here's a thought -- why should GD-P be included on the Greatest Page at all?

[nashville_brook]

There's nothing "great" coming out of GD-P at this moment. In fact, there's so much DESTRUCTIVE stuff that DU is attracting trolls who come just to jam our community.

If people want to discuss the primaries, that's fine -- they don't have to be part of our Greatest Page.

When casual visitors come to DU they don't have the opportunity to hide GD-P which is the ONLY reason I can stand it here right now. Casual visitors see a lot of hate and the Greatest Page isn't the place for it. Imagine if Huffington Post or Common Dreams put this sort of rot at the tops of their pages.

Moreover, without the competition to vote up hate threads GD-P will benefit overall. People might be able to actually have a dialogue without the drama of competing for Greatest Page domination.

That's my thought.

on edit -- another suggestion is simply to up the number of recs to 10 or more. we need to raise the bar...demand better.

[walldude]

1. I fully agree...

And will K&R this. We don't need this crap on the front page, makes us all look bad. I wonder if it would be easy to fix.. there's still plenty of time before the Convention..

[nashville_brook]

2. thanks. i think the competition for votes is attracting the wrong elements. reinforcing bad behavior

it's become an adolescent game.

[DJ13]

3. How about upping GD:P to 10 recs to make Greatest?

That would bring attention to only the better GDP posts (this place IS about politics, isnt it?), and cut way back on the numbers of GDP posts that make it.

[nashville_brook]

4. you read my mind! i was just coming back to edit to add that thought!!

brilliant. raise the bar.

[varelse]

10. Umm... you might have to raise that bar considerably higher to have any appreciable effect

For example, I submit http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5369554">"exhibit A"

Perhaps it would be best if GD:P had its own "greatest" page?

[nashville_brook]

12. 113 votes for misogyny. yea us.

you're right. 10 votes is too little of a deterrent.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. Just apply the anti-PA rules fairly across all forums.

After all of the deleted posts and bannings, we can get back to discussing policy.

[nashville_brook]

7. i totally agree that more supervision would be good, but what's 'anti-PA'?

[Gold Metal Flake]

29. PA = Personal Attack.

How many years did Mr. Benchley set the tone in GD: P?

[readmoreoften]

6. Agree. It means nothing. It's just a popularity contest.

And you know what? I think people would post there less because they couldn't get as big a rise out of the opposite camp without help from the greatest page.

[nashville_brook]

8. that's exactly what i'm talking about! the popularity angle combined with the horserace is toxic.

it's creating monsters. lord of the flies.

[Quantess]

9. *GD-P is is 95% worthless drivel. Here's my previous post about blocking GD-P threads on Greatest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3101776&mesg_id=3102733

Edit: *the content of worthless drivel may actually be higher than 95%.

[nashville_brook]

11. i'm worried about what casual user of DU are seeing -- i totally keep GD-P turned off for myself.

i was doing some research on PR firms recently and noticed a couple included DU in their links to "good political blogs." i cringed knowing that anyone following those links right now are going to have quite the negative reaction associated with those providing the links.

[madfloridian]

13. A lot of us write some good stuff there....we can NOT post it anywhere else.

That is not a good suggestion.

A better one...how about posting truth?

I write a lot about the Florida Fiasco....if I put it here it would be locked.

[nashville_brook]

19. i bet you could post in the FL and MI forums.

[madfloridian]

23. I bet I don't want to do that.

GDP is terrible, but a lot of there tell truth.

The ones who don't are the ones who hurt us.

[nashville_brook]

25. it's not exactly true that you're NOT allowed to post anywhere except GD-P. you choose not to.

[madfloridian]

26. Wrong. I post a lot about the FL fiasco....it MUST go in GDP

My journals are widely read by many in FL and other states. But DU will NOT let me post them anywhere but GDP.

[varelse]

30. I make a point of reading every thread and journal entry of yours

that I can find. They're well worth reading and I'm grateful for the time you devote to composing them. The same can be said for quite a number of other regular contributors to GD:P.

The thing is... so many GD:P threads that make it to the Greatest Page and hang up on the Front of it are, shall we say... not up to your standard at all. They certainly aren't of the same caliber as the informative, thoughtful threads that attracted me to this site, as a lurker at first and then finally as an active, registered member.

Now, if we had some way to choose as individuals to "hide" GD:P threads on the greatest page the same way we can block them from showing up on the Latest page, that would be very useful for registered members. We'd still be able to see your journal updates off on the sidebar. This wouldn't of course solve one issue brought up in the OP, which is that newcomers and casual browsers of the site who aren't registered may be getting an extremely (and unfairly) negative impression of DU, which could be especially harmful if it becomes a typical first impression of this site. I'm not sure there is an easy answer to that, which doesn't bring new problems of its own. This is, after all, a highly partisan and political site by design.

Surely, there are no easy answers to this very legitimate issue which has been brought up in this thread, but perhaps just giving registered posters the option of blocking GD:P threads from their view of the Greatest page would help to minimize the impact of threads started merely to inflame the "opposing camp" and then boosted by purely partisan recs, of which there is no shortage in this heated and very close race.

[blondeatlast]

14. GD/P posts should be blocked from recs, even.

GD/P is far, far, far worse than anything that has come out of the Lounge (and I remember when sex threads were semi-okay).

It's just a popularity contest anyway and it makes us look vapid and petty and nasty and petty and vicious and ...

I heartily agree.

[nashville_brook]

18. i see GD-P and the Lounge as the matter/antimatter of each other. one is light. the other dark.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. Ya got my vote

That place is a sewer

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Add my vote to that.

In some now famous words "I fuckin' HATE" GD: P.

[nashville_brook]

17. when it's come down to that, it's time for a change.

[Blue_In_AK]

20. Yep -- I used to like to go there, but not anymore.

I wish it were next January, for so many reasons.

[nashville_brook]

21. me too -- ! make it all go away and lets start cleaning up this mess of Thing One and Thing Two.

[alittlelark]

22. GD-P belongs in the same category as 9-11 and Israel/Pal.

The sad thing is that the posts in Israel/Palestine and 9-11 are much more cogent....especially in the 9-11 dungeon.

[nashville_brook]

24. totally agree. it's not like people don't post there without the Greatest perk...

they still post...it's just more content-oriented instead of a cheerleader election.

[Wilms]

27. ,

[nashville_brook]

28. ...

[MichiganVote]

31. Pull the fucking plug on the crap. Move it to the sidelines.