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Democratic Underground

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Democratic Underground, or simply DU to its members, is a liberal/progressive online community established on January 20, 2001, the day President George W. Bush took office. The site publishes articles six days a week and has an online store, a directory of links, and forums where logged-in members may post on various topics of interest. More than 63,000 forum accounts have been created since its inception with over 49,000 still remaining active. Membership and participation are free, although voluntary donations are solicited, and some services are available only to donating members.

Columns

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

Bernard Weiner and Ernest Partridge of The Crisis Papers[1] are frequent guests.

Forums

The DU Forums are a highly active scene where progressives of all types are welcome to come and talk. The site bills itself as welcoming to progressives of all types, though users are sometimes "tombstoned" (banned) by administrators for violating site policies, such as these:

"We ban conservative disruptors who are opposed to the broad goals of this website. If you think overall that George W. Bush is doing a swell job, or if you wish to see Republicans win, or if you are generally supportive of conservative ideals, please do not register to post, as you will likely be banned."

"Do not publicly accuse another member of this message board of being a disruptor, troll, conservative, Republican, or Freeper. Do not try to come up with cute ways of skirting around the spirit of this rule. If you think someone is a disruptor, click the "Alert" link below their post so the moderators can deal with it. Unfortunately, it has become all too common for members of this message board to label anyone with a slightly different point of view as a disruptor. We disapprove of this behavior because its intent is to stifle discussion, enforce a particular "party line," and pre-emptively label a particular point of view as inappropriate or unwelcome. This makes thoughtful and open debate virtually impossible."

"Democratic Underground is a "big tent" message board which welcomes a broad range of progressive opinions. As such, you are likely to disagree strongly with many of the comments you see expressed here. Please do not take these differences of opinion personally. The simple fact that someone disagrees with you does not give you the right to lash out and break the rules of this message board. A thick skin is usually required to participate on this or any message board."

The main forums on DU have been re-arranged since the close of the 2004 US Election season. They now include:

  • Editorials and Other Articles
  • General Discussion
  • General Discussion: Politics (superseding "General Discussion: Campaign 2004")
  • Latest Breaking News
  • The Lounge (for general non-political discussion)

Other forums include:

  • Individual forums for the discussion of state and local issues.
  • Individual forums for the discussion of certain political topics such as race and guns.
  • Individual forums for the discussion of certain relatively non-political topics such as science.
  • "Group" forums where chartered groups of users may discuss topics of mutual interest such as computers, music, or fiction- or non-fiction books.
  • "Ask the Administrators" (to pose questions to the board administrators)

Two of the most controversial forums are often scenes of hot debate between posters:

  • The Justice/Public Safety board, used for discussing gun issues and commonly referred to as the "Gun Dungeon" or "Gungeon"; and
  • The Israel-Palestinian affairs board, sometimes referred to as the "Basement."

Notable members

Several notable figures have posted in the forums at some point. Among those who have been verified as not being hoaxes are:

Owners

The website is owned by Democratic Underground, LLC (a limited liability company, which is in turn owned by David Allen of Washington, D.C. He goes by the username "Skinner" while on the boards and handles most of the issues relating to the forums. The other two adminisrators, "EarlG" (of Washington, D.C.) and "elad" (of Chicago), handle the articles and technical issues, respectively.

Campaign Underground

DU recently launched a beta verson of an online campaign headquarters, "Campaign Underground." The site, which was put together with help from DU members, features a database of information about campaigns, voting trends, and media. Eventually DU hopes to have other features, such as a media blaster, integrated local news from the forums, a local event calendar, and other issues specific to states and locals.

Demopedia

On December 7, 2004, DU launched the beta of Demopedia, a wiki based collaborative project aimed to present the Democratic and progressive opinion and outlook. During the beta, only users who had registered at DU before December 7 were able to contribute.

Criticism

As with any politically charged website, there are many charges made against Democratic Underground from both the political Left and the Right.

From the left

Critics of the site allege that the site administrators and moderators are biased against, and unfairly ban or censor, posters who consider themselves to be to the political left of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for the US presidency. Some critics are affiliated with the People for Change forums, which were founded by Howard Dean supporters who felt alienated from Democratic Underground during the contentious primary season; many of these posters had been banned or were later banned from the Democratic Underground forums.

These people claim that DU is not truly liberal or progressive, but rather centrist. In particular, many members claim that the moderators of the Israel-Palestinian forums enforce an anti-Palestinian bias or adhere too strongly to the politics of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).

From the right

Conservatives/right-wingers often criticize Democratic Underground for removing comments and banning users who don't fit the site's left-wing stance.

Because most of the the site's forums can be posted-to by anyone who has registered at the site, outlandish postings by some members are occasionally held up as an example of what the forum's membership believes as a whole. The lastest example of this were postings regarding alleged causes of the 2004 Tsunami disaster; while the threads were eventually locked and publicly disavowed by the site's administrators, the postings in question were reported by The New York Times and Fox News.

Member Avatars

Registered members can select an avatar that will be displayed along with each of their 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 inlude popular symbols, images of political figures or popular culture figures, and state outlines, state flags, and a few national flags. These avatars allow the users to show some of their personality with each posting.

After the 2004 election, many members displayed an upside-down American flag as their avatar; an inverted flag is an international symbol of distress.

External links

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