Confession

05-17-11 | stolinsky

[stolinsky]

Forgive me, Freepers, for I have sinned. My sins are many:

1. I linked to my own website, which is a sign of the arrogant belief that people might want to read what I write. Of course, if I didn't think that, I wouldn't write in the first place, so it's hard to see much difference.

2. I "stole bandwidth," though it's hard to see how posting a short exerpt with a link was worse than posting a long article--or how repeated insulting comments don't also "steal bandwidth."

3. I wanted people to "pay" me to be "showered with my wisdom," though my website has no advertising and costs me $299 a year to run, plus untold hours of time.

4. I used too many bullet points--or is it too few semicolons, I forget?

5. I claimed to have a graduate degree, though this couldn't be true, since I expressed myself plainly, in short paragraphs, and never used a $5 word when a two-bit word would do as well.

6. I claimed to have scars from a line-of-duty injury in the Army Reserve, though this couldn't be true either, since "people like me" usually avoid service.

7. Unlike my critics, I use my own name instead of a screen name, because I'm willing to stand up and be counted for what I say, and believe.

8. I assumed falsely that I was among friends, so any differences could be resolved amicably. Instead, I got more anger and vitriol than I ever got from liberals in the years I posted on NewsMax and on my own website. Yes, they occasionally called me "Nazi," but even the most fanatical never threatened violence or called me mentally ill--both of which are ways communists used to silence those who disagreed.

9. I assumed falsely that most conservatives are interested in saving our nation from leftists undermining it from within, and extremist Muslims attacking it from without. But instead, some are too busy squabbling among themselves about who doesn't really "fit in" with their small group--a sure recipe for defeat.

For all these sins, forgive me. My pennance will be to forgo blogging for a month. Perhaps that will be enough time for the anger to subside. Or not.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"After almost 10 years here I still want to know what those pricks think the “bloggers” section of FR is for?"

It is for bloggers to post their content and then answer/discuss said content. The problems come when a blogger posts a short exerpt to drive hits to their blogs. If you are the original writer, there is no reason to post an exerpt. If the content that you post here on FR is good, people will follow the links back to your blog.

As you know, FR gets lots of traffic and blog pimps have been known to try to peel off even a small percentage to drive their own hit count.

[paulycy]

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#552

“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.

[Joe 6-pack]

See post #22 and all will be answered :-)

[whattajoke]

A pimp is someone who needlessly excerpts from their own personaly blog just to rack up lots of hits

Fair point... I guess. But what in the world does a couple hundred hits get the guy besides... a couple hundred hits? It doesn't get him money or fame or really much of anything beyond that.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Jim Rob on the topic of bloggers:

"Believe it or not, once upon a time vanities were frowned upon by our participants. FR’s original format was established to not only fight for liberty and against government abuse/corruption, etc, but to criticize the liberally biased mainstream media. Therefore our original format was to post from valid NEWS sources and government reports, etc, and to tear them down where deserved. Vanity posters were shunned (unless they were very good).

Then a few years ago the blogger craze started. At first, most of them were treated simply as vanities and were pulled or zotted on sight. Eventually some were accepted as valid material on FR. And soon the blogger wars commenced. To allow blogs or not to allow blogs was the question. Can’t go blanket either way. Like it or not, some blogs are better than most others.

So, long story short, we created a special forum for blog posts. This was in lieu of simply deleting all blog posts. The theory was that as long as they were posted in the bloggers forum, those who didn’t wish to read them could simply click on the “news” forum and they wouldn’t see them. But, of course, as some blogs are definitely better than most others and some are much better than your typical mainstream news sources, we soon allowed certain blogs to be posted regularly to the news section.

This all worked more or less to a certain degree without too much friction until the non-commenting, short-excerpting, long-complaining blog pimp was born.

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.

Furthermore, I’m not big on “rules.” You won’t see me posting rules for bloggers. The rules for bloggers on FR are the same as the rules for everyone else. If you are a good conservative activist and are willing to work with US on OUR goals and causes and not against US, then you’re welcome to post to FR. But unless we say otherwise your blog material should be posted to our bloggers forum and it would be best if you do not excerpt your own material and if you would actually join in on the discussion here on FR. We’re not really that interested in driving OUR traffic to YOUR blog. But if our readers see that you post useful information then they might start reading your site and that’s fine by me."

552 posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2010 5:06:19 PM by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is brewing!! Nuke the corrupt commie bastards to HELL!!)

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

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

You beat me to it! lol.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"I am going on 13 years as a Freeper, and I am in my 60th year, so I have some standing."

Really? I tend to give standing to folks according to the content of their posts, not their length of membership. Never would it occur to me that I have 'standing' due to my sign-up date, which is originally even earlier than indicated by my home page.

Just a couple of days ago, a well-deserved zot was granted to someone with a sign-up date in '98 or '99. They are called 'sleepers', among other things.

Your screenname is not even one that I recognize, not that it means much ... I'm just sayin'.

[SquarePants]

I, for one, used to LIKE the fact that so many bloggers would post here on FR. It was a great place to find new, genuine, grassroots commentary. I don’t think having the board taken over by thugs who like to attack conservative bloggers is good for conservatism OR FR itself.

Mostly when a blogger DOES post something to FR these days, the thread gets nasty with the namecalling and lowbrow bullying comments.

I’d always thought it was a reasonable enough trade - bloggers post excerpts, which result in hits for them, while providing content for FR, who ultimately gets more hits from people coming to read posts by bloggers. That’s why I thought the “Bloggers and Personal” section was created.

Anyway, the net result that I have noticed is twofold. 1- the quality and uniqueness of the content on FR declines, as bloggers are chased off by the “anti-blog pimp” gang. The resulting content that gets posted more and more begins to resemble the sort of stuff I can read anywhere. And 2- as a result, people spend less time on FR.

[whattajoke]

Okay, thank you.

That makes sense then. I like the idea of “if people like what the blogger writes, people will then seek out the blog.” That’s fair.

Now, I have no idea of the OP’s history and if he’s an egregious excerpter, that’s one thing. But if not, c’mon, ease up.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

It doesn't get him money

Actually, for many bloggers, it does. Many bloggers have adds all over their blogs and get paid per the number of clicks they receive on their blogs.

Also, you can get a lot of cookies, trackers and adware by going to blogs.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Are all of these recent ‘apology’ threads due to little ol’ you? :-)

[Servant of the Cross]

IMHO, bloggers on FR just need to have a thick skin. It is mostly in jest and if your commentary is good, you've got nothing to worry about anyway. But, if it's not, or you whine about the blogpimp police, or you are excerpting liberally .... be ready for ...

Does this hat make me look like a pimp?

[paulycy]

GMTA. LOL!

[McGruff]

Some here have no life so they are on a constant watch for a blogger to post something here so they can whine about it. It makes them feel impotent.

[OB1kNOb]

The blog police are coming to take you away, haha. They're coming to take you away, heehee...........

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Oops. That’s ads, not adds. Sheesh...

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Sweet!!! You finally learned how to post your thoughts here without excerpting! There is hope for all...

[EBH]

Write it and post it in both places. Cross link it too...

...the mysterious bots of the web will find it and you’ll earn more cred with the bots.

Lets face it. If you’re getting hits from fellow conservatives then you are preaching to the choir.

[paulycy]

It was a great place to find new, genuine, grassroots commentary.

It is still a great place to find such commentary. What is being weeded out is crap. We make an effort to work with good conservatives to keep their good commentary HERE on the site. To do otherwise is foolish. But for those paying attention the scourge and plague of actual pimps is awful and dilutes the forum with awful stuff that we have to wade through.

You may notice that in this thread the negatives are coming from the anti-pimpbusters. The pimpbusters are here simply explaining how things generally work. It is all very civil. The pile-ons are reserved for jerks that give us a hard time, like Jim mentions in his post, re-posted above.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"You may notice that in this thread the negatives are coming from the anti-pimpbusters."

Good point.