We're putting out the welcome mat for all you new folks!

Welcome to C99! It's great to see you!

welcome matOver the past couple of days, a deluge of people suddenly signed up for the site, over 100 of them in a 2 hour period.

We had no idea you all were going to drop in all at once and it caught our server by surprise. We've upgraded to a new server with more bandwidth and so far everything looks good.

The person to thank for this quick migration of the site is Johnny the Conqueroo (JtC). He is the one-man tech department that brought this site into existence and has very ably made it work for everybody. Please give him a round of applause.

This site is a labor of love, not a profit-making venture (note the lack of advertisements) it is funded by the contributions of folks who hang out here. At the point when we need money to pay for more bandwidth or if we need to make other additions or alterations to the site to accommodate more users, JtC will post a donation button.

Since so many of you seem to be coming here from that Orange place, we thought that maybe a word or two about the site to help orient you guys might be a good idea. There's an FAQ that presents the basics of how to navigate the site and do some basic things, most of which will be pretty intuitive and simple for folks coming from the GOS.

There are some significant differences between this site and the Great Orange Satan.

This is not a partisan site. This site does not endorse any candidate or ask that anyone support a candidate or party.

Like the Occupy movement from which the name of this site derives (many of the early members of the site were active members and supporters of Occupy) we are open to people with all kinds of different ideas about how to make the world a better place. The folks already here represent a broad range of left-leaning to far-left orientations. While community standards here are against things like various "isms" that can make the world an ugly place (racism, sexism, etc.) the community is open to a wide range of ideas on how to make the world a better, peaceful and sustainable place.

This is a site for grown-up people to discuss politics, social organization, culture and related topics as we build a community.

Grown-ups do not feel so threatened by a diversity of opinion that they feel the need to attack people who think differently or mobilize socially manipulative actions to harrass, isolate and exile people with whom they disagree.

So, for those of you coming from the GOS, yes you can say, for example, that you will vote for Jill Stein or Vermin Supreme rather than Mrs. Goldwater-Sachs if the Democratic Party apparatus manages to shove Bernie Sanders out of the way. There are even greater possibilities of the sorts of things that folks might want to discuss here that are foreclosed by the partisan orientation of other sites.

There are no HR's here, no roving gangs of self-appointed censors (we do have moderators who are committed to keeping a free and open dialogue on the site), there is no mojo, nor are their badges of distinction. Nobody keeps track of how many "likes" people get on their posts and liking a post itself is anonymous, so there is no reason to "like" a post except to show that somebody likes the ideas expressed in it (as opposed to the individual posting it).

There is no way to "win the site," except by having good ideas, expressing them well and being kind to other people, which curries their respect.

The coin of the realm here is kindness and articulate discussion of your point of view which respects other people's ideas. Discussions that are characterized by the coherent exposition of evidence, facts, logic and reason which honor the bonds of friendship that hold us together are what this community thrives on.

So, welcome, we hope that you thrive in the less constrained, friendlier atmosphere here.

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joe shikspack's picture

it's good to see you. i think a lot of us have the scars to show for dust-ups at the gos, you're in good company.

welcome, pull up a chair and settle in.

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hester's picture

Thank you for the welcome. Glad to be here.

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Don't believe everything you think.

joe shikspack's picture

enjoy the site.

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Thanks for the welcome. For nearly 10 years I was mostly a lurker on DKOS. The first couple of years I wasn't a member there, but I knew it was time to sign up when I felt compelled to join in the discussion during the 2007/2008 time frame. Since then I visited the site multiple times pretty much every day to keep up with goings on. I knew it was time to leave DKOS at the end of this past week. I posted a comment saying that I have neither forgotten nor forgiven the behavior of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, and someone responded saying that because President Obama had forgiven HRC, I was being disrespectful to the President by not following suit. The comment had some other nonsense about the problems with the Sanders "team." I was so angry! Seriously, if I had been a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of my ears. I kept composing/updating responses periodically throughout the day, but in the end, I never posted any of them. I realized my feelings involved much more than just that response to my comment. I feel let down in many ways. I haven't been back to DKOS since that day, and I don't plan to return. I'm happy to have this alternative. Thank you.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

I knew it was time to leave DKOS at the end of this past week. I posted a comment saying that I have neither forgotten nor forgiven the behavior of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, and someone responded saying that because President Obama had forgiven HRC, I was being disrespectful to the President by not following suit. The comment had some other nonsense about the problems with the Sanders "team." I was so angry! Seriously, if I had been a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of my ears.

Sounds about right. The Hillarites on DK have shown that there is no bar too low for them to stoop to.

I went back there late this afternoon to discover that my essay about situations there, which had been clearly labeled as unsuitable for publication there, had been cross-posted there anyway. And the various names I was called for having told the Cat's honest truth were, shall we charitably call them, colorful.

I maintained reasonable blood pressure levels by meditating on Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous line: "I welcome their hatred!"

So welcome to the New World, debrarian!

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

to work published here, as clearly stated
at the bottom of each page.

If someone republished your piece -
beyond fair use excerpts - to a for-profit
site without your permission at the very
least you have every right to demand
that the owner of that site, who is now
claiming ownership of it (and is profiting
from said claimed ownership) to take it
down.

I personally would also have a little talk
with whoever republished it without
permission.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

thanatokephaloides's picture

The question, of course, is that of "fair use". The entire document wasn't re-posted, just enough to get me in (further) dutch with the folks over there. And DK doesn't claim ownership of materials published there.

What my little disclaimer does get me is that no one can fault me for what it said, as I never put any of it there, nor did I authorize anyone else to do so.

But thank you for the reminder about who owns my work posted here -- that's a great thing to know!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Thanks for creating this place. I see a lot of familiar names! It looks much more welcoming here--I haven't been commenting much lately at The Other Place because of how hateful it has become.

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WindDancer13's picture

I had planned for some months to move on from Tang World because of all the battling. If I wanted that in my life, I would have stayed married. In my search for a new place, I came across a lot of sites that sounded interesting but when I checked on them, they did not feel comfortable. This place--in part, probably, because of all the familiar names--feels comfortable. Besides, I really like blue. = )

As for growing up, I have some anger I now have to deal with over the treatment of people and the segregation that I saw over there, and it may take me a week to not do or say anything that might embarrass me or others.

Thanks for the lovely welcome.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

rezolution's picture

I was new at DK (5 weeks) and now I'm new here, want to say it's nice seeing voices here that became familiar over the weeks. Never did get enough mojo there to flog people, but I'm not into the whips and stuff anyway. Thanks C99, for the warm welcome given to everybody. I shall now resume lurking.

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piranha's picture

I never really considered That Other Site my home because just when I started to get comfortable, the miserable 2007/8 primary season rolled around, and all hell broke loose. I completely agree with whoever else here said that they have never forgiven Hillary and her supporters their vicious behaviour. Obama is probably the bigger man anyway, but he also had to work with her, so it's not like he had a choice. I, however, did. It's not all fun and games when you hurt the feelings of real people by being cruel. I didn't exactly carry an active grudge (too mellow for it), but I never really trusted the peace after that, and just sort of turtled up. In some ways the willful dog whistling struck me as worse than garden variety, "grew up with it", unexamined racism, because it was done on purpose, with full knowledge of what it did. Perfidious.

Which brings us to now. Yeah, different bat channel, same bat shit. And this time things are worse in one sense because the site owner is in on it, talking out of the side of his mouth how much he dislikes the vitriol while stirring it up in the same diary -- but I've run large community sites myself, I know that one can stop vitriol if one wants to, and without tying it artificially to anything else. So, enough. I don't need that noise in my life; I'm too old to waste my time. And this is the last time I'll be talking about it, it just had to come out once.

But while He That Shall Not Be Named didn't do this to do me any favours, serendipity struck. You lovely people had this place all ready, and it looks like much more of a home. And the subreddit Mahakali set up allowed me to blow off some steam, and then I found the SandersForPresident subreddit, which is like, all practical activism, all the time, superbly organized, and now I am DOING more instead of fighting pie fights, and it is so much better.

A window closed, but several doors opened. Am I lucky, or what.

Hi. I am pleochroic on that other site, and piranha everywhere else on the net. I'm older than dirt, trans, gay, polyamorous, atheist, fat (and happy), owned by cats and miss being owned by dogs, born and raised in Europe, lived in the US for 15 years, now in Canada, with one partner here and the other in the US. I'm by profession a programmer, but mostly work as a boat builder. Nice to meet y'all!

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I lurked around that other site (you all know which one) for a couple years but had only recently signed up because of Bernie.After getting more involved it was clear there was an hrc bias and well with the recent new rules it was obvious.so I hope to hang out here and look forward to helping with the real progressive movement.

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Thanks so much for accommodating us Kos refugees!

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Beat Trump with Bernie!

zed2's picture

They are great. And great fun.

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