A Response to My Proposal

LibertyCzar

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Yesterday, on Digg, I made a proposal, maybe not worded just right, in order to calm the storm and to allow Ron Paul submissions to have a real chance. I had hoped that a reasonable compromise could be reached. I wanted to try being positive and open a dialogue. Here is an interesting response. What do you think? Some of these points have already been covered in this forum. I've spaced it out a little.

I believe that you have misunderstood the situation here, in part.

This has been a building situation and it has been going on for 7 weeks now. About once a week I make another comment explaining to someone exactly what is going on, what has been going on and what led to the point of a dedicated, admitted, non-partisan Bury Brigade. It has gone past the point of toning down the submissions. Many people asked, nearly begged that the submissions be lessened and instead, the RP supporters came back even stronger. People offered to stop burying stories if they were only submitted ONCE, but there has been a blatant refusal, usually accompanied by "Well if a story from one source gets buried, then we obviously need to submit it from another source so that people can see it." This is not the way Digg is supposed to work. If an article is popular, legitimate, whatever, it will make the front page. This week I've seen quite a few RP stories make the front page, so why are people still complaining about suppression? Because the same group of people who admittedly do not want to see the Ron Paul *spam* are the ones who comment and say "This is not okay with us." But again, that is unacceptable.

Personally, I'm tired of being called a traitor, anti-constitution, afraid of Ron Paul, a neo con (check my history), a paid shill, a race baiter, a troll... there are so many words that get thrown around. No discussion or debate is allowed because, in the minds of his supporters, Ron Paul can do no wrong and scientific polls are less accurate that voluntary internet polls. I'm tired of people who exhibit their lack of political savvy (I would even go so far as to call it blatant political ignorance) claim to know better than people who have been discussing and debating politics long before Ron Paul tossed his hat in the ring. I'm tired of dedicated research being dismissed as "race baiting", biased sources or "Why do you hate America?" There is no compromise to be had because Ron Paul's supporters are not interested in compromise. There is too much blame and too much entitlement in the ranks for enough people to agree to it.

Instead, I will tell you the "demands" of the Bury Brigade (as I see it, I think I'm close) and you can tell me if we're being unreasonable.
1) A cease-fire of links to links to links to stories. Only submit the original source - ONE TIME.
2) Actual content within submissions. No more one paragraph submissions of how the media is supressing Ron Paul. We know you think it and it makes a better comment than a submission in and of itself.
3) An end to the duplicates. Seriously, sometimes you can't help but duplicate, but when the same story is submitted 4 or 5 or 8 times, that's when people start attacking.
4) Stop flooding unrelated stories with "Go Ron Paul" comments. It is possible for the entire rest of the world to discuss the hot-topic issues of the day without bringing their candidate into it. Can you try to learn to do that, too?
5) Stop assuming that you're being attacked just because someone disagrees with something your candidate said or because people don't support your candidate. It is not a personal attack on you, it is a personal preference and, being such strong supporters of the Constitution, you ALL should support their rights to have a differening opinion. I think those are the primary ones. I'm sure I missed a few, but I'm also sure that my fellow Brigadeers will put in their $.02 I bet you'll find most of "our side" willing to compromise, but completely unwilling to concede. Unfortunately, I have not seen any kind of penchant for reasonable behavior coming from the majority of "your side".​
 
The "bury brigade" hate Ron Paul, they are going to bury articles on him no matter what. I would rather just see them banned because what they are doing is against Digg's rules.
 
I would too. But the thing is, in the meantime, good submissions are buried. And they have a slight point. Is it wrong to want to be civil with one another? Then if something happens, it will be them that are dealt with, and looked upon as fringe, not us.
 
I'm an outsider to the whole Digg thing, but a couple of their points seem valid. Who would want to see the same article posted 10 times? And I could see it being annoying if there are non-political articles full of political comments.

I visit a sports-boards site and we have a STRICT no politics policy. Any thread that turns political gets immediately tossed. I actually prefer it that way. If I want politics I'll be here or many other political forums, but if I'm doing my sports thing, I don't want it cluttered with politics. The site has a separate political forum and all the same members can go their for their discussions, I agree, leave politics in a political forum, discussion, topic.
 
I wish Digg would divide its US Elections section into separate candidate subsections. That would solve a lot. Maybe submissions would have to reach 100 Diggs to become popular. If we knew the submissions weren't being summarily buried, we could actually have some restraint in deciding what to digg. Then the Bury Brigade would have little excuse. Much of the material the Bury Brigade complain about would be vetted.
 
I think he has a lot of valid points. Is the 'bury brigade' not blowback for the uncouth behavior of a few over-zealous Ron Paul supporters?

We're not totally in the wrong, but we're going to have to come to some kind of cease-fire with these people.
 
I agree.

Unfortunately, the few overzealous feel like they are being stifled if they can't support RP "their way" even when it harms RP.

I think Failor is scum of the earth, but I agree with campaign HQ that calling the man's home (if it happened) was well over the line. Some people would say his behavior was over the line, again there is no question the man is pond scum, however there is a right way and a wrong way to fix this crap.

It seems like the Digg situation is more of the same - I have seen plenty of people openly abusing the Digg ToS because they feel like the ends (promoting Ron Paul) justifies it.

Similar things go on Youtube. Certainly it is fair to be critical of other candidates videos, and point out lies, inconsistencies, or unconstitutional stands. However, when there is another cadidates video, and more than half of the comments are "Go Ron Paul 08!" I am sorry such behavior does not win converts and I believe lessens the likelihood of someone investigating RP other than to possibly try to find information to make him look bad.

Again I think discussing the video, and even throwing in a "Go Ron Paul!" at the end is fine - but repeated comments of "Go Ron Paul!" multiple times and nothing else of substance - imo - hurts the cause.

Am I trying to dictate? NO!
Is everyone free to continue doing such things? ABSOLUTELY and OF COURSE.

But I AM trying to convince, as a brother-in arms, if you will - that this type of behavior is not a net positive for us.
 
I think that some of the articles get posted several times because the digger's bury them asap and then they get posted again.
 
I think that some of the articles get posted several times because the digger's bury them asap and then they get posted again.
That might be the case now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it weren't the case originally. These sort of things tend to escalate out of control. Each side trying to retaliate and counter the actions of the other side. It gets messy real quick, and no one remembers the original problems and situations anymore.
 
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