Fine mess in Libya

"This is another fine mess you've gotten us into," Barack Obama may be telling Nicolas Sarkozy as he reads the latest reports from Libya:

"Hundreds of rebels fled Ras Lanuf Wednesday morning as pro-Kadhafi soldiers used tanks and heavy artillery to seize the port city. Some of them called on France to bomb their opponents and called on foreign powers to send them arms...."

In response to the faltering fortunes of their rebel allies, the West has to consider supplying arms to them, as this ragtag group still wields clubs and rocks against the much better supplied government forces of Qaddafi. If NATO does not step up its aid, one group willing and able to without having to do all the international consulting is Al Qaeda, which has already inserted its tentacles into the mix, and according to news today is increasing its presence.

“against forum guidelines”

Can you quote the relevant portion and provide a link? My first few posts at Free Republic were moderated and only approved by management after being reviewed. I’ve changed nothing about my posting style since then, and all of the approved posts were similar as far as being excerpts from the Kronosphere. I do not intend, certainly, to violate an actual policy established by management, but if it is an “unwritten law” that many long-time forum participants have agreed to among themselves and believe it enforceable on everyone else, then I find that a less persuasive argument. It is really only personal preference, and I must follow mine rather than yours in that case, but you can be assured that I likewise won’t be telling you to change how you link and post.

Additionally, I think such close monitoring of all perceived “newbies” by the old guard at least as unhealthful for a forum as anything I’m doing. Even a short excerpt from a longer article is going to contribute more to a *useful* discussion and elucidate interesting issues than these sorts of meta arguments that discourage contributions from new blood.

As far as the net result, there is, after all, no difference between an excerpt from a blog and an excerpt from a mainstream media site in terms of what you describe as the effect on Free Republic. Hence, when you say “self-excerpting” is “poor form,” the implication is you respect, say, Salon’s ownership of its own words but not mine. That seems a strange way to support conservative views indeed.

The way appropriate blog posting is generally done is that Bloggers post full copy articles - not excerpts - in the bloggers forum. Posting in the wrong forum (News/Activism) or posting excerpts of your own blog and driving people away from the FR site is considered blog pimping and is severely frowned upon around here.

Jim Robinson, owner of Free Republic, on Bloggers:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2636843/posts?q=1&;page=501

“I have no complaint if a good conservative blogger posts his own material to FR, not as an excerpt to drive hits and discussion back to his blog, but rather to impart useful information to OUR readers and to promote and join in on the discussion and conservative activism HERE on FR.

If a blogger can’t or refuses do that, and if he constantly complains or fights with our participants over it, then I’d just as soon he doesn’t post here. It’s not my job to make his content or his presentation or cooperation acceptable to our readers. That’s his job. And if he cannot do it or refuses to do it and continues posting brief excerpts only and obviously attempting to draw away our participants while loudly complaining about it, then I have no sympathy for his complaints and the more apt I am to ban his account and blog.”

A word to the wise is generally sufficient. We don't want to drive good conservative thought off of FR. But we need to fight a recent surge of people using FR as a launching pad for click-through marketing attacks. This kind of abuse is unfair to our volunteer donors that keep FreeRepublic.com running.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Click to Donate.

Thank you for so quickly providing the link, although I have to tell you, I don’t see the content you excerpt anywhere on that page. I did a find for both “Robinson” and “complaint” and turned up nothing. Moreover, it should come as no surprise that I would be unfamiliar with a post in an 831-post thread on “Austrian MP Ewald Stadler” as having bearing on forum guidelines or my own behavior. You must admit that’s a bit of an obscure reference.

Since I can’t find the post, I’ll respond to what you quote from it:

“And if he cannot do it or refuses to do it and continues posting brief excerpts only and obviously attempting to draw away our participants while loudly complaining about it, then I have no sympathy for his complaints and the more apt I am to ban his account and blog.”

It seems to me that I have done no loud complaining at all, although perhaps provoking such a complaint has been the intent of some of the complaints directed *at* me.

In fact, other Freepers have from time to time reposted the full content of my excerpts and I’ve said nairy a word about it—which would likewise have been my response to you had you done so in this case. I’ve posted an excerpt, feel free, therefore, rather than badgering my action to correct it with one of your own.

As I said, this meta discussion is unproductive in my view, as your bookmarking of such an obscure post on an obscure thread (which, again, I can’t find even with your help) indicates these kinds of style topics to be of more interest to you than to me. If management decides my posts are a net negative on this site, then of course it’s within their ownership rights to do as they wish (just as it is within my rights to use the fruits of my own labor as I wish).

Thanks again for the reasonableness of your exchange and sourcing your opinion. I disagree with you, but I appreciate your making the effort to support your views through persuasive argument rather than name-calling and screaming.

Here is the link to the exact post, down the page just a little within the page I sent you to. The post includes the entire history of the Bloggers forum in Jim Robinsons’s own words. (You’ll need to learn to do a little better research if you’re going to hold your own around here, I think. People are picky here.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2636843/posts?q=1&;page=501#552

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.