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more ownership. And in theory, that is fine. The problem came in when long-term users were devalued; their experience and time on the site were not given any "value added" by the site owners--and that should have happened, because while the software and the layout are great, it's the PEOPLE who are the site, and their history and experience here were a key ingredient that the site constructors kind of ignored.

I think DU should be run a bit more like the Navy in one key respect--you don't let the kid just out of boot camp command the ship. He or she needs to start out polishing brass and swabbing out the heads, not running the show.

I think trust needs to be earned, over time, and I just don't think there's any substitute for time. I think it ought to be 1000 posts and six months, whichever comes LAST, before a person even sees a jury. MINIMUM. And I don't think you should be able to "buy" more jury opportunity, either. Find some other value-added geegaw to make a donation worthwhile (and get rid of that whole paypal portal and let us do the deed via the same mechanisms that support GOFUNDME or something).

Anyone can open up an account here, post like hell for three days (+1, I agree, Right on! That's great!) and have the same jury opportunity as a person who has a decade or more of posting under their belt. Then, they can use their jury opportunity to screw people over--and if they're smart, they won't leave a comment. Ambiguity is power.

Also, there's no requirement to read the TOS before posting--but there should be. It should be READ AND INITIAL, like when you download shit from Microsuck. People can't say they weren't exposed to it, or don't know what's expected. That should happen before Post One on this site. The first time a person posts in a group or forum, the forum SOP should pop up and a "I've read and acknowedged" block should come up for a check mark. Again, people can ignore the rules, but they can't pretend they weren't exposed to them.

In DU2, the rules got so long they got hard to follow. I used to re-read them every month or so, checking for changes--it was like a military instruction or notice, it would get updated routinely. A lot of those old rules are gone, now. There are so few of us who remember a lot of them ("No sex threads!" Those were the days....).

If the admins formed a site for Democrats, I'd sign up, if they'd be pro-active in lowering the ban-hammer on assholes. They do have a nice product here, their layouts are clean and easy to read, but the trolling, hatred, crudeness, rudeness, personal insults and vicious slams against Democrats that go far beyond 'policy disagreement' have fucking destroyed this once-beautiful place. It will take a miracle to get confidence back. I don't think this is a "primary season" problem--it's a "trolls and assholes" problem. Poor MIRT--they can't keep up, and they don't have the tools to do it right, either.

I have liked DU since I first found it, and it's a shame it has come to this. It used to be where the smart people were. There are still a lot of smart people hanging in there, hoping for a course correction, but every day more and more of them fall away--not just the disgusted, but the ones who are swarmed and alert stalked (and sorry, that does happen, despite insistence to the contrary). Pretty soon all the trolls and disruptors and bad actors will have driven us off to parts unknown, and they will be left to their own devices. I suppose then they can name it UNDEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND, plant their flag, and declare victory...or something.