Democratic Underground

Democratic Underground, also known as DU, is an online community for U.S. Democrats and progressives. Its membership is restricted by policy to those who are generally supportive of progressive ideals and support Democratic candidates for political office.^[1] DU was established on January 20, 2001, the day Republican George W. Bush was inaugurated president.

According to Democratic Underground, as of October, 2010, over 163,000 user accounts have been registered and over 52.9 million messages have been posted.^[2] DU publishes articles several days a week and has an online store, a directory of links, and forums where members may post on various topics of interest.

Features of Democratic Underground

Columns

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

• Mondays: Top Ten Conservative Idiots, a rundown of what DU administrators find as the most outrageous right-wing activities in the past week.
• In the past, DU occasionally featured a Hate Mailbag of hate mail, but no new updates have been posted since 2005.

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

Forums

The DU Forums are sites for political and non-political discussions by registered DU users. As of January 2007, the number of individual posts in these forums exceeded 27,000,000. The main forums on DU have been re-arranged since the close of the 2004 US election season. They now include:^[3]

The Big Forums

This section is the most active. Latest Breaking News, General Discussion, and General Discussion: Politics (which superseded "General Discussion: Campaign 2004") are the largest and fastest moving forums on DU. The Big Forums also include The Lounge, a friendly forum for general non-political discussion, Editorials and Other Articles for op-eds written by forum users, a Wiki-like Research forum, and the Video forum which contains links to Youtube.

Topic forums

This section contains single-topic issue forums. Popular forums under this heading include Election Reform, Guns, the Israeli/Palestine conflict, Political Campaigns, and September 11. Other topics include Education, Homeland Security, and Drug Policy. Some of the most popular forums under this topic are also some of the most controversial, and therefore the most closely moderated. (see below)

State and country forums

These provide a specific forum for each state, where state-wide and local issues are addressed. Residents and others with an interest in localized issues, such as congressional primaries and gubernatorial races, are encouraged to post questions in the state forums. Threads covering local news or events can be found in the state forums, and informal meetings of DU members are often coordinated from them. These "meet-ups" or "meets" include social gatherings, protest events, and political fundraisers. DU also provides forums for posters residing in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as a catch-all "Democrats Abroad" forum. These serve a similar function to the U.S. state forums.

DU groups

Open to donating members only, Groups of users may charter discussion forums for topics of mutual interest such as hobbies, fan clubs, and potential 2008 presidential candidates. Many of these forums cover non-political topics, such books, sports, and cooking, as well as political issues surrounding ethnicity and religion. These forums are generally not as fast moving as the "Big Forums".

An "Ask the Administrators" forum was maintained until April 26, 2005; this forum allowed users to pose questions to the board administrators. This forum has now been shut down by the administrators. A "Rules" page, a "Frequently Asked Questions" page, and a "Contact the Administrators" page showing the email addresses of the administrators have been substituted.

Administrators sometimes ban users for violating site policies.

An online community

Through frequent contact in the forums (including special topic groups) and online private messages, members come to know one another. Discussions range beyond politics to include such diverse subjects as pets, pet peeves, and pop culture. Occasionally, members organize face-to-face get-togethers.

New members can be confused by DU vocabulary which includes references to pop culture ("this thread needs more cowbell"), spelling that parodies other websites (such as "HUGH!", "series", and "cazy,") and famous images ("moran"), and long-running threads that have worked their way into DU lore ("dupe," "the kudzu thread").

Some common terms:

Bulletproof 

The apparent ability of some members to flagrantly violate DU rules without punishment.

Tombstoned 

To be banned from posting.

Repug/Rethug 

Short for "Repugnican" or "Rethuglican". Both are pejorative neologisms for Republican.

Freeper 

A term specifically for a member of the Free Republic website. Sometimes turned into the pejorative "FreepTard".

Kick 

To post to a thread to send it to the top of the forum.

Gungeon 

The Guns Discussion board under Topic Forums. From "Gun Dungeon".

The Research Forum includes a "DU Glossary".

When a new user posts a message, the message header shows the total number of posts that user has made. At the 1,000 post mark the total number of posts are no longer shown in the message header. The total number of posts a user has made can be found in his or her profile. Some prolific members have written many thousands of posts.

Activism

DUers are active in U.S. politics in many ways. Many of them attend political protests and rallies, volunteer for campaigns, and write letters to editors of newspapers and members of Congress. Some are among the members of the Democratic Party infrastructure, serving as precinct chairs. Others actually work within the confines of various legislative and congressional bodies as staff. Many active posters at Democratic Underground have worked for various causes in both paid and unpaid positions, in campaigns and for special interest groups such as the AFL-CIO and SEIU. Others are members of the DLC, Progressive Democrats of America, MoveOn, and Democracy for America.

Owners

The website is owned by Democratic Underground, LLC (a limited liability company), and run by David Allen, who posts under the screen name "Skinner"^[4] while on the boards and handles most of the issues relating to the forums. The other two administrators, "EarlG" (of Washington, D.C.) and "elad" (of Portland, Oregon), handle the articles and technical issues, respectively.

Fundraising

DU runs quarterly fund drives. Everyone who donates is recognized with a gold star next to his or her user name for the succeeding twelve months. Before each fund drive, members are invited to suggest charities that might benefit, and ten percent of the money raised is donated to those charities. For example, after the fund drive in the fourth quarter of 2009, Skinner announced that a total of $1,855 had been donated to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Modest Needs (helping low-income workers), Treehouse for Kids (aiding children in foster care), the Remote Area Medical Foundation (providing medical services in remote areas), America's Vet Dogs (providing service dogs to veterans), and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.^[5]

Criticism

Discussions from posters at DU have drawn criticism. One example of this was the dialog about the 2004 tsunami disaster, in which a few posts explored the possibility of "earthquake weapons". The posts were reported by The New York Times^[6] and Fox News.^[7] The DU administrators deleted these posts and the threads were locked. The administrators officially disavowed what they called "kooky tsunami conspiracy theories". They added, "One wonders why the author [of the Times article] did not spend five minutes over at Free Republic and instead write an article about how conservatives think the tsunami was some sort of retribution from God, or how Muslims deserved it."^[8] The administrators also sent a letter to the Times, which was printed.^[9]

Another example is the conspiracy theories revolving around the August 2006 terror plot to blow up airliners between the UK and the US, which received mention in USA Today.^[10] Some posters felt that the American government's push to release the announcement of the plot^[11] was a conspiracy to bump Joe Lieberman's primary loss out of the news cycle.^{[citation needed]}

The site also saw criticism when, in 2003, a poster explained why he or she wished to see continued bloodshed in Iraq,^[12] and in the days following the death of Ronald Reagan, when profane comments appeared that expressed joy over his passing.^[13]

Controversies

Two posters to Democratic Underground were investigated by the Secret Service for posts that, according to David Allen, violated the DU policy stating "Do not post messages that could be construed as advocating harm or death to the president or other high-ranking official in the United States government."^[14] Neither the comments nor the posters' identities are public knowledge, but David Allen said that both members had been banned prior to DU being notified of the investigation, and that no subpoenas have been issued to date.^[15]

Copyright infringement lawsuit

In 2010, Democratic Underground was sued for alleged copyright infringement in a member's posting of a few paragraphs from an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The suit was brought by Righthaven, an entity that finds Review-Journal quotations online, buys the copyright for that story from the newspaper, and retroactively sues for copyright infringement.^[16] In response to the lawsuit, DU asserted that the quoted excerpt (five sentences of a 54-sentence article) was fair use, and counterclaimed against Righthaven for fraud, barratry, and champerty.^[17] DU is being represented in the case pro bono by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, attorneys from the firm of Winston & Strawn, and Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers.^[17] After Righthaven lost a similar suit against Realty One Group over 8 of 30 sentences quoted from a news article, Righthaven asked the judge in the case against Democratic Underground to dismiss Righthaven's claim against DU.^[18]

In June 14, 2011, Judge Roger L. Hunt ruled that Righthaven be dismissed from the case because Righthaven had never owned the copyright of the article and gave Righthaven two weeks to explain in writing why it should not be sanctioned.^[19]

References

1. ^ "How We Enforce The Discussion Forum Rules". DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
2. ^ "Democratic Underground - Latest Threads". DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
3. ^ "Democratic Underground - Lobby". DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=lobby. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
4. ^ "Democratic Underground - Contact Us". DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/contact.html. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
5. ^ Allen, David (November 23, 2009). "THANK YOU to everyone who donated during our fund drive! Here's how much we gave to charity...". Democratic Underground. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7074456. Retrieved 2009-11-26. 
6. ^ Schwartz, John (2005-01-03). "Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate". NY Times. pp. A10. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/03/international/worldspecial4/03bloggers.html?ex=1178251200&en=5a792bb5cd1369e3&ei=5070. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
7. ^ Hume, Brit (2005-01-04). "Disaster's Cause?". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143277,00.html. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
8. ^ "Skinner" (2005-05-05). "About the New York Times, Fox News, and Kooky Tsunami Conspiracy Theories". DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2907807. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
9. ^ Allen, David (2005-01-10). "To the Editor". The New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F11FE345D0C738DDDA80894DD404482. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 
10. ^ Raash, Chuck (2006-05-10). "Terrorists were brewing a fresh date of infamy". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/raasch/2006-08-10-raasch_x.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
11. ^ "Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests". msnbc.com. 2006-08-14. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
12. ^ Taranto, James (2003-11-05). "Dems Gone Wild--III". Opinion Journal. http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004262. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
13. ^ Macomber, Shawn (2004-06-08). "Bloggers Attack Reagan". FrontPage Magazine. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13677. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
14. ^ "We think you should be aware that the Secret Service contacted us today". Democratic Underground Thread - David Allen
15. ^ "I think some of you have the wrong idea about this Secret Service thing". Democratic Underground Journal - David Allen
16. ^ Green, Steve (August 11, 2010). "Righthaven sues Democratic Underground website over R-J posting". Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nevada). http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/aug/11/righthaven-sues-democratic-underground-website-ove/. Retrieved 2010-10-08. 
17. ^ ^{a b} Green, Steve (September 28, 2010). "R-J owner faces counterclaim in copyright lawsuit campaign". Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nevada). http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/28/r-j-owner-faces-counterclaim-copyright-lawsuit-cam/. Retrieved 2010-10-08. 
18. ^ Kravets, David (18 Nov 2010). "Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts". Wired.com, Threat Level. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/righthaven/. 
19. ^ EFF Press Releases > June, 2011 > Righthaven Copyright Troll Lawsuit Dismissed as Sham. Retrieved 2011 June 16.

External links

• Democratic Underground homepage
  • DU Forums
• "Agonistic Democracy and the Narrative of Distempered Elites: an Analysis of Citizen Discourse on Political Message Forums", by Jeanette Castillo, August 12, 2008 - doctoral dissertation analyzing Democratic Underground (pdf)
• Interview with David Allen on The Young Turks