DU Co-Founder Skinner's TYT Interview Transcript

[Capitalocracy]

I just transcribed Skinner's TYT interview. Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTJVfS_deeI

And here's the transcript. I'll send the captions in a few minutes to TYT and they'll probably make those available tomorrow or at some point in the near future.

Cenk Uygur: Now we're going to talk to David Allen. He's one of the co-founders of Democratic Underground, that is one of the largest progressive websites in the world. David used to work for then-Governor Thomas Carper in Delaware, he worked for Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, etc. David, welcome to The Young Turks.

David Allen: Thank you very much, Cenk. Good to be here.

Uygur: All right. Great to have you. And I hear that it is the 10th anniversary of Democratic Underground.

(Music and fireworks)

Allen: That is correct. We have been here for 10 years. I can hardly believe it myself.

Uygur: So for the people at home who don't know what Democratic Underground is, tell us how you started it and what is it?

Allen: Well, Democratic Underground is the largest online discussion forum for liberals, and we started way back in 2001. It was... we did it because we were angry about the selection of George W. Bush. And my friend Dave and I looked at each other and we said what can we do about this, and we said well, we know how to make websites, so let's start a website. And back in those days, the liberal blogosphere, the liberal internet, was very small, very, very, you know, insular group, and we just happened to fill a niche that nobody was filling at the time. And we, you know, had a bunch of great people find the site, and it's been a great ride ever since.

Uygur: How big is it now, David?

Allen: Well, we've had somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-- I don't know, 120-, 130,000 registrations. On any given day, we get about 100,000 unique visitors to the site, and we get about a million page views. If it's a busy news day, we'll get a lot more than that, you know, it'll go up to 200- or 250,000 on a really big news day.

Uygur: Right. 100,000 uniques is huge for a website, and you know, a million page views is fantastic. So what do you think set you apart? I mean, so of course there's other liberal blogs, Daily Kos, some would argue Huffington Post, etc. What sets you, Democratic Underground, apart?

Allen: Well, it's... I think what's different about Democratic Underground is that it's really, you know, a very community-driven website. It's not a star vehicle for me or for anyone else, it's the members of the site that make it great. And we have, you know, thousands and thousands of people who come to the site every day, and they post what interests them and they talk about what interests them, and it's not my website in the sense that I can decide what people want to talk about or think or whatever. I'm not out there, you know, telling people what I think all the time. What it is is it is truly, you know, a community of grassroots people who are smart and funny and have big hearts and care about this country, and they're passionate about politics. And it's really an amazing group of people to be a part of.

Uygur: Have you noticed a difference in the site between when Bush was president and when Obama's president now?

Allen: Oh, yeah, without a doubt. It's, you know, back in the day, we obviously started during the Bush years, and, you know, at that time, we thought of ourselves as, you know, an anti-Bush website. And all of our members, we sort of represent the full spectrum of liberal opinion, but the one thing we all had in common is that we thought that George W. Bush was doing a terrible job. And now that we have a Democratic president, it certainly changes the tone quite a bit. You know, we are, you know, some of our members are, you know, feel very strongly that President Obama is doing a great job, and some of our members, not so much, think that he could be doing much better. And so that is the source, you know, of a lot of our discussions these days on the site. And, you know, the great thing about it is that it's a discussion forum, and discussion is what drives the site and discussion's what makes the site interesting, but it definitely took a little getting used to to suddenly find ourselves, you know, disagreeing about how we feel about the most powerful human being on the planet.

Uygur: David, it's interesting, because I don't know if you know, I don't know, why different people go to these different sites and collect there. For example, when I post blogs on Daily Kos criticizing Obama, which I do frequently, I get a lot of hate there. I also get a lot of love, but the Obama supporters are enormous on Daily Kos. When we post videos or blogs on Democratic Underground, we seem to get a lot more support agreeing with us on the frustrations with Obama. How do you think that develops? Why do you think it developed that way?

Allen: Well, it's really hard to say. I mean, I can't really say that it's by design because I certainly, myself, I consider myself a supporter of President Obama, I think he's doing a good job, but I've always been a strong believer that, you know, everyone deserves a place at the site. And, you know, we have... so, we have strong supporters of President Obama, but we also have people who are his detractors. And it was not in any way our intention to sort of attract one group or the other, but I think that... I think that whatever side you're on or wherever you find yourself sort of on that continuum, there will be someone on Democratic Underground who agrees with you, and there'll be someone on Democratic Underground who thinks you're completely wrong. And we do what we can to at least tone down the hate. We try very hard to encourage our members to disagree with each other in a respectful way and to do so without getting personal. You know, we don't always succeed in that, but we really try. And we try to, we at least make clear to our members that that's the ideal we're hoping for. So, you know, I don't know that necessarily the difference, you know, in what you're finding on Democratic Underground is necessarily that there aren't a lot of people who disagree with you, because I think there are a lot of people who disagree with you, it's just that, you know, we've been trying to get them all to play nice.

Uygur: (Laughs) That's good to know, that there are still a lot of people who think I'm totally full of crap. Believe me, that is-- they are a legion throughout the country. Anyway, so, but it's been 10 years. How many people run the site?

Allen: There are three of us.

Uygur: That's it?

Allen: It started off... Just three. There's me, I'm the, you know, co-founder and administrator, then there's a guy named Dave Allsopp, who is British and can't actually vote but can help run the, you know, the largest liberal discussion forum on the internet, and then there's another guy named Brian Leitner, who is our lead programmer. And so, you know, this is the same team we've had since 2001, and we clicked together, we really enjoy working together, and we really enjoy running the site. We've got such an amazing group of people. I've got to say, while I'm on the phone, I've got to give a shout-out to all of our members, because they are amazing. They are the reason why Democratic Underground is great. I can show up and, you know, turn the knobs behind the scenes, but Democratic Underground wouldn't be anything if it weren't for the people who came there. So thank you to all you guys.

Uygur: And is that how you guys keep it going, with people paying for membership, or, I don't know...

Allen: Well, we have sort of two main sources of revenue. One is advertising, and then the other is voluntary donations from members. And I'm always really amazed, every quarter we have sort of a, you know, PBS, NPR-style, you know, donation drive where we ask people to help us out, and I am always so gratified and amazed that all these people from all over the country and all over the world are willing to voluntarily donate some money to help us cover our expenses. And, you know, it's yet another example of just what a great group of people we have and how much they care about the community and how much they really want to make it work.

Uygur: And is this, you know, I'll ask you the question I get asked all the time, you know, we're now the largest online news show, and people still ask, "So what's your day job?" (Laughter) Is this your full-time job now?

Allen: This is my full-time job. It has been my full-time job for I'd say probably six or seven years. When I started, my main source of income was freelance web design, and I did that along with the other two guys, and you know, we did OK, but over time, this became a larger and larger responsibility, and eventually, we found ourselves, you know, with full-time jobs. It was, you know, started off almost as a lark, as a hobby. We were not expecting, you know, we certainly were not expecting to be, you know, running the site that we have now 10 years ago. But we're just so gratified that it has worked out so well.

Uygur: Right. I'm sure...

Allen: And yeah, and you know, I can make, you know, a decent, middle-class living, I have two children and a mortgage, and so I'm doing OK.

Uygur: God bless, yeah. I'm sure that if I told you in '01 when you started it, "Oh, by the way, at some point, you'll average a million page views a day," you would've been like, "What?!"

Allen: Yeah. It's funny, our first week, we had actually what we thought was a really great week, but I think our first day, we got 1500 people, which we thought was unbelievable. And we thought wow, if we keep at this, maybe someday we'll get, you know, 10,000 people, and we couldn't imagine what that would be like. And here we are getting 100,000, and, you know, a million page views every day. It's unbelievable. I can't believe it myself.

Uygur: Well, look, I definitely know the feeling. And listen, as far as The Young Turks are concerned, we love Democratic Underground.

Allen: Well, thank you.

Uygur: We love the reaction there. We love the discussions. In fact, Tom Hanc, you know, one of the guys we hired, we hired because he did such a great job on Democratic Underground.

Allen: Great.

Uygur: And, yeah. And so, we're big, big fans. Congratulations on the 10th-year anniversary, and we appreciate you joining us here.

Allen: All right. Thank you very much.

[Capitalocracy]

1. tiny little kick

sorry :evilgrin: