Banned from community of liberal blogers

My Dailykos.com experience / banned from my community Dailykos is the premier liberal public website dedicated to advancing the Democratic party. It was founded in 2002, owned and controlled by lawyer-activist Markos Moulitsas, known as Kos, reflected in the eponymous website's name. I had been a member since 2006, posting over 700 essays (called diaries) and perhaps ten times this number of comments. At times this makes for interesting dialog, however there are implied, and sometimes explicit limits on the deviation from acceptable discussions as defined by the owner. The rewards for the members are not pecuniary, but in the satisfaction of having an online community with a common political orientation. The "remuneration" is in the form of Recs, or recommendations that may elevate a diary to featured position for several days, with extensive readership and dialogue. Conversely, deviation from their prescribed extreme left political position in specific issues or on Party consensus, can result angry responses, or no comments at all, a "cold shoulder." by the community. From the beginning I had walked that line between joining the chorus of prescribed ideology and expressing independent views that deviated from this party line. This resulted in various forms of management sanctions that were mediated by members who were given the authority to "flag" a diary or a comment. Over time cliques of members connected, so they could alert the posse to an outlier's presence, and have a comment removed and the diarist admonished. Unbeknown to me, these admonitions did go on my "record." So, on Feb 1, of 2019 when I posted this essay- top of list, that accumulated hostile comments without rebuttal, after being called away for a few hours, when I attempted to engage in a dialog with the community, to my shock, my membership had been revoked. Knowing that I had been careful to follow the guidelines and regulations for member's participation, I sent an immediate appeal, expecting that this would be reconsidered, as Kos had said was done on occasion. I made my case, even humbling myself by apologizing for not being more sensitive to the community's feelings, after several exchanges with staff, I was simply cut off, without any claim of not following the specified principles for members essays and comments. Further details: formal rules of the website along with statements by users on my "career" adherence to them along with the unfairness of the banning on this are available by contacting by email at alvrdb-brt@yahoo.com This was one of the comments on the diary that triggered my banning. Stephen Dreyfus gramofsam1 February 04 · 01:02:19 PM I am befuddled and mystified. I didn’t know the writer was banned, and I still don’t know why. Was it because he defended Northam? Was it because he criticized Democrats? Did he state something overtly racist that went over my head? Where is the boundary between banning inappropriate comments and diaries, and censoring ideas that are too uncomfortable to contemplate? I am guilty as charged for recommending his diary. I did so because I followed the first link to the New York Times article which I read in full, along with dozens of well-meaning and thoughtful comments from readers both black and white, some of whom were convinced he should resign, and some who weren’t so sure. (I also read an article on Nation that called for his immediate resignation.) I was simply trying to acknowledge that this diary had a thought-provoking link that was worth reading. Update 11/16/2019 As for the content of the article that got me banned, "Gov. Ralph Northan, taking a step back," the demand that he resign has been forgotten. This article six months after his condemnation ends with "But all three Democrats weathered the storm, defied calls to resign and are now poised to oversee the most dramatic change in state..laws in recent memory." In the nine months since my banning from Dailykos, much has happened personally as well as in Virginia. Shortly after the banning I explored the possibility of taking legal action based on the implied contract being entered into of my providing content while Dailykos agreed that I would have perpetual presence based on my not breaching the posted rules. I explored this with two legal scholars. The first Eugen Voloch of UCLA came to the conclusion that it would be a difficult case that he would personally not take, but that other lawyers may. I realized the difficulties, and chose not to explore it further. I accepted the principle that while my personal injury seemed unfair, the right of an individual who allows one into his home, church, or political party should not be subject to judicial review. My recourse is exactly what I am doing, which is to explore other avenues of expression such as this private website