Digby Recently Decided To Shut Down Her Comments Section Because The Posts Had Grown So Toxic !!!

[WillyT]

Link: http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20080218&s=hayes

<snip>

It's gotten to that time in the primary contest where lines are drawn, camps are solidified and conversations around dinner tables grow heated. My friend Dan recently put it this way: "You start talking about the candidates, and next thing you know someone's crying!" The excellent (and uncommitted) blogger Digby recently decided to shut down her comments section because the posts had grown so toxic. The recent uptick in acrimony is largely due to the narrowing of the field. While once the energy was spread over many camps, it is now, with the exits of Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards, concentrated on just two, leaving progressives in a fierce debate over whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make the better nominee, and President.

According to polling data as well as my conversations with friends and colleagues, progressives are evenly split or undecided between the two. This is, to me, somewhat astonishing (about which more in a moment), but it also means that at a time when other subgroups within the Democratic coalition are leaning heavily toward one candidate or the other, progressives are at a moment of maximum leverage.


:shrug:

[ursi]

1. I used to visit this board years ago ...I never saw it this divided ...

[aquart]

2. Because Obama is a uniter, not a divider.

[WillyT]

4. Obama Is The Future...

Like it or not, it's coming... if not now, soon.

:shrug:

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WillyT]

6. THE ANTI-WHITE PARTY ???

Are you fucking kidding me???

Please tell me that you are kidding, because I'm about to go ape-shit on the racist cracker mode !!!

I'm a white guy that will PROUDLY vote for Obama, and profusely apologize for the likes of YOU!!!

:wtf:

[thunder rising]

9. warning: don't get baited ... you'll hate yourself for even commenting

Trolls are not always from opposing campaigns, but also from opposing parties and "religions". DU is an easy target to stir up stuff.

[Nailzberg]

7. What the hell is that suposed to mean?

I'm really hoping you can better explain that.

[Windy]

8. Oh my god. You don't belong in the democratic party much less on DU... sad. n/t

[Bassic]

10. Anti-White party?

:wtf:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. That's one of the most disgusting comments I've seen on DU.

And considering some of the poo that's been flung around lately, that's saying something. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[cali]

13. racist filth

your post fits the bill. you are what you wrote.

[WillyT]

3. Yep... 2004 Was A Petting Zoo Compared To This !!!

And a whole bunch of the old time DUers have either left, or are left to lurk.

:shrug:

[madrchsod]

12. ignore.........

[frazzled]

14. It was pretty toxic for a long time.

I used to frequent Hullaballoo daily. And at one point I told Digby she had a responsibility for the things being said in the comment section ... that with power comes responsibility. It didn't seem to register back then. I left sometime in 2006.

I'm glad to see she's realized that it does matter. Bloggers can't pretend that all the nastiness going on in their back rooms has nothing to do with them.