Shut Discussionist down!...

[Ms. Toad]

163. There is misogyny on DU -

No question.

I disagree that it is welcomed on Discussionist, any more than it is welcomed here. It exists there, as it does here, and the level the juries will tolerate which - in both places - is pretty atrocious. Given the different mix of population there than here, the misogyny will likely need to be far more express there than it is here before it is hidden, because only a portion of the population over there has ever had any education on the more subtle but equally harmful ways misogyny permeates our culture. That is to be expected - and I don't think it has settled out yet.

Discussionist is not a liberal or democratic party place - it was never intended to be. DU's position has long been (not just with discussionist) that your account here is dependent on your behavior here - not what you do anywhere else on the web. If you believe that is a bad position to take, the admins are the only ones who can change it.

The exception is, "I can only imagine one exception: If someone on Discussionist admits that they are trolling Democratic Underground -- and if we have rock-solid proof that they are in fact same person -- then we will ban that person from Democratic Underground as an admitted troll." If you believe people on discussionist have crossed that line, take the proof to the admins in ATA, and ask them to ban the troll.

Short of that, it's just chatter - and if it is chatter at a site you don't like, don't go there to hear it - or, better yet, help clean it up by alerting on it and serving on juries to hide it. Just like DU, people seem to have gotten tired of being smacked around by juries and have stopped alerting - or have gotten tired of serving on juries only to have the "I'm not hiding anything crowd" prevail - as they often do here. I'm willing to bet at least half of the posts you're concerned about were never even alerted on.

And - FWIW, DU does have control over the ads. The ads are initially auto-populated, but if they are offensive and the admins are made aware of them they can, and have, blocked specific ads (just as they can block specific posters). Recently, they have taken to telling people to buy a star rather than choosing to block the ads complained about.