What compelled you to join DU and why do you stay?

[Soph0571]

Some people join and stay just a minute; some of us hang out here far too much to be healthy!

We have quite a community here. Very diverse. Very talented at writing and photography. Rather opinionated *cough* when it comes to politics.

I joined when I was looking for a new site to post and write on when the site I had been on for a decade went dark. I had lurked for a long time, visiting to get inspiration and occasionally steal ideas for posts on my previous site! Hehehe. I knew that when the site I lived at shut this is where I hoped to make my online home. I joined, I stuttered and then I got my confidence in my new home. I stay because I love it! I love the debate and the thought-provoking commentary, the funny posts and the serious wonk posts. I love the fact that as a nerd I fit right in . I love the fact that it a constant in a very rocky real world. I am rather an addict and I don’t care!

So why did you join? More importantly, why do you stay?

[AllaN01Bear]

1. one event in my life . the 2000 eelection.

i live in a mostly rw county. du keeps me insane and in touch with like minded people . many of us here in this county are to far in between and have to stay low like gay people do.

[texasleo]

2. 2001 GWB

I don’t really post more than 3-4 times per year.

[Soph0571]

4. I don't really post more than 3-4 times per year.

How come?

I love finding stuff to post and pop onto others posts... and give my rather strident opinion!

[rurallib]

3. recommended by a friend - came here and just felt at home

One of the few times in my life like I was walking in the same direction as everyone else.

[Soph0571]

5. It is great isn't it?! n/t

[rurallib]

7. Yes - so unlike anything else in my life

I was always the idiot asking one more question and being skeptical. Here there's a whole big bunch like that.

I suspect that asking questions of the religious leaders that never got real answers made me so skeptical.

[Harker]

6. I came for the hors d'oeuvres

and will stay for the wine and laughter, as well as for the earnest efforts to combat Trumpskyism.

[ProudLib72]

23. I came for the free pizza and stayed for the lulz.

Damnit Harker, why do you have to steal all my thoughts before I've even thunk them up?

[Harker]

25. You've lapped me when I was in the pits.

It only appears that I'm out front.

[ProudLib72]

26. This is why I can't stay mad at you

[Harker]

40. Who could?

[customerserviceguy]

8. The 2004 election got me here

And getting news I can't easily get anywhere else keeps me here.

[democratisphere]

9. Looking for a group that was the opposite of rotten Republicans.

I stay because this is my vehicle to vent my total frustration with rethuglicons.

[Frustratedlady]

10. George W brought me here to regain/maintain my sanity.

Trump is far worse and has damned near killed my sanity, but I'm holding on by a thread. One of us is going to remain standing and it ain't gonna be him! I must live long enough to see him and some of his family members behind bars.


I don't ask for much out of life, but the above is a priority.

[nocoincidences]

11. I wandered onto a current events site years ago,

and stayed there until very recently. I made friends, became very comfortable, and the political discussions were opinionated, but polite, and mostly balanced. After Trump, something happened that shifted the balance to the Repukes who became vocal and nasty, and slowly but surely the liberals wandered off in search of a new home.

I was one of them. I was used to my board, and the banter, and fun, and arguments that weren't ugly, and I hoped to find something like that again. DU is the closest thing I have found, close enough that I park my browser here, believing that I will never again have to hear someone spouting right wing jingoism as the truth.

Sometimes I feel like one of the citizens of Atlantis who has waded out of the water after watching their heavenly home explode, hoping for a new happy residence.

So far, so good.

[doc03]

12. To talk to someone that wasn't a batshit crazy Republican like everyone

around these parts.

[Harker]

16. I'd rather talk with batshit crazy liberals

any day of the year.

[LakeArenal]

13. Started reading during Walker Recall.

Joined years later because I have an opinion just like everyone. FB and internet comments are just too virulent and disrespectful.
Exchange of ideas is number one here.

Much less judgement and personal insult than anywhere else.

Now met some nice people to private message that I enjoy and find kindred spirits.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. I don't remember how I found it but it was sometime early in the W administration.

And even though sometimes the place drives me nuts I stick around because there's also a lot of good stuff. Especially the Sunday LOLcats.

[Aristus]

15. The 2000 Election.

I was depressed, embarrassed, horrified, and I felt alone.

I found DU and began hanging out. I was overjoyed to find out there were people who felt the way I did, and would work to make the country better. (Alas, GWB started a war, basically saying "Hey! Can't change horses in midstream! And getting himself re-elected in 2004. At least by then I had DU to comfort me.)

After 9/11/2001, I joined, and have never looked back.

I've been a member here for 18 years...

[smirkymonkey]

21. Same here. I would have lost my mind without this place, so I feel very grateful for

its existence and the community here. You have all saved me whether you know it or not. I felt so isolated and alone before I found DU (you can't exactly go up to people and ask them their political affiliation in the real world). It was so comforting to find a group of people who were all - pretty much - on the same page. Like a breath of fresh air.

I stay because, frankly, I am attached and somewhat addicted.

[Codeine]

17. I discovered DU through Bartcop,

like many of us who have been here a while.

I stay because there are lots of fun people with whom to argue.

[hack89]

18. I got sucked in by the 9/11 threads

A lot of fun, off the wall threads.

[Skittles]

19. reading William Pitt

he alluded to DU, back when it first started......I was desperately trying to find people who felt like I did, the presidency had been STOLEN

[DinahMoeHum]

20. Same here. An essay of his, titled "Stand Your Ground"

brought me here, and I was thinking "this guy is a 21st century Tom Paine"

This was a few months after 9/11.

I lurked here for a few weeks, then a thread mocking then-AG John Ashcroft for his singing of "Let The Eagle Soar" came around, and I decided to finally join up - I wasn't going to miss out on the fun anymore.

That was in March 2002. I've been here since. However, I'm not a prolific poster, as you can see by my count - I'm averaging just over 1050 posts a year for 17 years.

[Skittles]

22. oh wow

I could not remember exactly what I read but I remember metaphorically CLINGING to it because I felt like I was losing my mind....the election, then the Supreme Court INSTALLING the nitwit Dubya into the White House - IT MADE ME SICK, yet life seemed to go on like it was, OH WELL.....I knew it would be endless war and a crashed economy

I joined a month prior to 9/11

[backtoblue]

24. Stumbled here accidentally while searching for the DNC

I think that was 05 or 06, during dubya's reign of idiotic grifting. Read for a few years, then signed up in '08. Took a long break from the internet, then came back to posting last year.

I keep coming for the awesome company and the wealth of information.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

27. My Husband made me do it.....

He did. And I was lurking for a while. Decided to join the fray because I feel I have something to add. The more educated we are as a voter, the better choices we make.

[RelativelyJones]

28. GWB

[kimbutgar]

29. I looked at DU during the Bush Presidency and didn't like how the website was difficult to look at

And then after President Obama was elected the websites I liked, what really happened, natural news, zeta talk and Rense became so anti Obama and insane that I gravitated to Democratic underground. I later learned those sites were sold to new owners who were Russian owned.

I am almost embarrassed I fell for the propaganda. I wonder how many people like me stayed at those sites and became fat Donnie supporters.

[House of Roberts]

30. I found the Latest Threads page.

Before that I couldn't make heads or tails of the 'forum' system. The chronology of it just escapes me.

I check in here to see what's going on, because SOMEBODY here has noticed it and posted about it. Occasionally I make comments, but mostly just read,

[MontanaMama]

31. I'd hear random references about DU on

progressive radio and got curious...I lurked for the better part of 2016 and as the summer of that year waned, I started to get really scared that the one who I now refer to as MF45 would assume the presidency. I joined on Halloween 2016 as a star member because I’d grown to value this place so much that I feared not being able to get on the site on election night due to heightened web traffic. The rest is history. I love DU. I stay because it is the best forum for just about everything....from breaking news to baseball to cute pet gifs. It is a community that I value. Thanks for the thread.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

32. TBH, it was the free beer DU offers only its best posters... been enjoyin it ever since!!

[Doreen]

33. A person of my past

introduced me. Despite the crappy end of that chapter in my life I got DU from it and am happy with it. I really enjoy talking about issues of the world, sharing humor, sharing what happened in our lives to bring us to our views, and just being here to support each other.

[TalenaGor]

34. I joined shortly after 9/11

Although my profile doesn't reflect that due to an internet stalker a few years ago.....

Anyway I came here because at that time I did not pay attention to politics at all..... And watching that happen on TV left such a profound affect on me and I could not stop reading & researching & trying to understand what the hell had just happened...

The more I learned the more intrigued I was....

I stay because I still don't know everything lol

I stay because there's nowhere else that I can find that gives me instant news updates from all around the world with instant thought provoking conversation to each topic....if something needs debunking it's instantly debunked.... I guess I've come to trust the community here.....

Because I can take what I learn here into conversations in the world and never be caught with my pants down LOL.....

[yonder]

35. I stumbled across DU and lurked a few years - It just felt right.

Finally joined so I could contribute a little. It still feels right.

[Beringia]

36. I think I came when Cheney outed Valerie Plame

I must have come across a thread on DU about it and joined. I find this site so easy to use, unlike many other forums where you have to search hard for something interesting or current. I liked how it moves so fast and always the news of the day. I like varied opinions and of course I love democracy. I do leave sometimes for a year or a few years and then come back again.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. Originally it was the Top Ten Idiots of the Week.

I still miss it.

I stayed for a number of years, left, and returned under another name.

DU has changed a great deal.

[VOX]

38. 2000 election, 9/11, creeping proto-fascism...

Lurked for awhile, jumped in late 2002. I’ve stayed because, although many of the “players” have changed over the years, it’s still the best online Democratic community going.

[Rhiannon12866]

39. I'm in New York (State) and 9/11 freaked me out

Though I'd always voted, mostly for Democrats, I'd never been particularly interested, let alone proactive, so I was compelled to read and research and learn as much as I could about what was really going on in this country and the world. I friend turned me on to DU and I joined in early 2003 - shortly before the lead up to the Iraq War (another event that sent me over the edge, as well as the 2004 election!) - and I've never left. I've since worked on three congressional campaigns and learn something new on DU every day from the amazing and informed folks here!

[not_the_one]

41. the 2000 election and GW Bush

I was so angry that Gore "allegedly" lost due to hanging chads, the Brook Brothers riot, Katheryn fucking Harris, and the SC deciding that to continue to COUNT THE VOTES would hurt GW Bush. (Sandra Day O'Connor really wanted to go on her fucking vacation and couldn't be bothered....)

I signed up in 2001, and immediately felt at home.

I was not a prolific poster. By 2017 or 2018 I had only posted a little over 3000 posts.

Then one day I snapped.

I had seen one too many threads where "Kochsuckers", an obvious gay slur, was used as an ultimate insult, and I popped off a post that, looking back, even I knew was over the line.

The jury reprimanded me good, and hurt my feelings. I flounced off in a huff, even emailing Skinner about how DU was no longer a place that I was comfortable visiting. (I did NOT do it by way of a "goodbye fair world, I am out of here" thread.)

I would frequently check in to see how the DU was doing without me (no one knew or cared), just to stay up to date.

I finally decided to re-up. Tried to do it, but screwed it up, so I just started again under a new moniker. I am still not prolific in posting, as my count shows. But I have been here since almost the beginning.

DU allows me to stay sane in an increasingly insane world. I am really worried that although we ARE a majority, the system is rigged through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and now Russian cybershit.

I am old, just turned 68, STILL gay , am retired, and can make it the rest of the way without becoming broke or homeless. But I worry that my generation did not live up to our hopes and dreams, and now, with the populace so dumb-ed down that they depend on hate to make themselves feel better, we may not make it through the reign of turdface.

This appears to be the, for real, time where we either shit, or get off the pot...

[love_katz]

42. I think it was a plug by The Rude Pundit that first sent me over to check out DU.

I followed his link, and loved what I saw. I lurked for a couple of years, because I felt intimidated by some of the flaming that happened, but eventually I worked up the courage to join. My original membership was under a different name. I lost access to that account when DU did an upgrade and I couldn't remember my password. Eventually, I decided to create a new membership with a new name. I stay because this place keeps me sane, and it is my favorite source for news. 😊 I also really love many of the longtime posters: Aristus, California Peggy, Skittles, Hoyt, Nancegreggs, Cha, NJCher, and many more posters whose names escape me at the moment. A feature that I really miss is The Top 10 Conservative Idiots. I give a huge thanks to Skinner, Elad, and all who do the work of keeping this site going.

[VarryOn]

43. Early in 2016 as I was getting more excited about the election, something I Googled...

Was linked to a DU post. I spent many, many hoursover the next few months. That is, until about 10 pm on election night. To save myself pain, I disengaged from politics until the end of 2018. I lurked for a few months and finally joined in February.

I lurk 3 or 4 times a week. I lirk and post some..usually late at night when I have time to myself.

Most of my family, friends, and coworkers are not Democrats. So, I dont have people in real life normally who I can relate with on politics. DU helps scratch my itch to engage with people politically even though I'm admittedly not as progressive as most on the site. I just stay away from posting on the 2 or 3 topics where I might get in trouble! Lol

Love the site!

[mulsh]

44. circa 2000/01 anIT Jerk set our new office home site on Free Republic, two post in i read aboutDU

Headed there. Liked what I saw and signed up as soon as got to my home computer. I've been on DU, under two ID's since pretty much the first days. As you can see I don't have high post count but I'm always learning something useful around here. I check in pretty much every day I have access to a computer.