1) On a typical busy weekday, we get about 1,000,000 page views and 150,000 unique visitors
2) Over the past month, we've had over 2,500,000 unique visitors to the site
3) A busy day will see about 20,000 new posts
4) We have 6 top-of-the-line dedicated servers running the site
5) During the heat of the primaries last year we were getting so much traffic that our ISP had to rewire part of their server farm to provide more power to our servers, which were tripping circuit breakers at peak hours

...my point is that DU is big, and while it is a challenging and full-time job to manage all of this and continually try to improve DU, we absolutely love it. Although we can't provide 100% uptime, 100% bug-free software, 100% user-friendliness, or make 100% of our members happy, we approach every upgrade, change, or decision with regards to DU with a perfectionist attitude. You should hear some of the conversations that go on...

Skinner: The text in that image doesn't look quite right, I don't think it's centered.
EarlG: Well, it's an equal number of pixels from each side of the image.
Skinner: Try shifting it one pixel to the left.
EarlG: Ok.
(silence for a moment while EarlG fiddles with it)
EarlG: How's that?
Skinner: Hmm, now it's too far left. What if you changed the font and moved it one pixel down?
EarlG: Ok.
(silence)
EarlG: Take a look now, I like the font but now it's definitely not centered.
Skinner: Are you centering it from the edge of the image or from the inside lines?
EarlG: Ahh, maybe that's it...
(silence and more fiddling)
EarlG: Well, not much of a difference there... maybe we should put one pixel in between the letters?
Elad: I liked the first one.

...you get the idea. We take pride in the fact that DU is a well-designed site that is generally user-friendly and pleasant to look at, and we will continue to work to make the site better.

Obviously this is a tough time, both economically and politically, but making a donation to Democratic Underground is a great way to support a truly grassroots website, that while far from perfect, at least never stops attempting to get better. We rely on the good will of our members to support the site and you've always come through.

If you've already donated to the fund drive, THANK YOU! If you've been sitting on the fence, I hope you'll take a moment to go make a donation now, no matter how big or small. Even a small donation helps, and you'll get all the cool benefits of being a donor for an entire year. Just click the link below to donate:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/donat...

Thanks!