Thoughts
There is a Mod who thinks that only political articles belong in News/Activism.
Despite the extinction of the proto-GOPe icon, news of finding a dead mastodon is not political.
General Chat heroically served this country so that we would have a place to speak about obscure and inane things. Please honor his service by posting in the forum named after him.
You should have posted this as “Breaking”...
It’s a privately owned site and the mods can do whatever the owner instructs.
I’ve never had a thread pulled in 15 years. Following the rules here is easy.
It was a test of The Emergency Zotcast System.
Had this been an actual Zot you would not be reading this.
I agree. FR threads should not be pulled unless they are totally offensive and egregious or a propaganda piece of trash. Even the silly stuff should be left alone. We FReeps are not children needing overprotective monitoring.
Weekend mods are tougher.
We had moderators years ago who were politically for dissolving the border with Mexico, and they worked together with a long gone, dead, and unlamented poster known as Howlin to ban or suspend posters who's primary goal was securing our borders.
It got better, and that faction lost the debate here.
When the depth of the pedophile problem in the church began to be revealed over a decade ago, we had some religion moderators who would add the religion tag to a thread and then ban or suspend users criticizing the shielding of pedophiles for (retroactively) violating the religious forum rules.
Obviously the denial they were in has collapsed by this point.
Disappearing threads is mild.
Take everything with a grain of salt, and if you get upset read a book or go visit a friend or something.
Don't let this site evolve from a place to get news into a central social activity for your life.
I'm also preaching to me of course.
Just repost it under “chat.”
It’s not rocket science.
Well, maybe it is to you.
We freeps are older. Maybe the mastodon bones reminded someone of their mom...
The problem I have with the Mods is they have not saved me from embarrassment and ridicule by not pulling some of my threads. Too often and too late I realize subjects about which I post are trivial and not deserving of comment, either thoughtful or witty.
Missed that one.
I’m in Indiana and have mastodon bones. I kept a femur, a vertebra and a rib
We dug up them up in a peat bog in the north central part of the state. A cow, upside down with a calf beside her. The pelvis was the size of a dining room table, and was as far as we could get due to the water table.
Property owner gave them to a small college in return for an education for his kid (who never went). I returned all but those bones, as they said they could re-create anything missing
Sounds like you've answered your own question -- in the future, post such articles in chat, then ping me.
I agree with you. The mods are the ones that should be pulled.
There are human mods. There are Artificial Intelligence mods. Each is not perfect, but for different reasons.
I’m on a mostly liberal site (Quora.com) where the activities of the mods make no sense at all. They delete conservatives more often than liberals, but mostly because the vocabulary is different.
I mentioned “dog whistle” in one post. That was deleted, but not before another BOT could send my email to their advertizers. I got bombarded with ads for pets, 90% for dogs but also for other pets. Of course, I am anti-Dog, literally and all my life.
There are some words that are ‘triggering’ to the conservative moderators and result in a snowflake reaction.
Or it might be your post was from a source that would corrupt the tender sensibilities or religious views or even the ability of Freepers to read, think, and protect themselves from impure thoughts that don’t agree with ‘the approved Freeper dicta.”
Or you might post an article from a subversive source like Archeology Today. I had a post of some article about an archeological dig somewhere get pulled.
It used to be more prevalent. Perhaps you just got a newly appointed Mod who wanted to exercise some power.
Just get used to it and keep your head down. Never question a decision of the Mods. Sounds a little creepy doesn’t it.
Only Gloriana remained at her post. She had arrived at the most critical stage of her gingerbread making, and though her first impulse was to join in the search for the missing puppy with the rest of her mates, her thrifty bringing-up reminded her that in the meantime the cake would spoil. So she paused long enough to dump in the cupful of raisins still standing on the doorsill, where the seeders had been sitting at their task. Giving the mixture a final beat, she poured the spicy brown dough into the baking sheet, thrust it into the oven, adjusted the dampers, and followed the example of the others, setting out down the rocky path to search for the puppy as rapidly as her lameness would permit. Meanwhile, toiling up the steep trail on the other side of the house, came a tiny, tired figure, almost ready to drop from her unusual exertions. Her dress was torn in a dozen places where the cruel mesquite had caught her as she passed, one shoe was unlaced, one stocking hung in rolls about the plump, scratched ankle, she wore no hat, and her fair hair was sadly tousled by the wind and her struggle through sagebrush and Spanish bayonets. Altogether, she presented a woeful spectacle; but in spite of it all, she clasped tightly in one chubby fist, a soiled and crumpled letter, which every now and then she examined critically, having discovered that the warmth and moisture of her fat hands left tiny, smudgy fingerprints on the white envelope, and being anxious to present a clean document to her wondering audience when she should have reached her goal. But oh, it did seem so far up to the Eagles' Nest, and the way was so rough for her little feet! Still she kept plodding wearily along, and at length reached the end of her journey, only to find the house silent and deserted.
Apples and oranges.
You choose which section of the Forum your post belongs in when you post the article. The posting prompts give you choices and if you have read the introductory pages to FR (click on "FreeRepublic" in bold on the very top left of the page to open those pages), you will see Jim Robinson's rules and guidelines. They will indicate that users should not post general interest "magazine" articles in the "News" sections. And no vanities or personal threads, cartoons, puzzles, etc either.
As to what you see when you open FR, that is determined by how you set your Preferences for your FR account.
If you set your FR preferences to "Everything", you will see every article from all sections in chronological order when you open FR, including news, chat, religion, blogs, etc. But it's possible to set your preferences so that you only see News/Activism, Front Page, Breaking News. Then when you open FR, you will not see the quotefall puzzle, the toons, the blogs, the prayer requests, etc.
To set your FR Preferences, go to the top of the Forum page and click on "Account." Scroll down to "My Preferences." From there you can choose what you want to see when you open FR.
You can customize several other features from the "Account" page also.
Threads like these get posted at least two or three times a month. Possibly more, but it’s a common ordinary question. A couple of weeks ago I got sarcastic and snarky on such a thread. I basically threatened to make a FR donation if the moderators replied. Knowing full well that they never do. As you see here, there has been no response from the staff at FR.
But lo and behold, Jim Robinson did reply to my snark. And because he did so, I sent $50 to the FReepathon.
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Go look at your thread postings. Some are vanities and in
general chat where they belong. Just remember if it is your
rant then in chat, if it is a published article from a news source
that isn't banned then place in in the appropriate category.
Good luck