Students for Democracy

Students for Democracy is a political non-profit organisation that provides a free platform for people with any political or ideological stance to debate about the present and the future of the world. The US-lead war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and major international political events are the main topics. The memberbase is international, most members are coming from the North America, Europe and Asia.The main language on the forums is English, however guests are invited to post in any language they feel comfortable.
History and Policy
The site was established in 2003 as an alternative to the masses of political websites that are banning members, censoring content and very restrictive when either left-wing or right-wing issues are concerned. Unlike sites like Free Republic or Democratic Underground Students for Democracy is completely free from any kind of censorship and grants the right to any opinion as long as the content is not patently offensive or slanderous. Students for Democracy claims that no member was ever banned, freedom of speech is a vital part of the site. The no-Holocaust-denial rule that has drawn some criticism from mostly American members was removed after the site switched to a host in the United States, where Holocaust denial is legal.
Their introduction is:
: Students for Democracy (SfD) is intended to be a platform for people from all over the world to talk about what they want the world to look like and what needs to be done for that. It doesn't matter where you are from or what you believe in. Contribute and you will be welcome. The more colorful the better!
The Forums
General
The most articles in the advanced forums system are concentrating on international politics, media critics as well as on economic and social issues, written by international authors.
The community manages to keep trolls, spammers and multiple IDs out of their website with an astounding team spirit and a skilled technical administration, without banishing them. Guests can provide their articles after their posts were reviewed and approved by the Troll Task Force, thus eliminating all kind of spam.
Features
* Article translation
* Automated news poster, Newsbot
* Weekly polls
* XML feed
* Member chatroom
* One on One forum, two-member debates
* Reply-finder
* Lo-Fi forum
* Guest post approval system
* Country information database
* Troll detection system
* Ladder system, frequent posters get rewarded
* Blogspot
Maintenance and Technology
The membership is free, Students for Democracy gets supported through voluntary donations. The website gets regularly improved and new features get added upon the suggestions of the members. The feature-rich forum system with automated news posts, post translation and welcome posts is an issue on several ASP programming websites, the source code was originally based on Web Wiz Forums but has developed into a unique forum system.
 
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