Posted on 06/25/2002 3:42:21 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:
Subject: The Future of Our Free RepublicDear Fellow Free Republic Member,
Many of us at Free Republic are distressed by the extraordinary level of censorship that has been so obviously going on. It is very obvious that individual posts, entire threads, and the entire work of members who have been highly regarded are disappearing into a Memory Hole.
Scores of us have organized an e-mail network that is independent of the communication controls presently, and sadly, being used at our Free Republic. We have carefully documented the unmistakeable evidence that most of the posts, threads, and posters that are vaporized completely are overwhelmingly targeted for their political stance on the Right. These are not Leftwingers. These are not even Middle-of-the-Roaders. These are not disruptors. These are not foul-mouthed delinquents. These are fellow patriots on the Right who disagree with the controllers of FR on specific issues that are now hotly debated by the Right. We have documented that FR will parade before you, as if to hide all of the great posters whose work has been destroyed, a straw-man delinquent that has been banned. This is deceptive.
Treating these fellow patriots on the Right so shabbily is not right. As shabbily as those banned into the Memory Hole are being treated, the most shabbily treated of all are all of the good folks on Free Republic themselves. We came here for honest debate. Free Republic advertised itself as a Forum for honest debate. Without that honest debate...everything at Free Republic becomes shabby.
We can do much better. As a measure of how intense the simmering feelings have gotten among members on this unjustifiable use of deleting, censoring, and banning please link to the following thread. You will notice that one simple and sincere plea from one of our finest members has spontaneously touched off a prairie fire of approximately 500 posts in a mere 18 hours. If it isn't Memory Holed this thread may shoot into the thousands.
If you would like to receive anonymous updates of information concerning the hundreds of Freepers who have networked via e-mail to restore the wonderful honest debate to Free Republic, just drop an e-mail of just one or two words if you like for extreme brevity to:
StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
And, here's that link back to the snowballing thread at FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704701/posts
Thank you so much for giving your thought to this vital matter for our Internet home.
Sincerely, StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
I think this is fair to say as true. I received an invitation to make posts in a libertarian-leaning forum. That is what it was for a while. Now every other post is about the Jews it seems.
I do not blame Free Republic. LF and FR are their own sites, but it is a testament to FR's popularity that it has enough enemies to swamp our little site. :\
I left the religion forum for the same reason. And, admittedly, I threw a few tantrums of my own over there. But I was accomplishing nothing - even on the "good" days.
As long as you're fully heterosexual.
When that changes, and when the "banned for" list shortens to those who are being disruptive of the actions of discussion -- and does NOT include the substance of discussion -- I will donate to FreeRepublic directly. (As distinguished from the FR Legal Defense Fund.) Not until then.
...I'm still here.
Thank you, Jim. : )
Couldn't agree more. Those that have been banished went out of their way to procure that result.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Ooh! I'm ahead of the curve, then, having had a post yanked and gotten a warning message. It was an unfailingly polite and well-reasoned message, though, so perhaps it doesn't count.
But it apparently challenged someone's thinking process.
So what? I can see your point on the "anti-Jew" posters,as these people seem to pretty much be "one-note Nellies",and any thread they start is a automatic waste of time. As for the "anti-Israel" posters,what's wrong with that? This is a web site primarily used by Americans to promote America and American ideals. Sometimes these may be the same as Israel ideals,but not always.
If anybody here are a "Israeli-Firsters" instead of "American-Firsters",maybe they should start their own site or find a site without so many Americans posting on it? Israel may be our ally sometimes,but we ain't joined at the hip.
I certainly have posted comments on here that would have been 'censored' by many, many more websites. A person who accuses FreeRepublic of censorship is simply not grounded in reality.
Not fair. When I see stuff like that on FR, I report it, and every time it gets yanked post-haste. Every time. But it's like playing whack-a-mole: the posts keep popping up and the moderators can't be everywhere. They need us to point out the dog-doo before they can scoop it up. So if you see a steaming pile lying there for more than a few minutes, it's YOUR FAULT for not calling it to their attention, because if you had, it would be gone. Versteh?
That's the part I don't get,either.
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