The Most Active Threads Since My Last Post

After taking last week off from this blog, I'll review the most active threads of the 10 day period that I missed. None of these threads will likely be surprises to anyone who has paid even the least amount of attention to the news. The most active thread, by a considerable measure, was titled, "Tourist submersible missing on visit to Titanic" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. This thread followed the initial disappearance, subsequent search for, and eventual discovery of the fate of the OceanGate submersible that was lost during a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. Rather than detail the substance of this now 147 page thread, I am going to take the opportunity to be somewhat self-indulgent. I sometimes enjoy providing a behind-the-scenes look at how things work on this website. We are a two-person operation and are essentially responsible for the website 24/7, including when we are otherwise on vacation. As I announced earlier, this past week we were hosting out-of-town guests and celebrating our younger son's high school graduation. As such, I was hoping to minimize my interaction with DCUM. This thread massively interfered with that plan. Almost immediately, many posters decided that the loss of five lives was an excellent opportunity for jokes and humor. Other posters considered this disrespectful and objected to it. My inbox was soon filled with reports of inappropriate posts. When I apparently didn't respond quickly enough, a poster continued reporting posts, but then also started replying to the posts and simply adding the word "reported". Those posts provoked responses arguing about the reports and reports complaining about the messages saying "reported". So, what might have been a single report morphed into five or more posts or reports, multiplied several times. I was forced to take a break from touring the Udvar-Hazy Center annex to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in order to sit with my phone trying to stem the tidal wave that was flooding my inbox. I blocked the IP address of the poster who continually replied "reported". But, when the block expired, she spent several days posting complaints about the block and creating even more posts for me to remove. There was considerable disagreement in this thread about the applicability of DCUM's "48 hour rule" which prohibits negative posts about deceased individuals for the first 48 hours after their death. In the beginning, this rule was thought by some not to apply because no deaths had been confirmed. Once parts of the destroyed vessel were discovered, some posters argued that 48 hours had already passed since the deaths. My concern was less about splitting hairs but more focused on keeping the thread substantive and on-topic. I didn't see much need for absurd discussion of orcas, unfunny attempts at humor (which in many cases was simply copied without attribution from Twitter), or lame poetry. Ironically, with the thread reaching nearly 2,200 posts, as recently as yesterday a poster was still complaining about posts being removed. I think plenty has been posted and nothing of importance was likely missed.

The next most active thread during the days I took off was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Russia - civil war has broken out", this thread was originally started back in May to discuss incursions by Russian separatists into Russian border towns. It was revived within the past few days when Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, took over the headquarters of the Russian military's southern command in the town of Rostov-on-Don and then sent his mercenaries marching north toward Moscow. The recent posts concentrated on breaking developments, often posting embedded tweets containing updates. Intermixed were various analysis or opinions on what was happening. It was interesting to observe the abrupt tonal changes among posters as the fortunes of one side or the other rose or fell. As Wagner forces at first appeared to be easily triumphing, supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin or opponents of US support for Ukraine fell silent. In contrast, supporters of Ukraine were nearly ecstatic at the hope that Ukraine's invader might destroy itself. But, when the surprise end of the mutiny was announced, the tables turned, with Putin supporters declaring him a "master strategist". I would think that the surprising events of the past few days would have been humbling to anyone who believed that they have any sort of predictive abilities regarding this situation. But, several posters still seem confident in their analytic capabilities and are assured that they know what will happen next. I think the safest prediction is that their predictions, regardless of what they are, will be wrong. This thread was the cause of a somewhat surreal moment for me. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has his critics on DCUM and is often attacked quite harshly. A handful of posts in this thread went beyond the bounds of acceptable criticism and included attacks on the basis of his religion. As it happened, I was touring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum when I had to take a break and respond to reports of anti-Semitic messages in the thread.

The next most active thread was titled, "Hunter - the right got what they wanted". Also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the thread was started in response to reports that Hunter Biden had reached an agreement to plead guilty to gun charges and tax violations. The thread is a hodgepodge of news updates about the charges, opinions and analysis, and conspiracy theories. Some posters were satisfied that the ongoing saga of Hunter Biden might have come to a reasonable conclusion. On the other hand, many posters believe that this was an unacceptable outcome that reflected a cover-up. This thread highlights the different realities in which many DCUM posters are currently living. The general attitude among those on the left has been that anyone, even the President's son should be held accountable for crimes that they commit. Such posters often tend to point to crimes linked to former President Donald Trump which they claim are much more significant than any of those attributed to Hunter Biden. On the right, however, there is a belief that the justice system has been entirely corrupted and used to unfairly prosecute Trump while covering up for the Bidens. The right-wingers are obsessed with "Hunter Biden's laptop", unvetted (or in some cases missing entirely) whistleblowers, and wild allegations unsupported by any available evidence. The crazy conspiracy theories that used to be contained to fringe blogs are now spouted by Congressional Republicans and Fox News. As such, there is probably no result short of Hunter Biden being publicly flayed Game of Thrones style that will likely satisfy most right-wingers. One interesting development that I noticed is that the Congressional hearings into Biden-related matters have been so unproductive that MAGA DCUMers now routinely ignore those hearings and are instead relying on tweets reposting content from various partisan sources. So, there is even the beginnings of a split between the extremist, conspiracy-minded House Republicans and the even more extremist and conspiracy-minded group of DCUM MAGA posters.

A list of most active DCUM threads simply would not be complete without the inclusion of a thread about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. So, to complete this list, we have just such a thread. Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Spotify dropped Harry and Markle", the thread discusses, as the title suggests, the decision by Spotify not to renew its podcast deal with the couple. I haven't read the thread, won't read the thread, and have no idea what it says. I expect that it has posts from rabid Harry and Meghan haters and responses from equally-rabid Sussex supporters. I suspect that there are multiple posts giving attention to the duo that accuse the couple of being attention seekers. In short, my guess is that this thread is exactly like the other 100 or so threads about Harry and Meghan. I will note that the thread made it to 22 pages before I locked it. I have no idea why I locked it, but probably just on general principles. An unlocked thread about Meghan Markle is like an unattended gas leak. If it hasn't blown up already, it definitely will eventually.