What would you change about DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Make it an app

[Anonymous]

The demographics. It too full of limousine liberals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kind of indication as to where people are posting from. Even just the country would be helpful. At the beginning of Covid I really feel that the political and health forums were both taken over by foreign trolls and it really hurt the character of both forums.

If they are trolls enough they can override that. I think.

Most people are too stupid to realize how to use VPNs.

The other issue is that DC, and therefore DCUM, is the largest hub of international families outside of NYC in U.S. simply by our sheer diplomatic presence. All of them are fluent in English.

Its not so much psy-ops as people being assholes I think. But also yeah - there are a lot of foreign trolls on these boards. Especially in politics.

Jeff doesn’t allow people to use VPNs.

How does Jeff keep people from using VPNs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have one kid in private and one in public - I read, and post in, both the private school forum and the public school forum.

+1 Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The demographics. It too full of limousine liberals.

Posted by a radical right Haha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to see the addition of a military / military family forum. DC is so central for DOD personnel that I think there’d be a good market for it. Nothing exists right now to get and share info anonymously. There are FB pages for different military bases, but obviously that’s not a place to post without being known, and there’s also the issue of posting something (about plans to retire or looking for info about a new location before an assignment is announced) that you don’t necessarily want to publicly share with people in your chain of command or your neighbors.

I’d love to be able to discuss things like retirement, promotion woes, post-retirement jobs in DC, finding housing, Tricare and insurance, spouse employment issues, and different duty stations. Not that DCUM should be the answer to the issue but I think it’d be a good fit and welcome addition to have a military board.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to see the addition of a military / military family forum. DC is so central for DOD personnel that I think there’d be a good market for it. Nothing exists right now to get and share info anonymously. There are FB pages for different military bases, but obviously that’s not a place to post without being known, and there’s also the issue of posting something (about plans to retire or looking for info about a new location before an assignment is announced) that you don’t necessarily want to publicly share with people in your chain of command or your neighbors.

I’d love to be able to discuss things like retirement, promotion woes, post-retirement jobs in DC, finding housing, Tricare and insurance, spouse employment issues, and different duty stations. Not that DCUM should be the answer to the issue but I think it’d be a good fit and welcome addition to have a military board.

+1

I think this is an excellent idea. Have you posted this in website feedback?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I enjoy and appreciate this forum for the most part. Here are a few things I would change:

1) I would like posts from people who, if not trolls, post the same thing, using the same language, in every thread, even if the posts aren't relevant, to be removed when reported.
2) I wouldn't mind a forum that was just for support, where no judging is allowed. Every time I vow to quit this forum, it is after reading a post from a struggling person who clearly is looking for empathy get judged and torn apart by vicious DCUMers.

+1

Long overdue. Moms need support.

Lifetime ban for the fragile people who hate that they can't post about how horrible they are without getting called on it.

-1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Archiving old posts. I’ll see one asking for advice, read the OP and the last few responses and respond . THEN realize that the post is over a year old, and someone revived it and it’s no longer relevant

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Archiving old posts. I’ll see one asking for advice, read the OP and the last few responses and respond . THEN realize that the post is over a year old, and someone revived it and it’s no longer relevant

+1

Jesus yes. Sometimes the thread is 5 years old.

[Anonymous]

I wish it was local again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ban the words "stupid" and "idiot" and the phrase, "try to keep up".

Or STFU because posters are limited in their communication skills. Or can't tolerate a differing opinion. At least ban them for a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make it an app

+1 would love something that's easier to use on my phone. Also +1 on customizable recent topics listing, indication of location (maybe it's "anonymous--VA" etc), locking threads after a year, separate Covid forum like the separate Politics forum that doesn't get sucked into recent topics, do something about the insanity long quotes of previous posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Archiving old posts. I’ll see one asking for advice, read the OP and the last few responses and respond . THEN realize that the post is over a year old, and someone revived it and it’s no longer relevant

+1

Jesus yes. Sometimes the thread is 5 years old.

I think the old threads should just be deleted rather than locked. Here is my reasoning: the only reason to preserve them is if they provide useful info.* Old threads generally don't. In the meantime, textual identification software is becoming more and more sophisticated, and what feels anonymous now probably isn't long-term, given a large enough corpus of posts and sufficiently sophisticated AI to differentiate authors. Look at the (shoddily done, and methodologically weak) Brookings study, and now imagine 10-20 years of old threads in the hands of an organization that is actively malevolent rather than just clueless about good methodology in nature.

IMO with a large enough body of old threads to mine, DCUM posters -- many of whom have posted deeply personal things -- will be identified some day. There is already excellent textual analysis software available, and it will only improve.

* It's possible Jeff gets some revenue from the old threads too though my guess is that it is not as much as recent threads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The demographics. It too full of limousine liberals.

Not limousine, but wanna be "limousine", more like beer liberals with champagne taste!