Even though this is a meta diary, I am not looking for a "fight." I'm tired of fighting and if you want to pick one with me, don't bother, you win, you can have it. I really want to know how either spot-on or off-base my suspicions are that centrists and right wing members of this site is closing ranks and looking to squeeze out the lefties here.
(When I use the term "left," "centrist" and "right" it is within the context of the Democratic party, not the political spectrum at large.)
I've been here several years and during most of that time, there has been a continuing rift between "pragmatists" and "idealists," which turned into "roxxers" and "suxxors" which is, as it's always been, a rift between the left wing of the Democratic party versus the centrists and right wing of the Democratic party.
Recent events ... like this site's owner calling the left "angry, fringy haters" and another diarists's "Why are you here" screed not to mention the recent bannings of some people who have been here for YEARS, tells a much larger story. One poster, who has been here for something like 8 years, has never been NRd, or had a time out, and the few HRd comments she's had never actually resulted in hidden comments, just received a one year NR sentence for uprating an insult.
Seriously?
A YEAR?
For uprating an insult. If everyone who ever uprated an insult were NRd for a year, NO ONE would be able to rec or hide a comment. And even though the whole ratings system is poison and fosters these pie wars (see Pluto's writings on the topic), it's an uneven punishment where some get hammered with penalties way more fiercely than others.
Without going into specifics, the recent dust-up which resulted in over 30 people receiving NR "punishments," self included, three bannings, and then two more people getting year-long NRs, is a clear sign to me that this site is raking up the dead leaves off the lawn in preparation for this site backing the inevitable nominee. Granted, some of the 30 recently NRd were on the centrist/right side of the spectrum, but the harshest punishments were given only to those on the left, and some people who were truly deserving of some type of sanction received none at all.
Who here thinks that that imposing a year-long NR sanction on someone who's never even had a hidden comment before is fair, or just or reasonable?
Meanwhile, there are well-known posters here who do nothing but troll diaries on certain topics (NSA/Snowden/Greenwald, for example) and they are allowed to seed this site with their derision and division with impunity.
I recently made one comment in a blog that was HRd for "DBAD trolling." ONE COMMENT, made to a poster with whom I agreed, constitutes trolling now.
You can look at my comment history and see which one was recently hidden and by whom, and see the comment and the previous comments before that, and decide for yourselves.
It was never my intention to BE A DICK or TROLL when I made ONE COMMENT defending someone who was recently banned and not here to defend herself.
I was told that because I ignored previous comments in that diary, I had lost my bearings. Since when are we not allowed to choose when, and to whom, we comment in any given diary without being accused of "dissembling" or having "lost bearings?" How is that not being a dick?
Anyway, I just wanted to unload and get a sense of what others of you are thinking on this topic. Am I way off base here or is there a concerted effort to drive the left wing out this blog? By the way, the left wing here was always on board with the site's mission, electing more and better democrats although with the emphasis on better.
4:34 PM PT: CORRECTION: Where I wrote "One poster, who has been here for something like 8 years, has never been NRd, or had a time out, and the few HRd comments she's had never actually resulted in hidden comments, just received a one year NR sentence for uprating an insult."
She did not uprate an insult, she HIDE RATED an insult. That's even more insane, to receive a YEAR LONG NR sanction for hide-rating an insult!