'humanitarian and social justice issues to tackle difficult and challenging issues' you have in mind?

Sometimes, with challenging issues both sides have their pluses and minuses. And it’s hard to get past the finger pointing, when one does legitimate grievances. When that happens , is hard to self examine ourselves, fears, and anger.

I don’t want to give specific examples due to that.

Thanks for your input.

You’d have to start your own, at Wordpress or something like that.

With moderating posts and giving things to a jury, I find it’s helpful.

By limiting the forum to only those who join, then we would agree to stretch ourselves beyond our long held positions .
Thus, we agree to enter a space that may be uncomfortable, but we support one another.


I’m on BlueSky and Substack. So I do find the dialogue on those sites to be more expansive and inquisitive,


Thanks for your input, that’s why I posted. I want to hear opinions .

General Discussion banned Israel-Palestine discussions, and still do, in the "About" page.

At one point, they were allowed and still are.

Do you feel that rules should be better honored?

From what I see, there are indeed closed forums (for administrative stuff) so it's apparently doable, but as far as keeping it harmonious, I don't know. I never taught kindergarten.

Just Kidding,

I hope.

I was not aware that certain topics are now banned. Can you direct me to those rules?

I agree with the DU rules. It’s difficult and I support DU. It’s tough because people have different perspectives.

What I propose is a place for people who want to challenge and question their own positions and help others do the same.

We would do this with kindness and respect. This may be for a small group of people.

There’s a communication strategy called “ Having difficult conversations” It started out as a HR tool to address performance or behavioral issues in the workplace. I think the strategy can be adapted to a forum.

I’m optimistic about humans and our capacity to learn and grow. And I know that I have the skill set to help advance this effort.

Thanks for commenting.

The example given is that the recent war in Gaza is wider than the limited scope that existed before the current war.

I think that you can find what you seek in existing groups. Ever tried to scan the list?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

Other than that, go to the top of each forum to read "About this forum", and it has the particulars. Like banned topics.

The TOS should cover civility (ahem) but it's up to users to alert. I have won all cases except one or two that didn't matter.

When one post was removed, I posted an OP entitled "Post Removed" with a picture of a post remover, like you would use in your garden. It survived the critics.



Post removed. Good luck and happy DU'ing.

replicating GD, but you're aiming for "a true community of respect, intellect and caring."

Something you apparently visualize as an elite "restricted" forum.

With you setting those restrictions?

You asked if you "can make it restricted to only those who want to join it" - but every forum here consists of people who want to join it. Nobody's forced to post anywhere here.

If you mean, Can I make it private? - that would cause all sorts of problems. Starting with the precedent of letting any DU member use the board to form a private club. Which would have others making similar requests. Which would splinter this community.

Now, as for why I'd guess you're making this request... You posted an OP slamming younger musicians today, and another DUer pointed out the bias:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220596991

You didn't respond there, but this request for your own "restricted" forum looks like a reaction to someone pointing out you had made much too broad a statement in your OP.

There weren't any further replies after that objection was made. Is that what you meant by muting in what you said here?

You weren't being muted. You could have continued the discussion.