Replies

You hit the nail right on the head. This has been an increasing problem since people "found" FR when it came out of obscurity a couple of years ago.

The quality of the rhetoric is appalling now, and we have to sift through much chaff to find the wheat.

It used to be that Vanity posts were MERCILESSLY pilloried, and there was about one article from the powers-that-be per week admonishing against worthless Vanities (yours is NOT one of those, BTW).

In fact, people were regularly run off just for posting stupid nonsense, and it was so strictly enforced that many dealt with thusly would log on one last time under a pseudonym, and announce an "alternative" website had been set up. (The ONLY one of these that was in any way successful, BTW, was Lucianne.Com, and I think even it has fallen on hard times).

I consider, with all due respect, that this dates from the time when FR first began accepting regular donations. The Management felt--understandably--that people who "pay" for access ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. And later that seemed to extend to most of FReeperdom in general, even some who were rather outrageous (the idiotic Libertines being a great example of that, lately taking over the "Most Obnoxious" Award from the Buchananites.

" (the idiotic Libertines being a great example of that, lately taking over the "Most Obnoxious" Award from the Buchananites."

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Good grief, all those words, just to get in a little slam at 'libertines'?
[you can say it coward, its spelled libertarian]

Why, you're nearly as bad a blowhard as our author.

"I consider, with all due respect, that this dates from the time when FR first began accepting regular donations. The Management felt--understandably--that people who "pay" for access ought to be given the benefit of the doubt."

I can tell you from my experience donations have no relationship to how one is treated by Jim or the mods. I know of many instances where someone would pull the "I donate heavily and will stop if you don't....blah blah."

There are, however, considerations given to long time posters (as opposed to newbies) out of respect for their seniority, but these situations have nothing to do with how much one contributes.

Do the math, the odds any one person in particular is a heavy donor is slight . There are probably a couple hundred thousand FR users in any given month, registered and not, but I would guess less than a couple thousand do all the donating. Every time someone gets a "pass" someone else claims they are getting special treatment because they are a donor.