Posted on 10/25/2001 8:59:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Ok, this is a free for all thread. Come in and take your best shots. I promise I won't delete it or get upset. Get it out of your systems and then we will see if we can solve the problems. There always several sides to any story and several possible solutions to any problem. I'd like to hear them all and I'd like to solve as many problems as we can and get this forum kicking socialist butt again instead of kicking each other. So, please anyone with a complaint or a problem or a possible solution, (moderators, posters, FAB, everyone) please chime in. Thanks, Jim
check this out and bookmark it.
I don't like people spamming the board with their conspiracy of the day but I enjoyed reading a couple a day. John and you took care and banned the people who spammed. I thought it was working. There was a balance and lively discussion.
Articles that give away defense info obviously need to be removed. No one in their right mind could object to that.
This new change however disturbs me.
THE CENSORS ARE EDITING CONTENT THEY DON'T LIKE. THE CONTENT THAT WAS OUT THERE BY RINO STANDARDS IS WHAT ATTRACTED ME. Whether or not I agreed with it, I enjoyed hearing everything and then making my decision, now however it is like watching FoxNews. The Freewheeling style was what brought me here and made me tell everyone I know about it. That is why I give money when we are broke. I can come here and listen to educated libetarians, conspiracy types, conservatives (of which I call myself one), and others debate issues. It WAS the only sight that you could do that on. Every other sight censored people they didn't agree with. FreeRepublic is that way now. It is like some of the hardcore RINO's have been made moderators. You only hear one point of view. I am hesitant to post mine because some sinkspur like moderator is liable to pull my posting ability. This is your sight and you can do what you want but THIS CHANGE WILL KILL THE TRUE LIFE OF THE FREEREPUBLIC. IT IS GOING TO BE A BUNCH OF RINOS AGREEING WITH EACH OTHER. That will be like Yahoo or one of those other boards.
Please take away the bulk of the CENSORING ability of these moderators. THEY ARE ABUSING IT AND USING IT TO CHANGE THE BOARD TO THEIR POLITICAL BELIEF. BIG TIME. Your board will become a RINO board if this continues.
THE QUOTE EVERYONE WILL THINK WE ARE KOOKS DRIVES ME WILD. ANYBODY WHO QUESTIONS WHAT PETER JENNINGS SAYS IS A KOOK BY THEIR STANDARDS. And hey they are lurking here anyway.
Jim where would the Vince Foster/Filegate/Chinagate thing be with these moderators. Potentially it would have never broke.
FreeRepublic is incredibly powerful due to the controversy. Again thank you
Gratuitous profanity should not be tolerated, but is this an adult site? or a PC imitation of PBS?
Righteous anger after the Mass Murder is not only natural, but therapeutic.
Catering to our domestic version of the Taliban is so frustrating.
I have to agree with a lot of the comments about FReepers being able to refute stupid, vane, or just plain ignorant posts.
There are posts that I am sure need deleting. There are others that don't seem that bad that are pulled immediately and no one knows why.
It is said that communication is very important no matter what subject is being discussed.
To me the best idea would be to put something on the page that says "This thread has been deleted" about WHY it was deleted.
I also think that the 'sidebar' moderators should be just that, SIDEBAR. It is my understanding that sidebar means that you take a person aside and explain why you are doing what you're doing.
The admin moderators may be a different story.
IMO this is the best discussion site on the web, or at least used to be, simply because of the intelligence and the fact that you could debate a topic that might NOT be politically correct.
I can't tell you how glad I am to see this thread. I was going to start one of my own called "Let the moderators come clean and explain thier motives." I didn't. I didn't want to face the possibility of banning.
Therein lies the problem.
Part of the greatness of FR is posting without fear (other than getting flamed). In my observations, I have noticed many a long time freeper becoming a bit disheartened by the actions of the moderators. Some are afraid to say things, not racist comments or inside information, just criticism. Some are just making passing jokes about the moderators. I fear that some people went back to thier real lives.
(this is going to be a freaking novel...I feel it)
My experience with moderators hasn't been so bad. I was the first to post the "tourist guy" thread. It was pulled. I freepmailed the moderator and asked why...his response was that he/she was afraid that 911 humor could offend some. No one complained, everyone thought it was funny...this was just the moderators judgement. This particular moderator was very polite about it...so I decided it wasn't that important to bicker over...I let it go.
My second experience was when the news about the baby who contracted Anthrax at ABC broke. There were several threads on Breaking News. I was following the story, when I noticed that most of the threads were deleted and NONE remained in Breaking News (BR). Since earlier in the day, there were some mistakes by the moderators pulling all threads by mistake...I reposted it under BR so that any late comming freepers could see it. That thread was also pulled. I then posted a vanity asking for a policy on BR postings....pulled also. I think it really qualified as BR.
My most recent experience was when a thread about the Cropduster spraying the Coast guard was removed. I asked several questions and one of your moderators answered my questions very well (you can see it here).
What really bothers me is that for the past year that I have been actively posting on FR (and the 6 or so months I spent lurking) I had the concept wrong...
I always thought that FR was a place for conservatism and news equally. That the concept was to advance conservatism (through freeping, debate, etc.) and to keep the conservatives better informed and more aware of the world events through the news forum. According to the answers I received from the very helpful moderator...I was wrong.
This site is about conservatism alone. The news forum is just the gravy. If this is the vision, then more power to you. I disagree on the total vision, but credit you for putting in the time and effort to make advancements.
I just think it can be so much more.
(this is starting to sound like an Opus...it is not)
The news gathering ability of the thousands of freepers is a force. This force could literally change the world. I think all of us regulars here know, that when we are in debate with non-freepers (left and right) we are so much better informed because of this forum. We know things that the GP will never really understand. We are constantly beating the national media (Drudge too) to just about every story out there. We do this because of the low moderation that takes place on this site.
The minds that participate on this site are unparallelled. I swear to G-d, when Anthrax showed up at NBC that first time, there had to be about 100 freepers who said "who wants to bet they (liberals) try to hang this on a right wing conspiracy." Who else can predict the actions of liberals like this ?(it certainly ain't the GOP)
Alright, I'm rambling....let me summ up here:
Moderators are necessary...and Jim can't do it alone. Keeping the racist and vulgar crap off is a necessity to keep the forum tolerable..keeping Ann Coulter columns and the like off of breaking news is important.
The rest of the moderation stuff is hurtful. Duplicate posts are helpful (freepers can't be here 24/7 to read the important stuff). Vanity theories often wash up some good stuff and cause us to think more broadly. Dissention vanities are usually of some value (whether comedic or informative). Breaking news (real news of course)should be breaking until it is either disproved or kicked off the top 20 (or whatever) you have there.
This would be my vision of using the forum to its fullest potential. This is what I thought your vision was. I don't blame moderators for moderating anymore then I would blame a snake for biting. It's what they are suppossed to do. I just think that the service you were providing was serving your vision better then the current controlled version of FR.
Just my 2 cents...I still be around...this isn't an opus...just a dissent.
Okay, now that's out of my system!
Hows 'bout an HTML converter that will make Mia T's posts less frantic? I just bet there is meat inside all the gift wrapping!
Although, I'm sure many had a good ole time flamming me :-)
Excellent idea.
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