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Democratic Underground, also known as DU, describes itself as an "online community for Democrats and other progressives." According to its web page, its membership is restricted by policy to those who are "generally supportive of progressive ideals," and who "support Democratic candidates for political office."^[1] The scope of discussion is wide and members represent a broad spectrum of liberal beliefs and backgrounds. DU was established on January 20, 2001, the day George W. Bush was inaugurated President. Image File history File links Circle-question. ... Democratic Underground white-background logo. ... A virtual community or online community is a group of people that primarily or initially communicates or interacts via the Internet. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year 2001. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ...

According to Democratic Underground in January 2007, over 99,000 username registrations have occurred and over 25 million messages have been posted.^[2] DU publishes articles six days a week and has an online store, a directory of links, and forums where members may post on various topics of interest. Apple Pages being used with one of the free templates Desktop publishing (also known as DTP) combines a personal computer and page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large scale publishing or small scale local economical multifunction peripheral output and distribution. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Democratic Underground has been criticized for censorship directed against it by both the political left and the right, as well as for unusual and controversial comments posted by contributors.

Features of Democratic Underground

Columns

DU has several regular columns, and on any given day may have a number of guest columns sent in from contributors. Deconstructing a Roman pillar. ...

• Mondays: Top Ten Conservative Idiots, a rundown of what DU administrators find as the most outrageous right-wing activities in the past week.
• Wednesdays: The Plaid Adder writes her column.
• Thursdays: Ask Auntie Pinko, an 'advice' column.
• In the past, DU occasionally featured a Hate Mailbag of hate mail, but no new updates have been posted since 2005.

Bernard Weiner and Ernest Partridge of The Crisis Papers are frequent guests. In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply The Right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum often associated with any of several strains of conservatism, the religious right, and areas of classical liberalism, or simply the opposite of left-wing politics. ... Hate mail is mail (electronic, postal, or otherwise) which is threatening towards the addressee, or exceptionally abusive or offensive. ...

Forums

The DU Forums are a highly active scene for political discussions by "Democrats and other progressives". On 2006-09-06, the number of individual posts in these forums exceeded 25,000,000. The main forums on DU have been re-arranged since the close of the 2004 US election season. They now include:^[3] 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ...

The Big Forums 

A significant fraction of the site's posts reside in the Big Forums. Latest Breaking News, General Discussion, and General Discussion: Politics (which superseded "General Discussion: Campaign 2004") are the largest and fastest moving forums on DU. The Big Forums also include The Lounge, which is a friendly forum for general non-political discussion, Editorials and Other Articles for op-eds written by forum users, a Wiki-like Research forum, and the Video forum which contains link to Youtube.

Topic Forums 

This section contains single-topic issue forums. Popular forums under this heading include Election Reform, Guns, the Israeli/Palestine conflict, Political Campaigns, and September 11th. Other topics include Education, Homeland Security, and Drug Policy. Some of the most popular forums under this topic are also some of the most controversial, and therefore the most closely moderated. (see below)

State & Country Forums 

These provide a specific forum for each U.S. state, where state-wide and local issues are addressed. Residents and others with an interest in localized issues, such as congressional primaries and gubernatorial races, are encouraged to post questions in the state forums. Threads covering local news or events can be found in the state forums, and informal meetings of DU members are often coordinated from them. These "meet-ups" or "meets" include social gatherings, protest events, and political fundraisers. DU also provides forums for posters residing in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as a catch-all "Democrats Abroad" forum. These serve a similar function to the U.S. state forums.

DU Groups 

Groups of users may charter discussion forums for topics of mutual interest such as hobbies, fan clubs, and potential 2008 presidential candidates. Many of these forums cover non-political topics, such books, sports, and cooking, as well as political issues surrounding ethnicity and religion. These forums are generally not as fast moving as the "Big Forums".

An "Ask the Administrators" forum was maintained until April 26, 2005; this forum allowed users to pose questions to the board administrators. This forum has now been shut down by the administrators. A "Rules" page, a "Frequently Asked Questions" page, and a "Contact the Administrators" page showing the email addresses of the administrators have been substituted. An editorial is a statement or article by a news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses an opinion rather than attempting to simply report news, as the latter should ideally be done without bias. ... YouTube is a popular free video sharing web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. ... Presidential electoral votes by state The U.S. presidential election of 2008 is scheduled to occur on November 4, 2008. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Influencing polls

Media websites (including newspapers, television networks, and America Online) run occasional "polls" that do not use the sampling methods of formal opinion polls, but instead invite everyone to respond. Some DU forum messages, usually captioned "DU this poll", urge DU members to vote 'en masse' in these polls. The goal is to influence polls to reflect the aggregrate votes of DU members. After voting, members report back to thread, usually simply writing "Done" or "Done and kicked" ("kicked" meaning the message thread is being moved to the top of the forum page by the new message so that other members will see it). ^{[citation needed]} To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Sampling is that part of statistical practice concerned with the selection of individual observations intended to yield some knowledge about a population of concern, especially for the purposes of statistical inference. ... Opinion polls are surveys of opinion using sampling. ...

Member avatars

Registered members can select an avatar that will be displayed along with each of their forum postings. For donating members, this avatar can be a custom image that they have supplied; non-donating members can choose from a set of standard images that include popular symbols, images of political figures or popular culture figures, and state outlines, state flags, and a few national flags. These avatars allow users to show some of their personality with each posting. Example of an avatar as used on internet forums. ... In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... Popular culture, or pop culture, (literally: the culture of the people) consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ...

When a user is banned from the site by the moderators, their member avatar is changed into an image of a tombstone. This has lead to the term "tombstoned" being used to describe banned users. Headstones in the Japanese Cemetry in Broome, Western Australia A cemetery in rural Spain A typical late 20th century headstone in the United States A headstone, tombstone or gravestone is a marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial. ...

An online community

Through frequent contact in the forums (including special topic groups) and online private messages, members come to know one another. Discussions range beyond politics to include such diverse subjects as pets, pet peeves, and pop culture. Occasionally, members organize face-to-face get-togethers.

Like any other community, DU has its in-jokes. New members are often confused by DU vocabulary, usually referencing pop culture ("this thread needs more cowbell"), deficient spelling skills (such as "cazy," "moran," and "noble jesters"), or long-running threads that have worked their way into DU lore ("dupe," "the kudzu thread"). Bruce Dickinson (Christopher Walken), right, gold record producer and self-proclaimed cock of the walk, speaks to Gene Frenkle and Blue Öyster Cult during the sketch. ...

Some common terms are:

Meets 

Social or activist events held by members. Also called "meet-ups".

Tombstoned 

To be banned from posting.

Repug 

Short for 'Repugnican'. A pejorative neologism for Republican.

Freeper 

A term specifically for a member of the Free Republic website. Sometimes turned into the pejorative "FreepTard".

Kick 

To post to a thread to send it to the top of the forum.

Gungeon 

The Guns Discussion board under Topic Forums. From "Gun Dungeon".

Milestone 

The occasion when a members post total reaches a certain number. Milestones are celebrated in the Lounge. (See below)

More complete of lexicons of DU terminology can be found at Democratic Underground's Demopedia entry for Glossary.

Administrators tombstone (ban) users for violating site policies. This includes trolls, conservatives, individuals who habitually accuse others of being conservatives, individuals that lack thick skin, and long-time posters who refuse to abide by the rules.

When a new user posts a message, the message header shows the total number of posts that user has made. This identification helps members spot trolls. The 1,000 post mark is an important milestone, because the total number of posts are no longer shown in the message header. The total number of posts a user has made can be found in their profile. The more posts a user has, generally the more reliable the poster is considered, and some prolific members have written many thousands of posts. A Do not feed the troll image In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages designed intentionally to annoy or antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion, including...

Campaign Underground

DU has an online campaign headquarters named "Campaign Underground." The site, which was put together with help from DU members, features a database of information about campaigns, voting trends, and media. A "media blaster" feature provides the ability to email local media outlets in many U.S. cities. Eventually DU hopes to have other features, such as integrated local news from the forums, a local event calendar, and other issues specific to states and locals. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...

Demopedia

On December 7, 2004, DU launched the beta version of Demopedia, a wiki based collaborative project aimed at presenting the Democratic and progressive opinion and outlook, and at collating and preserving some of the information generated on the forums. During the beta, only users who had registered at DU before December 7 were able to contribute. It uses the MediaWiki software. December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... For other uses, see Wiki (disambiguation). ... Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of contemporary international social and political philosophies. ... MediaWiki is a wiki software package licensed under the GNU General Public License. ...

Ideology

Although DU restricts its postings to people on the political left, members have many internal disagreements over a wide range of issues, as well as disagreements over tactics of opposition to the Bush Administration. Nearly all members oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but some DU members favor only a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, while other members favor an immediate and total pullout. Some members favor the death penalty, while a majority do not. Another such issue is gun politics; DU participants include supporters and opponents of further restrictions on gun ownership. Combatants Coalition Forces: United States United Kingdom Poland Australia South Korea Romania Spain Portugal Italy others. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... It has been suggested that Gun politics worldwide be merged into this article or section. ...

As on many other political forums, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a contentious issue. Supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians are present on the site, but there is a designated forum for the conflict and no discussion of the matter is allowed outside of this particular forum. Users who express overly critical viewpoints of either side may find themselves ostracised, or even blocked. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a part of the greater Arab-Israeli conflict, is an ongoing dispute between the State of Israel and Palestinian people. ... The Palestinian flag, adopted in 1948, is a widely recognized modern symbol of the Palestinian people. ...

Activism

DUers are active in U.S. politics in many ways. Many of them attend political protests and rallies, volunteer for campaigns, and write letters to editors of newspapers and members of Congress. Some are among the members of the Democratic Party infrastructure, serving as precinct chairs. Others actually work within the confines of various legislative and congressional bodies as staff. Many active posters at Democratic Underground have worked for various causes in both paid and unpaid positions, in campaigns and for special interest groups such as the AFL-CIO and SEIU. Others are members of the DLC, Progressive Democrats of America, MoveOn, and Democracy for America.

Activist Corps

One of the newest ways in which DUers are involved is called the DU Activist Corps. Founded on July 1, 2005, the Activist Corps is a group of over 1,000 DUers who are committed to taking action on a certain issue whenever an official Activist Corps activity is posted. July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The first Activist Corps action was posted on July 12; members wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers regarding Karl Rove's role in the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name. More than 70 letters were published in newspapers throughout the country. Other Corps activities have included signing onlinepetitions to U.S. Senators asking them to reject Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, and to write letters of support Cindy Sheehan. July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Valerie and Joseph Valerie Elise Plame Wilson[1] (born April 19, 1963 in Anchorage, Alaska) was a United States Central Intelligence Agency officer, who was identified as a CIA operative in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. ... Look up Petition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A petition is a request to an authority, most commonly a government official or public entity. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government. ... John Glover Roberts Jr. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Owners

The website is owned by Democratic Underground, LLC (a limited liability company), and run by a David Allen, who posts under the screen name "Skinner"[1] while on the boards and handles most of the issues relating to the forums. The other two administrators, "EarlG" (of Washington, D.C.) and "elad" (of Portland, OR), handle the articles and technical issues, respectively. A limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a legal form of business company in the United States offering limited liability to its owners. ... shut up you fag travis is so gay ...

Criticism

Democratic Underground has been criticized for censorship directed against both the political left and the right. From the left, critics say that administrators and moderators unfairly ban ("tombstone") or censor members who support the Green Party, Peace and Freedom Party and other parties to the left of the DNC. Right leaning Democrats, or those who support the Iraq War are often disparaged by DU posters. The People for Change forum was founded by Howard Dean supporters who felt alienated from Democratic Underground during the 2004 primary season, many of whom had been banned from the Democratic Underground forums. Some DU members claim that the moderators of the Israel-Palestinian forums enforce an anti-Palestinian bias. ^{[citation needed]} Censorship is the editing, removing, or otherwise changing speech and other forms of human expression. ... Censorship is the editing, removing, or otherwise changing speech and other forms of human expression. ... Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont. ... The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a part of the greater Arab-Israeli conflict, is an ongoing dispute between the State of Israel and Palestinian people. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ...

Two posters to Democratic Underground are being investigated by the Secret Service for posts that, according to David Allen, violated the DU policy stating "Do not post messages that could be construed as advocating harm or death to the president or other high-ranking official in the United States government." [2] Neither the comments nor the poster's identities are public knowledge, but David Allen said that both members had been banned prior to DU being notified of the investigation, and that no subpoenas have been issued to date.[3]

Controversial comments

Discussions at DU sometimes lead to certain contributions and unusual comments. One example of this was the dialog about the 2004 tsunami disaster, in which a few posts explored the possibility of "earthquake weapons". The posts were reported by The New York Times and Fox News.[4] The DU administrators deleted these posts and the threads were locked. The administrators officially disavowed what they called "kooky tsunami conspiracy theories". They added, "One wonders why the author [of the Times article] did not spend five minutes over at Free Republic and instead write an article about how conservatives think the tsunami was some sort of retribution from God, or how Muslims deserved it." ^[4] Another example is the conspiracy theories revolving around the August 2006 terror plot to blow up airliners between the UK and the US, which received mention in USA Today.^[5] Some posters felt that the American government's push to step-up the announcement of the plot^[6] was a conspiracy to bump Joe Lieberman's primary loss out of the news cycle. The site also saw criticism when, in 2003, a poster explained why he or she wished to see continued bloodshed in Iraq.^[7] There was also criticism of the site in the days following the death of Ronald Reagan, when profane comments appeared that expressed joy over his passing.^[8] James Taranto claimed than an unscientific poll on the site found that by a margin of 71%-29% that the results of the 2004 presidential election were more depressing than the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The link he provides as documentation however, is no longer active. [5]. The wife of former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards criticized members who did not feel compassion for Laura Ingraham in her fight with breast cancer; several members of the site had posted mean-spirited comments about Ingraham in reference to her illness. [6] Tsunami strikes Ao Nang, Thailand. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... Fox News Channels slogan is We Report, You Decide The Fox News Channel is a U.S. cable and satellite news channel. ... Free Republic logo Free Republic is a moderated Internet forum and activist site for Republicans and Neoconservatives from the United States. ... August 2006 is the eighth month of that year, and has yet to occur. ... USA Today is a national American newspaper published by the Gannett Corporation. ... Joseph Isadore Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is an American politician from Connecticut. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... James Taranto (born 1966) is a Manhattan-based columnist for The Wall Street Journal and editor of its online editorial page, OpinionJournal. ... Presidential election results map. ... A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced nine eleven or nine one one) consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist[1] suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly... Johnny John Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and a one-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina. ... Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1964 in Glastonbury, Connecticut) is an American conservative talk radio host and author. ... Breast cancer is cancer of breast tissue. ...

References

1. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
2. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
3. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
4. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
5. ^ missingbyline. "missingtitle", USA Today, 2006-08-10.
6. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
7. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.
8. ^ missingauthor (missingdate). missingtitle. missingwork.

2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

See also

• Fitzmas
• Free Republic - Conservative rival of DU

Merry Fitzmas Fitzmas is a word coined by some liberal American bloggers in the atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, primarily among Democrats, which preceded the announcement of results of Patrick Fitzgeralds investigation of the Plame affair. ... Free Republic logo Free Republic is a moderated Internet forum and activist site for Republicans and Neoconservatives from the United States. ...

External links

• Democratic Underground homepage
  • DU Forums
  • Demopedia
  • Campaign Underground
• John Kerry and the Lost Kos - Wired article mentions Democratic Underground.