Free Republic Quasi-Official Blog Concept and Nomination Thread

[I Am Not A Mod]

Hi all.

I know that some people here are fans of Blogs. I am one as well. I had a brainstorm for something new here at FR, and Jim gave me the go-ahead to give it a whirl. The idea is for a quasi~official blog. The Freeper Island Blog.

Why Freeper Island? Because like Survivor, a blogger can be voted off the island.

Basically what I am imagining is that we will have a dozen people who are the designated inhabitants of the Freeper Island Blog. There will be a blog thread each day, and any of the twelve can add items to the blog (it would go in the article section of the thread. How we will handle updating it I need to work out. I have an idea but I need to talk to someone about it first). Anyone could reply to the thread, but only the twelve bloggers could add things to the article/blog portion of the thread. Each time an entry gets added to the blog portion of the thread, it would get bumped back to the top of either the Extended News or Editorial sidebar (this needs to be decided). The 12 islanders would have a month long term.

As the end of the month approaches, we would have a thread for voting for your favorite bloggers (all voting done publically). The 10 who get the most votes stay on (if they are willing).

Who gets to replace the two who didn't get enough support? We would also have a thread where people could nominate themselves (and give reasons why they should be voted on the island). And then a vote- again done publically on the thread. The two highest vote getters get a month on the island.

Who would be the original twelve? They would be picked by the same method- a nominating thread followed by a vote. Any replacements needed for emerging reasons would also be determined in this way.

Who gets to vote? To avoid problems, only Freepers with at least three months and at least 100 replies under their belt would be allowed to vote (or run).

These are my ideas for it. I figure we will give it a shot, and if it turns into a good feature we keep it and if not we won't.

Anyway, feel free to make additional suggestions, or if you are interested in being one of the first twelve, write up a nomination. I'll arbitrarily set Sunday at midnight as the cutoff for nominations, and will post a voting thread for Monday with each of the nomination writeups on it (order determined at random), with 24 hours for voting. You can nominate anyone, but only those who post to this thread saying they want to do it and why will actually make the ballot.

Cheers.

[NormsRevenge]

To blog or not to blog .. That is the question.

[chance33_98]

I'll do a blog if no one else wants to.

[visualops]

My thought is, under the proposed structure, more time and energy might spent keeping track of various votes and who's on or off or standing in the tidal pool, and buried somewhere in the sand are the actual interesting blog 'articles'. I'll add that it does seem rather like a popularity contest and not a means to put forth some interestingly pensive vanity threads. The mutual admiration society might get tiresome, and newer folks might be at a disadvantage.
I like blogs alot, but I'd rather just read the blogs than go thru all that survivor voting stuff (I really hate that show anyway).
Why not just create a "Blog Dept." so to speak...freeperblog, freeblog, freeper bloggers would be FReeBers...
Anyway, you could have perhaps a slightly different posting or thread mechanism, that would naturally push the more popular blogs to the top?
Or, one could "subscribe" to the blogs one liked, or have each FReeBer ping those that want to be notified etc.
If anyone is allowed to contribute, then those that are serious would stick with it, and others would fade, and naturally you'd end up with a core group, with and ebb and flow of peripheral contributions.
I dunno, I guess my point being I only have X amount of time to spend at FR, I don't want to spend it wading thru a bunch of superfluous stuff rather than reading. There's already a certain amount of hugh and series fluff here [not that there's anything wrong with that ;^], do we really need any more?

[Criminal Number 18F]

I chose this number because it is round. Not like 10 is round, but similar.

Not from Alabama by any chance, are you? 12 is finger-counting to some of those guys....

Now that I have annoyed and irritated you, I come hat in hand to ask to participate. My particular areas of expertise are military affairs (24 years and counting, almost all of it in combat arms) and the GWOT, and aviation, but since my military career went part-time I have had a lot of oddball civilian jobs as well.

I get along with most FReepers except racists (who don't stay FReepers for long, because JimRob whacks 'em) and overheated conspiracy theorists. (having participated in a few conspiracies, they are a lot harder than people think.

There's stuff I don't comment on. I have nothing to add, for instance, to the abortion debate (my mind is made up, but you guys can make up your own minds without my help. I did).

I try to be respectful to everybody, even "Hillary!". I don't always succeed.

Also, I think it very important that Republicans for Sharpton be represented (grin).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[jokar]

That coloumn is a gobsmacker brother Billy. That speech is one of my favorites. Glad I took your advice to slow down and read it through again.

[Once-Ler]

We are going to start our own clique!!! The BLOGS and the BLOG-NOTS

With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort,
"We'll have nothing to do with the non-blogging sort."
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
they'd hike right on past them without even talking.

When the blog-posting Freepers had frankfurter roasts,
or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
they never invited the non-blogging Freepers.
Left them out cold in the dark of the beaches.
Kept them away; never let them come near,
and that's how they treated them year after year.

[Once-Ler]

"Once you are swinging as fast as possible..."

I guess I must have been swinging the wrong way and a little too fast. I opened a wormhole and I was propelled 2 years in the future. I can prove it too...Dubya won the elections. I managed to get back to today but I still have no idea how to get my posts. Is their another method? I do have a holocaust cloak and a wheelbarrow if that helps.

[lilylangtree]

Anything is worth a try I suppose. Since I don't watch Survivor or know anything about Blog, that rules me out.

[Prodigal Son]

I like your idea.

Free Republic is big. I know politicos troll here to get a sense of how conservatives are thinking about the issues. The Washington Post recently referred to FR in an article in their paper as "a super-site", so we're definitely getting noticed.

Next, there's a lot of talent on FR. There's a lot of conservative voices here that (in my opinion) deserve to be heard just as much as any high flier who's drawing a salary for ranting on editorial sheets across the nation.

If such a daily "best of" thread were created, I imagine people would start coming to FR just to read that the same as they would the editorial section of their favorite newspaper. I also imagine lurkers with a purpose (pundits, politicians and others looking for ideas or feedback) would start perusing that page daily as well.

Something like that could get to be a pretty big thing. After a while, you might even have the liberal columnists reading that section to see if they touched a nerve with their latest offering. There are so many possibilities for something like that...

The voting is the tricky bit. It could quickly get out of hand if you could vote on multiple comments but then again, I'd hate to have to pass over someone who had great comments because I shot my wad earlier in the day on somebody else's equally great comments.

I'd like to see this idea expanded. FR could become the "Go To" site for the best conservative commentary- the establishment could see themselves eclipsed. I like it.

[moneyrunner]

I like your idea.

[Prodigal Son]

I might also add- the editors would be allowed to consult with the poster(s) who made the cut to- well, edit. Spelling, punctuation- that sort of thing.

I hate it when I proof read something five or six times and never see the flaw that a spell check program won't catch. If the whole world is going to be coming to FR to check out our best comments, we should be presented in our best light.

[NormsRevenge]

If the whole world is going to be coming to FR to check out our best comments, we should be presented in our best light.

O o . .. There goes the neighborhood! :-x

[my right]

I'm sorry, I just don't get it would someone explain what is the dif. between a blog and people posting an opinion on a thread. I know I am just lagging behind, I heard of blogs about a month ago but I still do not understand how this improves the communication or exchange of ideas. Can someone lay this out in a logical order?

[mrsmith]

Looking at RJayneJ 's Bulldog Bullpen could be of help to you. She might have some good advice too if you asked.

[DietCoke]

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Ha. Haven't heard that one for awhile. This should be fun! Good luck!

[cgk]

I nominate WarSlut, Dog, Section9, and mhking. (I know I'm forgetting about a dozen people... I'll remember them and add them here). Unless of course they don't want to blog. :)

I'd nominate JohnHuang2, but he's already got his own? Or does he?

[Dolphy]

Cool idea. The mechanics and maintenance seem a bit overwhelming but the end result could be great. I would like to see that end result as representative of the many opinions that are here.

[Gracey]

Didn't think of the FIBbing aspect

How about FRIBing? FreeRepublic Island Blogging? He He

[LowOiL]

I can never understand how people find time to do all these time consuming activities and keep up with real life.

This is not real life people...

[unspun]

Hmm....

Sounds interesting but time consuming. Maybe there should be a special category for bloggers who are employed. ;-`