The problem with MyDD isn't balance or "fairness" it's about reasonable and polite discourse.

at least in my mind, you are one of the people the diarist is referring to.  You have TR'd me, insulted me, insulted others, and put up a few non-productive, smearing comments yourself.  In fact, I reported you for TR abuse.

The troll rating is necessary?  You mean you have to tell others something they can't see well enough on their own?  

I've been downrated enough for the temerity to exist to be able to say, without fear, Clinton supporters do it too.

Let's face it. This ratings system brings out the lamest human behavoir there is -- tattletaling. And whining. But with numbers and a submit button.

What is it they say?

'Power corrupts. Annoying power corrupts really annoyingly."

at the Site that Must Not Be Named started to miss the Clinton supporters and came to haunt MyDD, they brought with them their culture of troll rating crafted and learned at the Site that Must Not Be Named.

Hey, perhaps you would stop posting comments based on no evidence and insulting half the democratic party at the same time!  Maybe then people who didn't share your choice of candidate would take anything you say seriously.

its only Obama supporters that have a problem.

Hilalry supporters are spot on.

They've already eliminated my rating ability, at least I think they did.  I no longer see the rating option.

We should have to wear a Scarlet O as well.

You are arguing with a mysterious 'they' who you claim are not liberals...not sure but I think you are saying progressives are not liberals.

And you are dissing the DNC.

You are defending Joe LIEberman.  The LIEberman that is considering giving the keynote address at the REPUBLICAN national convention?

I say go to redstate.  They love LIEberman there and hate the DNC.  You'd fit right in.

No Taylor Marsh, you have left us.

Look in the mirror, there is a repub staring right back at you.

You like Lieberman!   That is the most egregious thing I have ever heard.

Oh my god you are the worst of the worst, Lieberman is a black eye on our party, a humiliating embarrassment.

He is worse then Cheney.

MYDD has gone to hell because it has members like this.

Neocons have NO PLACE in our party.

Read this: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/5/15/1427 30/254

but skimp on the troll rating.  After the nominee is selected, it will be easier to weed out the Democrats from the freepers.

Mainly I downrate troublemakers I recognize as trolls from other democratic sites.

for a troll-rateable comment.  We are magnanimous in victory.

I'd LOVE to visit blogs that discuss progressive political issues without candidate blather. I'm sick of the primary, at this point, & want to put it out of my mind by filling said mind with issue-dominated topics that will be useful when fighting the Repugs later this year.

Besides that, it would be so pleasant to get away from the noise-mongers on Kos & DD. I used to practically live on Kos. No more. Now, if I spend 15 min a day there, that's a lot. I came here hoping to avoid the screech, but the screech came with me.

So - PLEASE people - name some sensible sites that ban candidate diaries. Thanks!

Your comment is now famous over at Dkos! Be proud, very very proud.

I agree with most of what you've said, except I don't think they're all really Obama supporters. I think a lot of them are Republicans pretending to be Obama supporters. It's just another excuse for them to express their hatred against everything Clinton like they've been doing for the last two decades. But now they've found a way to get "progressives" to listen to them.

You raise a very good point.

Its the very fact that we have people here who I can't stand that makes this a DEMOCRATIC site.

If the most rabid, PR hungry who are totally playing politics from either side weren't here it wouldn't be a conversation.  Like Dailykos we would gradually define unacceptable from rude to Hillary supporter or Obama supporter and it would just be pre 1984 like over at dailykos.

They are treated respectfully for the most part.  Have had quite a few conversations with them over there.    

And there are quite a few Obama supporters on this site.

Nothing wrong with that.

just from a poster who has spent months attacking HRC with no substance, and posting diaries on dkos like "my trip around the blogospere", or the ultimate in disingenousness, "why the hate".

Look in the mirror, BJ.  He's talking about you too.  YOur obama fans uprate your diaries when they are just hate-filled diaries about HRC.  In fact every comment I've seen from you on other sites (did kos run out of clinton supporters to bash?) does the same thing.

Maybe you could exercise a little restraint and stop insulting people, like you just did here.

Truth isn't your best friend, is it?

I called out people for ridiculing someone who correctly and accurately pointed out that UC Law's initial Obama professor memo was a spin job.  Not only was I not "focuing on inanities like whether or not [Obama] really was a law professor," in the piece you reference (linked above) I specifically called the question of Obama's title at UC Law a "gotcha faux controversy" and "meaningless":

Now I'm not here to stoke this gotcha faux controversy.  There is always room to pick over candidates' words to find fault, and there is generally fault to find when you do, because political candidates occasionally (cough cough always) exaggerate their accomplishments.  Whatever time we spend exhuming this meaningless controversy is time diverted from examining the qualifications of the candidates.

I'm damned proud of having written that diary, especially today when I survey the wreck that has become of perhaps my favorite blogosphere site over the last few years.  It was not an easy or popular thing to do, but it was a blow struck on behalf of civil discourse.

Civility and truth in political conversation are very important values to me.  In the long run, they trump winning a particular political argument, or even a particular election, because the level of political discourse is something that sticks around to influence the next argument and the next election.

I firmly believe that uncivil discourse and low regard for truth leads inexorably to bad government.  I also firmly believe in the marketplace of ideas, where the expression of all ideas should be encouraged, in the confidence that good ideas will drive out bad ones.

I've also been "attacked" and troll-rated in comments by gangs of pro-Obama supporters simply for expressing my disagreement with an opinion. It got especially bad two nights ago when a small group decided it was time to shift the topic away from Obama's "bitter" goof. The past few days, I've spent more of my time sending emails to the site admins than reading or commenting on diaries.

For me, the environment on this site goes through cycles. Obama and/or Clinton commit some blunder, we all start fighting about it, hurting feelings, name calling, troll-rating, etc. After about a week, the side affected most negatively by the blunder starts expressing a desire to raise the level of discourse, and things begin to stabilize. Then, one of the candidates commits another blunder. The cycle repeats.

Even though I prove, directly below, with links and quotations, that everything it says of a specific factual nature is quite false and in fact not too far from the opposite of the truth.  (That is, as opposed to demanding apologies from people who said Obama was a law professor, as I am falsely accused of here, I specifically stated that I was not writing about Obama's position title at all, and in comments in the diary I actually pointed out that Obama's position of Senior Lecturer was more prestigious than the position of Professor, not less.)

Need I say that this sort of general disregard for the truth is part of the problem?

You would! You dirty Obama supporter, you

That's great that you have been able to find a couple of comments cut and paste that aren't Hale Obama or trash Hillary.

The Hillary supporters don't sit around copying all the demeaning, name calling, lies, false accusations and vile comments.  Maybe also because there's not enough room on this site to repeat what all the Obama supporters have resorted to by copying and pasting them.

And it was part of a civil argument.  I strongly reject the idea that there's anything uncivil about "dirty language."  If you tell me it offends you, I will stop using it, but I'm not going to censor myself until you ask, because (a) I don't think there's a damn thing wrong with it, and (b) it's colorful and expressive.

So really, who does give a hot fuck what McCain said?

Lets just say one of the groups started smearing in earnest in 2004.

Lets just say one of the groups threatened to boycott the other group first

Lets just say one of the groups stood up against democracy

Lets just say one of the groups is happy with their own version of FOX

.....

But lets just call it even...

I cannot communicate how mad you guys make me.

I'm an Obama supporter and I agree.  I feel like saying to these impulsive troll/hide raters, what you say to little kids; "use your words dear."  There is something childishly tantrummy about going to that number button when peeved.