Posted on 10/26/2009 4:32:01 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
This is a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Admin Moderators (Sidebar gave us some attitude so we shoved him in the closet for a while. He never recovered from the Yacht incident) For a while, we have noticed some things happening that we need your help with. The Free Republic community is strong; we are almost a family, albeit very dysfunctional at times. Like any community, we have new members joining us daily. Unfortunately, the air of suspicion and the desire to keep things “the way they are” has fostered a feeling of distrust with new members. Almost every day, we see new members join, then, because of comments of suspicion, they often don’t return. For any community to thrive, it must grow. Because of this, we are asking for your help. Here are some important things you should know:
The Internet has changed greatly since Free Republic first started. When we formed, few people had their own websites, now, everyone has their own blog. With this, there is an attitude change where someone who doesn’t understand how our community works may be more interested in self-promotion than we have been used to in the past. We don’t want to change the overall feel of this site- it is about our shared values, not about self promotion, however, we don’t want to drive people away simply because they link to their own blog. There are blog “pimps” who want nothing more than to promote their own sites, but for most people, it is simply how they start out sharing their thoughts on a matter. Encourage these members to take part in existing discussions.
Many new members may not communicate well what they believe and it gives the appearance they are not 100% kosher in their Conservative beliefs. This may have nothing to do with their Conservative credentials but simply how they are communicating their beliefs or how the media/pop culture has told them what to think. Be an example and discuss what you think is wrong. A liberal troll’s true colors will reveal themselves while a new member who is honest, but may not communicate well, may learn from the conversation.
Remember, how you respond to a topic not only reflects your thoughts, but also is a reflection of the community and Conservative values. We need to be an example of positive conservative values when responding to members, especially new ones. As mods, we make a strong attempt to screen all new members. Every new sign-up goes through a period where their posts are reviewed. This helps us eliminate most trolls, porn and commercial spammers, and those who don’t fit in with our Conservative values. This isn’t a perfect system, but it does help us make sure that by the time a new member reaches the community, there is a greater chance this person is the type we want around. Some slip through, yes, and you can always help us by hitting the abuse button. (of course, we do let some world class morons through every once in a while as “Live Chow”- after all, the kitties have to have toys.)
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With all that said, we need to grow. We need to be far more welcoming to new members and guide them into how to use our community best. With this said, we are issuing a challenge to our long time Freeper family. We would like to start up a ‘welcome wagon’ type of ping list or group whose job it is to welcome new members, show them the ropes, and guide them through our community. This could be as simply as giving new members a kind welcome, guiding them to how to post topics or replies, or just making the experience pleasant.
As this is your community, we would like your thoughts, ideas, and most importantly, for some of you to step up and help us with this.
We are passing the ball to you. What do you think?
No question about it, this is the best forum I've seen in years of browsing the web! We can ping, we can reply directly to people and we know who is replying to us. Freepmail is great here too.
My one ‘unhappiness’ is that I can't get my TIME right in Freepmail. It is two hours earlier than my own time and ‘options’ no longer allows me to get it set right. Totally off-topic, I know!
I agree with PhiKapMom and would carry it a bit further. I’d suggest a blanket, automated block on thread-starting (any threads, not just vanities) by people who have been registered less than a couple of months, and even then, only after they reach a certain number of total posts (to weed out delayed use of phony registrations by people aren’t really participating in the forum).
I’m sure I was here, actively posting AND donating for many, many months (maybe even over a year), before I ever started a thread. If a newbie has something really special to post, they could ask an established FReeper, either on a related thread or by FReepmail, to post a thread with the material. For a newbie with some sort of valuable inside position (e.g. in government or a major media organization) whose identity is known to the management, the block could be manually removed upon request, if the management sees fit.
There are hundreds of threads posted here every day, and not much legitimate reason for newbies to start threads. They could spend all day participating in fascinating threads on a huge variety of topics, covering all major issues currently facing the nation, and still not have exhausted the day’s offerings. What’s the big rush to skip over threads posted by established FReepers and start their own threads?
Everyone falls short. We can't let our weaknesses become excuses or to allow them to redefine the goal.
Criticism is often constructive, even if done in a back-handed way.
Here's a test:
Would you support a practicing homosexual pedophile rabbi as long as he was for lower taxes and voted Republican most of the time? I mean, after all, he is mostly a Republican, right? If you don't support him, by what criteria do you put him down?
Oh thank goodness!
At a dollar a year, that would be almost a week's worth of FReeping!
That sounds like 2 cents is worth a lot.
“I appreciate this thread. This should cut down considerably the FReepmail I get from angry FReepers on the Religion Forum calling the VK to ZOT this HERETIC or that APOSTATE.”
LoLYou deserve a big hug for that!!
(Hugggggz)
Do you really think that is a meaningful and realistic example to make your point?
Just funnin Glock.
Agree. And for that reason, I'm perfectly ok with the basic system here. Like you, I only need a few basic HTML commands to do what I need to do around here.
Given that this forum has a larger, and more active membership than perhaps any political forum on the internet, would it even be wise to change the basic layout, or functions? If I were the owner, I'd have to study the ramifications of doing that with a fairly serious analysis before committing to it.
n00bie!
;<)
I thought the envelope was pretty cool.
Me too. :-)
And I love Bibi.
You helped me out so much as I had never heard of HTML in those days. Remember if you did bold, it would go into the next post if you were not careful. I still laugh at that and then some techie would come along and try to figure out how we could be dumb to not to do a close tag. Without you and others, I wouldn’t know HTML today and be able to use it on my blog where they tell you that you don’t need it. Bet me!
Have a good one!
I think the idea was $1 a month but I catch your drift.
You are an apostate of the religion of peace, harlot! No hugs!
ZOT!
Dang...
Oh, I doubt it.
“What about sending a FReepmail welcome letter to any new user with FR mission statement, FReeper etiquette hints, and links to html sandbox and FR acronyms?”
That is a really great idea... Make it non-deletable.
;-)
Thank you :)
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