February

Fixed again and I'm going to bed.

Broken Again. I tried to fix a problem with the Nanny Forums and something went wrong. Working on it now.

This evening I was doing some maintenance on the database cluster when suddenly an error message appeared and the forums stopped working. The cluster consists of four nodes and two of them had crashed completely and two were in a not-working state. I tried several times to bring the cluster back up, but what appears to be a corrupt file prevented that. I am now restoring yesterday's backup. Unfortunately, since backups are done at night, any post or thread from about 4 am Friday morning will be lost.

UPDATE: The DCUM Forums are back up but are working very slowly. Posting is very slow. The page times out but the posts actually go through. Please don't resubmit because that will cause duplicate posts. Recent Topics also doesn't seem to be working. 

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Who are these families with household incomes of $45k or $60k? $70k?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster cites the salary levels mentioned in the thread's title as being necessary to received college financial aid. He is surprised that anyone with a child of college age would have such incomes and wonders who they are. Before this thread even had three replies it was reported to me by someone suggesting that it be removed. I believe that person's concern was that thread would result in bashing poor people. If so, such fears were misplaced. Instead, the thread is mostly posters criticizing the original poster for lacking intelligence and providing examples of those who earn salaries at such levels. The most frequent example was probably single parents. Many posters provided stats showing average incomes which demonstrated that the original poster was very out of touch with salary levels. Quite a few posters described their own personal experiences of either growing up in such a household or living in one now. This is an interesting corrective to the prevailing perception that DCUM posters are all well off. One poster, who said he owned a business, described using loopholes to keep his reported income low and qualify for aid. Needless to say, this did not go over well with many posters.

Earlier this month one of the most active threads that I discussed was focused on articles in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School's student newspaper describing drug use in the school's bathrooms. In that thread, parents demanded that something be done about the problem. It turns out that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), did do something. The school system restricted access to the bathrooms. The most active thread yesterday, titled, "Bathroom security announcement" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum, was about that policy change. Generally, posters were in agreement that these restrictions are a bad idea. Some posters described the policy change as "collective punishment" which was unfair and would be ineffective. Many parents said that it would be harmful to students who had medical needs for unfettered bathroom access and menstruating girls. However, there was strong disagreement about what should be done instead of restricting bathroom access. As I have written before, the MCPS forum has a contigent that strongly supports the return of School Resource Officers (SROs), police officers stationed in schools. Other posters are not convinced that armed police officers raiding school bathrooms is the solution. Whenever someone mentions SROs, a poster or posters immediately bring up the failure of police at Parkland and Uvalde. Those schools were mentioned so frequently in this thread that one could be forgiven for thinking they were MCPS schools. Several posters complained that the school security guards don't do anything to stop kids vaping or using drugs in the bathrooms and want these employees to enforce school rules. Others who responded see the bathroom issue in the context of greater societal issues which should be addressed, particularly gun control (there have been a number of gun-related incidents in MCPS schools including a shooting in a school bathroom). It is unlikely that this will be the end of the bathroom controversy so this is probably not going to be the last thread on the topic about which I write.

It continues to be college admission season which means that threads about college admissions continue to dominate the "most active threads" list. Yesterday's most active thread was one example. Titled, "UVA EA Stats" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the original post consists almost entirely of a link to a blog post by a University of Virginia Associate Dean which provides University of Virginia Early Action admission statistics. The one consistent characteristic of college application threads is the conviction by posters that the procedures are unfair and biased against them. In this case, posters are convinced that northern Virginia is not sufficiently represented in UVA admissions which, they believe, favor applicants from other parts of Virginia. This highlights one of the great contradictions I've come across from reading DCUM. Starting at an early age, many DCUM posters begin plotting their child's course to a prestigious college. If they plan on using public schools, they choose a neighborhood that feeds to top schools, follow school developments like a bloodhound on a raccoon's trail, make sure their kids check all the right boxes for extracurricular activities and take all the correct high school classes. But, then, come college application time they suddenly become convinced that this is all working against them. They come to believe that every other kid in their high-achieving high school, indeed every kid in every high school in the neighboring area, has the same qualifications as their kid. Moreover, just as in the case of Lake Wobegon, all of them are above average. Far above average to hear them tell it. The idea that some of these students, particularly if that student is the poster's child, might be turned down for admission while an applicant from rural southwestern Virginia is accepted simply cannot be countenanced. As such, this thread mostly consists of posters arguing that northern Virginia is being mistreated, other posters trying to convince those posters this is not the case, and a third group of posters who can't pop popcorn fast enough while they intentionally stir the pot or simply stand back and enjoy the show. This basically continues for 15 pages so far.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "SOTU Thread" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Created to discuss last night's State of the Union address delivered by President Joe Biden, the thread managed to produce 15 pages of discussion in less than 18 hours. With posts being created at that pace and needing to sleep for many of those hours, there was really no way for me to keep up with this thread. Most of my exposure was in response to reports of inappropriate posts. I was interested in how widespread participation in this thread was and, based on a quick analysis it appears that there were nearly fifty posters who contributed to the thread. Of those, five posted more than ten times including three who posted more than twenty times each. Based on what I've read, the thread is a combination of play-by-play discussion of the speech as it takes place, analysis and commentary on various points, discussion of audience behavior, and lots of talk about fashion. The thread also included discussion of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' response. DCUM has a liberal-leaning audience so it is no surprise that Biden generally received good marks while Sanders left a lot to be desired. However, conservative posters on DCUM are generally very vocal and frequently dominate threads due to repeated posting. But, it appears that last night even they struggled to find ways to spin things in their favor. Pickings were so slim for them that at one point the best they could do was fixate on Jill Biden kissing Douglas Emhoff as they greeted each other. Sadly for them, even KissGate was fairly short-lived. The highlight of the evening for many was a bit of political rope-a-dope by Biden who accused Republicans of wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare, only be met by an avalanche of boos and jeers from Republicans. Biden adroitly welcomed the unanimity around protecting those programs declared them off the table. It was an amazing hoisting of Republicans on their own petard.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "The 'White People Are Mosquitoes' Video in FCPS" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. The right-wing has perfected the art of manufactured outrage. This is particularly true around school issues, this thread being one example. The original poster launches things with the falsehood that, in the video, "white people are mosquitos". This is not only falsely stated in her subject line, but repeated in the body of her post. The video neither says nor implies that the mosquitos represent white people. The video twice says that microaggressions are mosquito bites, but the mosquitos themselves are not identified beyond merely being mosquitos. Since anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, is capable of committing a microagression, there is no basis for the original poster's allegation. Second, the original poster says that the video suggests that minorities "reasonably could engage in violence against white people". This is also misleading. To repeat, the mosquitos don't represent "white people". Moreover, to interpret the part of the video in which the narrator says that microaggressions can be so annoying that it makes "you want to go ballistic" as condoning violence requires a certain amount of willful ignorance. In reality, the video is a creative attempt to communicate the harm potentially caused by microaggressions. Whether the reaction to the video by the original poster is an authentic fear that white people are the real victims of efforts to combat racism or just a manufactured reaction based on political partisanship is not clear. But one thing that is clear is that the performative outrage around school issues mostly gets oxygen due to social media platforms including, in its limited role, DCUM. I am not at all comfortable with our forums being used in such a manner. As this thread ultimately demonstrates, the original poster's attempt to portray white people as victims is immediately exploited as a justification for racism by white people. Which, if not the actual goal of the thread, was an easily foreseeable outcome.

The most active thread yesterday that has not already been discused was titled, "How often do you think applicants lie about their race?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. This is another in an almost endless series of race-obsessed college threads. The original poster, noting that race and ethnicity information on college applications is self-reported, wonders how often applicants lie about their race. The poster could collect just as accurate data by throwing a dart at a dart board. There is really no way to trust the responses posted in the thread, many of which appear to be agenda-driven or are second-hand and likely to be more of urban myths than fact. Many posters who clearly have no idea what the answer to the original poster's question might be, simply urge others to lie or warn against doing so. Justifications for lying include the posters' opinions that the current system is broken and that posters believe that lying on an application is not illegal. Those warning against lying suggest that doing so is fraud and that admissions could be rescinded. Some posters claim that lying is common while others point out that, if this were true, the reported number of minorities on campuses would be higher. I don't know whether topics such as this bring out the worst in people or simply bring out the worst people. Either way, these threads almost always end up reflecting poorly on our website.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Chinese balloon flying" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Obviously this thread is about the Chinese surveillance balloon that has been flying over the US the past couple of days. The most revealing aspect of this thread is the large number of Chinese surveillance balloon experts that post on DCUM. The thread is literally full of them. Every single one of these "experts" blames the Biden administration for not immediately shooting down the balloon. The Biden administration's explanation that the military has disabled the balloon's ability to transmit any information of value and that shooting it down would present dangers to people and property on the ground is far from satisfactory to this group. China would not allow a US balloon to float unmolested over its territory they argue. Probably true. China does not share the US's concerns about the safety of its citizens and would likely be willing to sacrifice a few in order to make a political gesture. For many posters, this was simply further evidence that President Joe Biden is in the pocket of Chinese communists. For others it provided evidence for their latest conspiracy theory. For all the hyperventilating going on in this thread, the balloon didn't elicit much more than a shoulder shrug from actual experts — some of whom are quoted in the thread. Those experts were mostly  confused given that China could obtain equally good intelligence from its satellites. One salient topic that did come up in the thread was the amount of US farmland China has been purchasing. A number of posters found this to be much more concerning than the balloon.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Magnet application result High School" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. There are a few annual traditions that we have come to observe on DCUM. These include the college and university admissions season (which seems never-ending this year), private school admissions, and admissions to various public school programs. Those involved in these events follow them with all the intensity of a football fan whose favorite team is in the SuperBowl. The only thing missing is recipes for taco salad being posted as folks prepare for their parties (though to be fair, the parties are also missing). This thread was started back on January 31 with the original poster simply asking when the results for magnet high school admission would be available. Posters responded both with answers that had been communicated by MCPS and by relating past experiences. As expected release dates and times came and went, nerves got a little frazzled and some harsh words were exchanged, but that was just a warm up for the main event. The thread added 20 pages once the results started arriving yesterday. Parents who received notification let others know where the results could be found and posted, either in joy or disappointment, about how their children had fared. As I've mentioned when discussing similar threads, almost nobody is happy with selection policies these days. One poster was convinced that there was social engineering going on to limit certain groups and create diversity. Many posters objected to this allegation and argued that the current system is an improvement on what had been used in the past. Moreover, the poster's vague allegations left many of those who responded confused about exactly what the poster was complaining. The same poster later suggested that Asian boys were being denied opportunties in favor of non-Asian males with worse qualifications. This was met with responses saying that the admissions process is race blind. Regardless, this poster would not give up and repeatedly posted fact-free posts claiming that Asian boys were being discriminated against.

The most active thread yesterday was a bit of an odd ball. Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Country Music Songs to Get a Country Hater to Like Country", the original poster lists a few country songs that she plans to play for someone who "refuses to like country". She invites additional suggestions. I haven't replied in this thread, but I should because I am sort of an expert on this topic. I am married to someone who refuses to like country music and I've managed to get her to attend multiple country concerts and she has even learned to like some of the artists. In that regard, I consider this thread to be a total failure because not one person suggested Steve Earle. Admittedly, his catalog is so large that narrowing it down to a song or two is not easy. Despite this glaring flaw, there are a number of good suggestions in the thread though I think that in many cases posters simply resorted to listing their own favorite country acts with no regard to how a country music hater would respond. Many posters rightly suggested avoiding "the twang", but equally important in my opinion is to avoid steel guitars. While I personally enjoy the instrument, I think it can be triggering to those who don't like country music. Some of the suggestions with which I agree are Kacey Musgraves, though I would stick to her first two albums, and Jason Isbell. Of course, Johnny Cash should go without saying. Overall this is a fun thread and I challenge anyone to get through it without being inspired to listen to at least one of the suggestions.