So, evidently WORD has come down: "You cannot reserve the RKBA tag for your exclusive use."
Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you, as long as you engage in a civil discussion. If you're just here to disrupt or troll, expect to get a Do Not Respond (DNR) comment and then be ignored. Insults, lies, and willful ignorance will be dealt with by normal community moderation. Engaging trolls is counter-productive, and such comments should not be up-rated. Disagreement by itself is not considered trolling.
I've been here a buttload of years. Not as long as some, but a lot longer than most. I've seen (and stayed out of) pretty much every 'pie fight' that's come along.
I've also seen the question of gun control thrashed over from just about every perspective and political position. I was one of the early people arguing that Democrats and progressives would make a lot of inroads into 'red states' if we adopted a more accepting position regarding the 2nd Amendment, particularly in light of recent Supreme Court decisions.
I've engaged in civil discussion, heated philosophical debate, even a few verbal "knock down and drag out" arguments. I've seen insults traded, HRs tossed about, stalking, sock-puppetry, mutual disengagement, and even now and again a little learning and persuasion.
And now word has come down that the RKBA group does not own the "RKBA" tag. This has been the source of a fair bit of discussion this week.
Honestly, I'm not too bothered, personally, and will explain that in a moment. But this has serious ramifications for each and every little (and not so little) group here in DK4 land. This comment illustrates why:
Or worse, you could have someone write a whole mess of diaries about how smoking isn't bad for you, or some other crap. Or just pick a whole bunch of topics tangentially related to GUS and effectively tag-bomb the GUS tag. That would effectively render the tag meaningless. So, the idea that this distinction prevents screwing around with the search functionality isn't quite right.
Effectively, no group can now prohibit this from happening. It's even worse when the diary title format a group uses is emulated. Consider the full ramifications for disruption and what it means for DK4's vaunted "improvements". It is clear that this option is now available to anyone who is willing to break the site's social conventions because they are certain of the rightness of their cause/position or who just wants to be an asshole.
Now, why am I not bothered by this? Because I've had it. I've spent all the time and energy on this topic on this site I'm going to spend. Putting up with trollish comments and people spamming the RKBA diaries was bad enough. This now means that it is open season on RKBA for people who want to do nothing but disrupt. Well, folks, have fun. And know that when you drive out someone like me - someone who has been here for long years - it means that you have little or no chance of ever being able to reach out to the vast majority of gun owners who are independents but who would vote for Democrats in a heartbeat were we just more in-line with the prevailing public opinions (and SCOTUS rulings) on guns.
TTFN.
UPDATE June 25, 8:00 AM CDT: In light of the reversal of the initial decision, it seems that the structural vulnerabilities have been fixed. In view of that, I rescind my own decision to withdraw from participation in the RKBA diaries. Thanks to all who were able to maintain an appropriate tone in this diary's discussion, and thanks to those who helped make the case for reversing the initial decision.