also make clear that comments or diaries that are divisive or demeaning on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation have no place on a Democratic website.

We all need to be a part of the discussion in an environment of mutual respect.

Question: Is there room for 'liberal' opposition within the Democratic Party when the party strays from it's liberal principals? Is there room for an Independent?

I will remain a liberal for the rest of my life and I would prefer to remain a Democrat as well. But if the party embraces black racism I will leave the party and become an Independent. But I will always remain a liberal.

Is there any place here for someone like me?

Thank you for this information. I confess I didn't fully understand the rating system.

Does everyone have the right to rate a post or is it only the trusted users?  I have no rating listed when I read the posts; only reply to user or reply to this/post.  Are ratings ever given back if they are taken away?  I would like to know?  How do you find out how you have been rated?  I could find no clear answer in FAQ area.

Thanks

A week or 10 days ago, my ability to rate and rec disappeared. (Ironically, I can still view HCs)

As far as I know, I have never abused rating and recommending, and consequently, that's fairly disappointing. It came immediately after I vehemently (but I think, politely) disagreed with points you made in an FP, and I took it as vindictiveness. (And a hint to leave, which I sort of intended to do, but I have an unnatural addiciton to playing Devil's Advocate, which is hard on a site where everyone agrees with you.)

Care to explain/condemn/ban?

those annoying one- or two-sentence diaries. That would probably get the diarists' attention.

I have tried putting in comments asking the diarist to delete the diary and copy the comment into an open thread, but they never do that.

There are too many diaries posted here that push other people's work down the screen too fast. It won't stop unless the diaries that make no contribution get deleted somehow.

must be increasing.

We do things a bit differently, like adults.

Differently, as compared to who?

Changing the topic - about how one becomes a
trusted user - I don't think the current system
is fair. As a HRC supporter, I became a TU very early in myDD, probably because more people rec'ed my stuff. I have been registered my MYDD for just a month or so I have perms to hide posts. OTOH, I have been a member at the Daily Obama for much much longer, but have perms only to rec. No perms to TR or Hide.

I think the opp will be true for BHO supporter.

You can e-mail 'em using the "contact us" thingy at the bottom, but I haven't found admins responsive to problems.

They must be very busy.

for giving a 1 rating and I didn't receive a warning. So I'll call bullshit on Jerome.

While we're on meta stuff, can you tell us how to get a rating in without having to return to the main post?  I keep assigning ratings to stuff and then forgetting to click "rate all".  Then, if I post a comment, all my unsent ratings disappear.  I know there must be something I'm missing.

Us newbies are sure a pain in the neck.

"Don't clutter the diaries with foolish commentary on MyDD itself."?

Thanks, Jerome.  

Still learning the ropes here.  I can't find much about HTML formatting.  I'd appreciate any suggestions on where to go.

Ummm...make that "where to get help".

Too bad it came to this.

Everybody should go home a hoist a beverage of choice to their favorite candidate.  I know I am.  Being on the net most of the week is making me anxious.  I hope to come back with a fresh attitude come Monday. Peace.

Users who are excessively bashing the Democratic Party, or being Republican trolls, will be banned.

What implications does this have for the recent Fox News fan club that has taken form? That is a rhetorical question for all to ponder.

And so I'm not just being a smartass, here is a useful tip for users....

(blockquote)quoted text(/blockquote)

That is how you blockquote, except use < and > instead of ( and )

Reposting the same crap over and over, showing up a lot on dkos also. These guys travel in groups, and if you don't slap them hard, they'll try to take over.

Luckily they are generally stupid, cowardly, illiterate, neurotic compulsives, often with substance abuse problems, and I have no doubt that their mothers' dress them funny.

I spent a few weeks on conservative blogs just to  practice slapping them around.

Users who are excessively bashing the Democratic Party, or being Republican trolls, will be banned.

... mean that folks here who write that they will not vote for the eventual Democratic nominee but will, instead, back McCain will be banned?

In my opinion, it would be better if the rules were made a little clearer. Just about anything negative said about a candidate can be considered "inflammatory" by one of his or her passionate, committed supporters.

Also, maybe it would be better if only the administrators had the right to hide comments. Instead of a "zero" rating, users could push a button that reported violations of the rules to the administrators. Then they could take whatever action they felt was apppropriate (hiding the comment, or not; warning, suspending or banning the user). I don't want to be a cop and a judge or jury, and I don't like giving negative ratings, not even "1's," and so I don't ever give them. But now I feel bad because it seems that Jerome and the other site officers want us to do to hand them out.

I also don't want to be the court of appeals and review zero ratings to see if they were really deserved or not. But again, I now feel bad because it seems that I am "supposed" to do this, and I don't. Nor do I want to get into "wars," with one "side" giving a comment mojo, while the other "side" is giving the same comment "1's" or even zeros.

Frankly, while getting and giving mojo can be fun, I find the whole rating thing to be a little uncomfortable. What if someone gives me mojo, but I don't think his or her posts are that good? Should I give that person mojo back or not? And, if not, can't that lead to hard feelings? What if someone puts a lot of time, effort, and work into a post, and thinks it's really good, but then no one gives them mojo? Doesn't that make that poster feel bad? The whole thing starts to seem like a high school popularity contest.

On other boards I have been on, there were no ratings, and only board members were protected from personal attacks, public figures (like candidates) were fair game, and, besides that, only the standard (no spamming, sock puppets, copyright infringements, threats of violence, breach of privacy of other users, etc.) rules applied. I realize, given the purpose of this site, that we also need the no excessive attacks on Democrats/no excessive praise of Republicans rule.

But the administrators could enforce these rules, and leave the rest to do what we are here to do, which is talk about politics from a Democratic party perspective.

I have great respect for the openness of your site. Please don't become the thought police, like other sites have become.

I shall do my best to respect and follow your guidelines. I care deeply about taking the right steps toward November.

Could you expand on what you mean by excessive bashing of the Democratic Party?  Obviously there must be some subjective aspects of this policy but hopefully there are some clear guidelines on any content that could get you banned.  And surely we don't want to make users think that they cannot desent at all with any of the Democratic leaders and therefore not freely debate any issue they feel is important.
So maybe the administration could clarify what is considered inappropriate in reference to any disagreement with other Democrats.

I only troll rate when someone has made a direct personal attack against another poster or a diarist, or made some really odious comment that doesn't advance a position or argument as much as just snipes in general.

I got troll rated yesterday for asking for someone to provide a direct quote in order that they might demonstrate a point of fact.  

That was funny.

What's diff between zero and one?  This post says O is troll; but where you click, it says one is a troll and zero is hide.  Also, what's the diff between troll and hide?

If certain infamous words are off limits here at MyDD, I'd appreciate it if you'd spell it out.

I raise this issue because I apparently just got a warning for the sentence "But there ain't no pony, just a pile of horse[bleep]."  Only with the S-word instead of the bleep.

The owner of a blog can, and should, set whatever standards s/he pleases for commenters.  Jerome, if you want to ban some subset or superset of the Carlin Seven, I'm fine with that.  But that's gotta be one of the easiest things to say explicitly in a set of rules, so I'm puzzled as to why not.