|
Edited on Sun Aug-17-03 11:16 AM by bobd
I'm on my second year of paid membership here at DU. I discovered DU shortly after Bush's 2001 inaugural and have been an addict ever since. I probably visit here 20 times a day. I find it to be a great place to obtain a wide variety of news and opinion; in fact it's essentially the ONLY place I come for news and links to news. Lately, however, I've noticed an ominous and disturbing trend. The custom of "plonking" seems to have found its way here.
As a computer geek (Unix systems administration) I regularly visit the computer related Usenet newsgroups. Some of the groups, not all, have a rather mean-spirited plonking custom whereby posters deemed "unacceptable" are publically plonked into folks' ignore file. The bad thing, in my view, about this is that the hapless plonked poster has no recourse for appology, if one is warranted, or even a well reasoned response to the plonkers since the poster is now on ignore.
Personally I don't plonk, privately and especially publicly. It seems really arrogant to me and just plain mean. If I don't feel like reading a posting or a thread I just don't read it. In a political board, especially in times like this, there's going to be a LOT of venting. If we can't do it here where else can we do it? Besides, the alert button seems to keep the boards pretty clear of freeper/right-winger distuptors. Moreover, someone posting something nasty one time may post something enlightening the next time. I'm truely saddened that the custom has arrived here at DU. I'm especially saddened to see folks like Will Pitt giving into it. It's not one of the better angels of our nature.
I know I'm not the most optimistic person here. I struggle with my pessimism and am very grateful that DU allows me a place to vent when I need to. So please, please don't give it to urges to ignore folks. And I beg of you please, please, please refrain from public plonking. It's just not DU. :-(
Bob D.
|