We're dogs?
Posted on 05/19/2011 8:28:06 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
Edited on 11/15/2019 4:20:25 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty.. oh wait, that’s not how this goes. Let’s try again.
Imagine for a moment an old farm on the edge of the interstate. This farm has been a part of the community for years. All of the farmer’s friends love to come to the farmer’s house for meals and conversation. Sometimes, the farmer’s friends like to put up a sign on the land, right along the interstate, when election time comes around, asking people to vote for their favorite candidate. Other times, they have put up signs welcoming soldiers home. The farmer welcomes this and beams with pride that he has this land that he can let his friends do this.
Then one day, a new neighbor moves in nearby. He decides that the farmer’s land is a great spot to put up a billboard for his business so one day, he starts putting up billboard after billboard all along the farmer’s land. Sure, it is great land, and he has seen others put up signs before, so what’s the harm? Before you know it, the farmer’s land is covered with billboards. The worst part, the new neighbor never even asked the farmer if he could put up the signs or what signs were OK. Did the farmer only want short signs, tall signs, brown signs? The neighbor didn’t care to ask, nor did he care what the farmer thought. He only knew that the farmer’s land was next to the interstate and he wanted it.
Thus is the tale of The Pimp and The Poster.
It seems there has been a lot of conversation about what we consider ‘pimping’ versus acceptable in the “Bloggers” forum. If this tale didn’t get to the point, we’ll make it a little simpler. The difference between The Pimp and The Poster is one comes here solely for the purpose of ‘cross-linking’ and the other comes here to be part of the community. Cross-linking or as some put it ‘pimping’ is the use of one site’s reputation with search engines or popularity for the purpose of advertising your website. If you search for advice on how to promote your site, you’ll see thousands of articles recommending this. Many of these sites and articles actually recommend Free Republic as one of these sites because of its instant high rankings for Google results. We even found several conservative sites recommending this. For example:http://constitutionclub.org/2011/05/10/some-sage-advice-for-the-conservative-blogger/
So it comes down to intention. Do you want to use the site for free advertising or do you want to be part of the community?
Original Content
Something that has popped up a lot is blogs not posting original content. For example, a blog may take a video from Fox News, post it on their site with no commentary, and then post it in the bloggers forum as their own. If the content is not your own or original to the blog it is posted on, post to the original source only. Exceptions to this can be made if the blog provides unique commentary on it, such as critical analysis or debunking.
What about the Pimp Busters?
One thing that seems controversial are members who have decided to become Pimp Busters. While not everyone agrees with what they do, we actually saw some value in keeping the leash a little longer for them. Unlike popular myth, mods don’t like zotting people. We want to keep members. Sometimes when new members show up they may not know the ropes and think this is just another site they can cross-post on. The pimp-busters have acted in a way, like a gauntlet to weed out the spammers from people who want to be part of the community. We attempted to have a Free Republic ‘welcome wagon’ where new members were shown the ropes and welcomed into the community. This backfired. Personal squabbles followed those who wanted to be part of the welcome wagon and ‘pimps’ simply ignored them. The Pimp Busters seemed to pop up shortly after. Consider them a trial by fire. Is your skin thick enough to stand the debate here? Are you here to just spam or be part of the community? How people react to others gives a good sign as to their intention. Most pimps who have been zotted were either because it was obvious they were spammers, posting dozens to hundreds of articles with no replies. Others showed their true colors and got nasty with members. The untold story is the far greater number of new members who passed through the gauntlet and have become active participants. Are the Pimp Busters mods or have any official power? No. They are members like any other.
News versus Blogs?
Another question comes up often as many bloggers seem to think that they are news-worthy. This also applies to posting from other blog sources. This can be a touchy subject because the MSM is often less trustworthy than those who comment on them. To keep this simple, we look at a few guidelines. If it is based on a blog platform (Blogger, Wordpress, etc) but not affiliated with a major news site, it should be considered a blog first and depending on the subject or author, you can ask for it to be moved. If it is a site that anyone and their grandmother can sign up to write for with no indication of their actual knowledge, such as The Examiner, it is considered a blog. If it not unique news but simply a commentary on other news by someone not noteworthy, it should be considered bloggers. News should be left to articles that are new and/or noteworthy. If you feel as though you found a blog article that meets that criteria, post it in bloggers and write a note to the mods to see if they will move it. Being nice about it goes a long way too.
As always, it is best to just ask. We can’t answer every note that comes in just because we can get overwhelmed, but we do try. We hope that answers some questions for this week.
IBTZ!..:=)
Thanks for the info, it does help clarify things!
Breaking we try to reserve for the first article on something so important, it would interrupt your regularly scheduled programming.
Good post that lends understanding of a situation that others may have considered.
There’s a mod lecture series?
Like a whole thread and everything?
I thought the “mod lecture series” was me getting my rear beat (via FReepmail) behind the woodshed day after day after day...
teehee
I couldn’t figure out the joke in the first line...
Do people not read Mark Twain any more?
Do people not read Mark Twain any more?
..........................................................................Is he related to Fred Thompson???
I think it's Jim Thompson...
Good lecture, professor. :)
Just a quick question regarding newspaper journalists who “blogs” on their own newspaper websites. It’s at least fairly common in the United Kingdom.
Like this for example from the Telegraph:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/
Daniel Hannan amongst others publish there.
How do they fit in? For instance Delingpole from the Telegraph has been excellent in reporting news about the global warming issue on his Telegraph blog that is ignored by other media.
Thoughts?
Anyhow, keep up the fantastic job you all do for the most past.
Cheers.
So Jim Thompson is also related to Shania Twain?? Where does that leave Humblegunner??? Is he still the blog pimp overlord?? Did Jim OK that??Did they tell Mark?
Does he have a blog?
If it is associated with a major news site, it is probably fine for news as long as it isn’t put in a sidebar category (breaking, front page, etc). If it is really stupid or isn’t “new or noteworthy”, we may move it to bloggers or chat. Sometimes news of local interest only or topics from these sources on things like fashion or celebutards may be moved to chat.
Thanks for the quick answer.
I guess a little common sense goes a long way :)
Cheers.
Sir, I know the blog pimp overlord and he is no Humblegunner..:=)
I'm pinging Jim..."Jim, does Mark know?!"
So, if I understand correctly, it is considered ok to post excerpts of your own blog if you are a regular, contributing member to the forums who comments frequently on posts other then their own?
Speaking for myself, I would have been hesitant to post an excerpt of my own blog, even though I comment on other stories far more than any piece I would post an excerpt from something on my own blog. I spend hours and hours creating, writing and editing the stories and comedy pieces I write. I would hate to ridiculed by some self appointed content policeman by not posting the entire piece. I make no money from it, have no ads, no popups or other excuses I have heard in the past.
So I guess what I’m asking is; where is that line?
Respectfully,
knewshound
We're dogs?
Excerpting of one’s own blog are a touchy subject because if it is your own work, there is absolutely no reason to excerpt it- you own the content. Excerpting is only done generally if you don’t own the content. Excerpting one’s own work is often an indication that the intention is promoting one’s own site.
The community also frowns on it because you don’t always know what you’ll find on the other end.
With news sources, those are usually trustworthy to be free of malware. Blogs, on the other hand can be full of malware and tracking software.
It is best to lean towards, if it is your own work, post it in full so you don’t give anyone the indication you are just wanting to promote your site. If it is intriguing enough and people learn to trust you, they’ll visit your link. More often than not, excerpting your own work will just backfire and you’ll lose the community’s trust.
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