I backed way off this site when Detocqueville got banned. His parting words left me rattled, about how this site has gone and how the admins have been behaving lately.
One solution to a problem many old timers see (though not all) might be to abolish the Trusted User system entirely.
There is too much focus these days about "the rules" and who is in and who is out, and who's a troll and who's not. There are wicked and naive self-proclaimed diary police and just plain mean people lurking in every thread, every diary.
Let's lessen the emphasis on status and draconian rules. Can we at least get ride of the Hide Rating all together?
I used to think the Troll Rating and then the Hide Rating were effective and should be used MORE often as a way to promote vigorous debate and support civil dialog. Instead, any time someone gets a TR or HR now, there are cascading threads upon threads about meta issues about fairness or not, etc., that just kill useful dialog. So someone gave a donut - big fucking deal - eat it and move on.
So just get rid of it.
It is however fun to see certain comments rack up ridiculous recommends points, but let's face it, just like the Howard Dean baseball bats during fundraising pushes, the point is just to watch the numbers and see who's on the site and recommending. So leave the fun part and get rid of the crap part.
Let's have just one button option - make it for TU's only if you must - and make it only a positive button. Make it "Me Likey" or "Yeah!" or "A Point For You!" or whatever. Then the only decision is to say something nice, or say nothing at all.
It might contribute to a more civil tone here.
Finally, this is not the only progressive or Democratic major site on the Internet, folks. There are countless quality blogs: Talking Points Memo, Docudharma, The Daily Tocque, The Huffington Post, Media Matters, you name it. This place is not the epicenter of progressive online dialog.
Just something to think about. And an humble suggestion submitted for your consideration.
And thank you for your support.