Last edited Mon Jan 5, 2026, 03:16 PM - Edit history (2)

Huffpost decided to force people to not be anonymous. That's when I left.

he’d be chewing the furniture over these assholes.

Can't believe he's gone 12 years.

I did lurk for several months afterward before registering, though. At the time, Bartcop, Smirking Chimp, and a couple of others were the only liberal/progressive sites I'd found.

I'm sure glad I did!

Bartcop, too.

20+ years back - been here ever since.

It was chaos for me when I did. We were on vacation and I could not get a hold of my brother. Later I found out it was because he found out he had AIDS. Somewhere in there I ran into something and I read about how DU came about and "met" some cool people but was too unsure and shy to join it. It took a little while after my brother died, I don't think I posted before that. I saw it early on but did not post or join for several months as I got settled.

I will miss him forever. My other brother died 2 years ago. I am the only one left. It is creepy.

Somehow I thought things would have worked out better by now!!! Today has been particularly exhausting!

Last edited Sun Jan 4, 2026, 09:48 PM - Edit history (1)

......CSPAN Washington Journal ran phone interviews with political website owners on weekend mornings.
I heard David Allen (Skinner) and his description got me interested.
I just had dial-up then, so I waited until Monday to check things out from the network at work.
I lurked for a few weeks, the signed up.
Was early to mid-August of that year.

the Democratic Underground and Chinaco Anejo.

In 2003 or 4. Lurked until 2006 when I joined.

I kept hearing him mentioning posts from DU on his show so I started lurking here. I've been on another site, http://www.radiofreeliberal.com, for years and we had some conservatives on it. I really liked RadioFreeLiberal because you could get into some really good and mostly civil discussions. Once the Orange Turd was reelected the owner of the site banned all conservatives and now it's only for liberals. The number of people on it has fallen but I still like the people who've stuck around.

Looked at headlines from that date (10/24/2008) and find nothing that would have triggered me. I assume I fell in a hole somewhere and wound up here where some sane people were.

Later, my computer died and I struggled to get all my faves installed on the new one. It wasn’t that long ago that it occurred to me, “Hey! I haven’t thought of DU in forever!” and by golly, y’all were still here.

I heard him mention it a number of times. I was put off by the "Underground" part and was afraid it might be a whacka-doodle site like JackPineRadicals, but eventually I checked it out.

The station is still around, BTW, I think it started in 2004.

A co-worker I liked had a bumper sticker on his car with democraticunderground.com. I looked it up soon after Bush the second took office --been here ever since. Told all my friends about it too.

it was around the time I was helping on the Obama campaign (early 2007)

during the earlier Dubya years. I lurked all those years until finally having the good sense to join last year. Love this DU family and thank you, Deb, for spearheading all the fun and memory lane posts😊🩷🩷🩷

was having fun arguing with wingnuts on a local forum supplied by my dial up provider. one guy was hot for Ann Coulter - had even been in an elevator with her once
I had no clue who she was so looked her up and found her listed in a top 10 conservative idiots list here. lurked for a while then joined.

Had an account under a different screenname and loss access when changed computer during a move.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americablog

Some one came on the site and posted that republicans should go to free republic and
Liberals and Progressives should come over to DemoncraticUnderground.

I joined DU in 2002

Tikki

Alright, 🚨 my often talky self....😉

I'd been on-line since late 1995. A few times first at a net cafe; then by accident early '96 at a while heading to the magazine refence section at a major library - I glanced up and happened to see ? the Netscape Logo on the same computer also used to look up books! Oh?!

I'd been through a rough patch earlier in '95, and while the local papers were educating the public about The World Wide Web later that year, and in '96 - I'd missed the mention, or hadn't thought about the Library as providing the service!

I was looking up all kinds of interests on the library's computers when I decided In 2001 several months after GWB was in office one day to look around for Democratic leaning sites, though not the official party site, although I was always a registered Democratic.

Also somewhat soon after that in '01 I found a Big 24/7/365 day Net Cafe that didn't cost much per hour compared to others I'd used. So I think I put in "Democrat" and among the answers was DU. But bc I didn't have a computer at home - I gave it up, and forgot about it. Perhaps bc there wouldn't be that much time at a library computer to really dive in.

Fast Foward to 2016.
I'd been on line steadily through the library for nearly 2 decades. Thrilled when I got my first tablet, and the library had started to provide free internet access for tablets, smartphones at some point. For instance, I partly followed Hillary being nominated at the Dem convention on my tablet at my library!

Final Jump in 2020!
While on a music group site w off topic political sub forum: I was annoyed not enough attention was being paid to a particular memorial event.

Suddenly "Democratic Underground" popped amazingly out of the mists of my memory; 19 years later!
Oh? Nahhh, they couldn't still be around, could they??

Hahahahaaaa, surprise! Survived, and thrived!
I jumped in the very next day!
🙂👍

He live-linked to DU. He did it a lot. That's how I found my way to DU in 2001. Old and (Still) In the Way,

Alright, 🚨 my often talky self....😉

I'd been on-line since late 1995. A few times first at a net cafe;a then by accident early '96: while heading to the magazine refence section at a major library - I glanced up and happened to see ? the Netscape Logo on the same computer also used to look up books! Oh?!

I'd been through a rough patch earlier in '95, and while the local papers were educating the public about The World Wide Web later that year, and in '96 - I'd missed the mention, or hadn't thought about the Library as providing the service!

I was looking up all kinds of interests on the library's computers when I decided In 2001 several months after GWB was in office one day to look around for Democratic leaning sites, though not the official party site, although I was always a registered Democrat.

Also somewhat soon after that in '01 I found a Big 24/7/365 Day Net Cafe that didn't cost much per hour compared to others I'd used. So I think I put in "Democrat" and among the answers was DU. But bc I didn't have a computer at home - I gave it up, and forgot about it. Perhaps bc there wouldn't be that much time at a library computer to really dive in to the site. Short 1 hrs or less sessions.

Fast Foward to 2016.
I'd been on line steadily through the library for nearly 2 decades. Thrilled when I got my first tablet, and the library had started to provide free internet access for tablets, smartphones at some point. For instance, I partly followed Hillary being nominated at the Dem convention on my tablet at my library!

Final Jump in 2020!
While on a music group site w off topic political sub forum: I was annoyed not enough attention was being paid to a particular memorial event.

Suddenly "Democratic Underground" popped amazingly out of the mists of my memory; 19 years later!
Oh?
Nahhh.....they couldn't still be around, could they??

Hahahahaaaa, surprise! Survived, and thrived!
I jumped in the very next day!
🙂👍

Lefty defense worker. Back in early '03 he told me about DU. That was back in the days
of The Top Ten Conservative Idiots and the Plaid Adder. Only took me 21 years to register.

Fet Life dot com (but without the space). It's the largest social media site for people in the kink, fetish, and leather communities, straight, queer, and everyone in between.

People in the alternative sexualities communities are always targeted by authoritarian regimes. Always. The site is free to join; there are lively discussions in a context which is as anonymous as anyone wants it to be; it is privately owned by Canadians, so not bound by US laws. It's a space where folks who care are very clear-eyed about just how bad things are likely to get on the way to perhaps getting better. (That site has downsides, too - happy to DM if anyone's truly interested.)

In a political activist chat group on there, I asked where someone had learned about something they had posted in mid-Trump 1.0. They pointed me here. I lurked for several years, reading almost daily, with two main objections to registering for an account. I joined when one of those objections was addressed, with the addition of transphobia as a TOU violation.

until the posting/comments got too bitter. SC had a list of links on the side for other media, sites, and forums, and I looked at this site and liked it. I was off of DU for about a year until recently, because of the vitriol between DU'ers posted during the last "election".

She also listed Bartcop, etc.

protests back in 2011.

A fella I used to email frequently sent a link to DU and one of Randy's satirical musical take-downs and this place felt warm and welcoming. As I ventured into other topics, I felt I'd found a HOME here.

This place is my safe, SANE place on the internet.

So long ago…I lurked for years at first. We were working 2 different companies at the time and getting the homestead up north ready. Lots of time on the road listening to Air America. Didn’t have the time to get involved with a social media site, but I loved the feeling of being around like souls. Our businesses catered more to the richer people around, thats where the money was.
Signed up after Obama won.

I don't know how I discovered Bartcop, but he really opened my eyes to what was going on in this country at the time. I miss him.

I've learned so much since first coming here.

Recommended by a friend. Became must reading! That was a year or two into Shrub’s first term.
So glad I found this place. I’m never gonna be a big poster, but am very appreciative of y’all and what you’ve created here.

It used to carry DU's Top Ten Conservative Idiots. Who else remember BartCop?

Can't recall what I was searching for, but the first result listed pointed me to a post here at DU. It was like Heaven had dropped right into my lap.

especially alt.politics.clinton and alt.politics.bush

...in the historical Nader fights involved in the now understood to be disastrous 2000 election outcome that has now led to the disintegration of the United States under a partisan Supreme Court.

My name here is an abbreviation of my name there, which was NaderNadir. People kept calling me "Nader." I hated that. There were a lot of posts over there that were removed for trivial reasons connected with arbitrary rulings (some of which were issues in style) by a figure called "BoardNanny," probably a sock puppet for the owner. Someone there referenced this place so I came over, liked it, and never looked back.

I did for a time post actively at DailyKos, but I was banned there by the owner for making a true statement about energy, which is fine with me. I'm not interested in apologizing for making true statements.

DU has a far better administration, in particular connected with the brilliantly conceived jury system and MIRT on which I'm currently serving.

I have been dinged by juries as a result of my unpleasant personality, but I'm satisfied with the justice of the system.

From my perspective this, DU, is the best political blog on the internet. I'll stay here until I die.

family.