

Still useful as a newsfeed, but discussion..... not so much sometimes....

[demmiblue]

4. The most important rule, IMHO, is the civility rule.

Upholding that rule would weed out most of the problems.

[patrice]

5. Agreed! Especiallly about the insults; it just destroys one's point. I wish we could do our own

self-policing.

Have a special forum that runs on an agreed upon step-wise process for addressing problems. Rules up front and center. Rubrics for how to apply the rules to posts > replies. Scoring procedures, so people can evaluate activity and compare evaluations. And nothing happens in that special forum that isn't about the process of evaluating disputes and the effort to arrive at consensus.

[elias7]

7. Agreed

I see you've been a member for just about a month. This board has changed substantially, especially over the past two years. There are less attempts at real discussion, politeness and agreeing to disagree; rather there is more snark, more nasty & dogmatic & ridiculing one-liners.

Self-righteousness is a trait better carried by right-wingers...

Thanks for the observations

[nobodyspecial]

8. Mission accomplished for some

This used to be a very, very different place.

[jaxx]

9. You came to the Democratic Underground because

don't want to just read one party line?? Oh my.