Replies

Pokey78,

Thank you for the ping on this important post.

I must say, I for one had no idea any of this was going on as of late. In my view, FR has gotten better and better because I see more and more on-topic, insightful relevant discussion on the threads, as opposed to people merely posting personal comments that have nothing to do with the posted content. I believe this is a huge improvement, as I would much rather read these kind of threads than non-stop venom. (BTW, to read non-stop venom, there are plenty of other sites offering that in thread after thread after thread.)

I would like to say something about the following sentence written by that former FR poster and sent via email:

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.

It seems to me the above writer is actually being dishonest in claiming to desire "honest" debate -- because what the writer really demands, considering the rest of above email and other information above, is to choose the topics and post without regard for any posting guidelines established for this forum by its owner.

When people follow the guidelines of this forum, and stay on topic within the forum, and within threads, there is some fascinating debate going on here at FR.

The solution for the writer of that email is to establish a new forum with different guidelines or a different menu more to his liking, instead of demanding the FR owner rewrite the FR menu being offered.

I think Jim Robinson, to his credit, tries hard to make it very clear what subjects are welcome on this forum, and his message about that has been up front and rather consistent throughout the time I have been here.

Expressly setting up guidelines and specific [topics/subject] expectations, and sticking to that, is obviously a very "honest" way to run a forum. In fact, it's very similiar to the way a successful teacher runs a classroom. Honest.