Free Republic

Thank you!

Thank you!

From my understanding, the voting will end anywhere between 0900 to 2400 tomorrow. Whatever anyone can do to help us get out the vote for this amazing Soldier ASAP would be most appreciated!

Thanks so much!

I still can't believe that my friends here on FR don't get this. Look:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/digg.com+freerepublic.com/

Digg brings in about 44 million yearly unique visitors, FR just about 1.2 million. There's simply no comparison. This is a nice echo chamber, but in terms of publicity, FR can only do so much. And, like it or not, any Republican that hopes to claim the White House is going to have to find a way to convince independents. Convincing independents cannot happen unless independents are getting the message you're projecting, and they're not going to get our message if we conservatives limit ourselves to exclusively conservative sites. That's not how social media works.

Also, Digg is not a "liberal news site." It's not even a news site. It's a social bookmarking site. It doesn't generate content, it only reflects the favored content of its community. The more conservatives we have on Digg boosting Conservative stories, the more exposure those stories get. As mentioned earlier, I run the premier site for Conservatives on Digg. We regularly manage to get stories on the front pages of Digg. We're breaking down the liberal strong hold there every day

Are the majority of people on Digg liberal? Yes. Are they all liberal? No. I'm in contact with hundreds of conservatives on Digg. It only takes a few hundred diggs for a story to make the front page of Digg. And while the couple of thousand active liberals will likely "bury" anything we get on the front page there are a couple things to consider.
1) While there are a few thousand active liberals on digg... there are millions of people browsing the content. It's a basic tenant of PR that if you want your message to be heard, you have to get it in front of people. We can do that on Digg regardless of what the few thousand liberals do with our stories ex post facto.
2) Liberals only have the majority on Digg for as long as Conservatives allow them to have it. It's a social bookmarking site. It reflects the will of its community. If we amass a large enough Conservative base on Digg, the stories on Digg will reflect that.

There is no reason whatsoever for Conservatives to forfeit the world's largest and most successful social bookmarking site to liberals simply because they set up camp there first. It's not a liberal site - it's a social media outlet with a mostly liberal community. And we could change that and reap all the rewards if we'd just get out of our own way.

FR Diggers, please reference this entire trolling, ignorant and hateful thread as a means to understanding why I have left FR. I’m not going to spend hours away from my wife, family and friends offering to help a community that’s going to treat me like this. The Daily Diggs will continue, but I won’t be returning to FR unless some apologies are issued. I am utterly disheartened. I feel like I’ve stumbled onto the Daily Kos. I never, in my life, expected to be treated like this by Conservatives. Unbelievable.

Yo asked for links where I contributed to the FR Community without just posting links: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2294701/posts post 87
Thorough discussions about how digg/ social media are relevant to conservatives: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2293546/posts
And http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2285279/posts
and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2283094/posts
Discussion about conservatism: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2282618/posts
The list goes on and on… a “blog pimp” spams their link and offers nothing to the community in return. I’ve always tried to reply to anyone who replies or pings me. I’ve tried to contribute where time allows and there are a few dozen FReepers who, to this day, have enjoyed my contributions to the community. But apparently, because you select few cannibalistic trolls see fit to run me out of town for… referencing Mitt Romney in a question, asking for comments and posting a blog link in the BLOG SECTION… I guess you’re prejudices overnight all my contributions. Super.

I can honestly say that you all have given me serious doubts about my career choice. I don't want to spend my life, as I have been doing for the past year, dedicated to a conservative movement that will cannibalize me the instance I mention, in passing, a name they don't like.

And for those of you who seem to fail to understand how a blog works... I don't get money from blogger based on my traffic. I have google ads... that gives me like 10 bucks a month. When I post a link, it's because I thought you guys would like it. Clearly, I was mistaken.

As a devout conservative, I can honestly say I'm ashamed of each and every one of you. Wow. Consider this my last attempt to have a conversation on this forum.

Stop cannibalizing a fellow conservative, and I’ll stop calling you rabid. The attacks against me here have been baseless, irrational and hatefull. I think it’s safe to say, I will be moving on to a new conservative community after this thread. I’ve never been treated like this by so-called “conservatives.” Ever.

Hits =/= comments. What’s your point? And the posts with zero comments are almost always posts where I just relay a video or comic. I typically get a handful of comments to my research articles.

Where do you get off making these assumptions? I get decent traffic as it is. I merely made the mistake of assuming that FR was a community of like-minded conservatives who were interested in other conservatives joining their community. I had no idea that you all cannibalized anyone the instant they had the audacity of posting a blog link in the BLOG SECTION! The horror!!!!

ZOMG! A known conservative posted a link to his blog in the blog section. Attack him personally! WTF are you people thinking?

Wow... mature... mocking a fellow conservative’s last name. I fail to see why I’m being attacked. You all seem to ahve so much to say about Mitt Romney... but are mad at me for asking for your comments about Mitt Romney. Hahaha... wow... sooooo logical...

Guess what, if they haven't heard of us by now (after all we took down Dan Ratherbiased, get mentioned by Rush all the time and get smeared in the press on a regular basis), they damn sure aren't going to hear about us on your little blog.

I don't know how to break this to you... but I have anywhere between 200-1,000 unique hits on my blogs each day. That's decent for a personal blog. But I don't do this for the attention. I'm just trying to spread the exposure to conservatism - and part of doing that entails that conservatives come together. I know, for a fact, that a significant majority of several online conservative communities do NOT use FR. I'm beginning to see why. You all are acting like children about this. Trolls came in here spouting a bunch of lies, nonsense and personal attacks for no reason whatsoever. ZOMG! He mentioned Mitt Romney in a question, asked for comments and posted a link to his blog in the BLOG SECTION! TROLL!!!

BS! I've researched your posts over the last month. You pimp your blogs and ping a few people to some threads.

BS! If you had researched my posts on this forum, you would have seen that I've been actively involved in discussions about how best to spread the conservative message through social media. That's what I do for a living. I'm just trying to do my part. Thanks for wasting hours of both our lives with this unfounded flaming. Instead of fighting socialism, you fighting someone that regularly fights for conservatism. So stupid...

Running into a new place and acting like you have been there forever and everyone should ‘know’ you is a bit much. Especially when the place is oft overrun with poseurs..

This isn't a new place, I've been here for half a year and I post on the forums almost every day. I'm one of the, if not the, most prominent conservatives on Digg and have ~1800 conservatives following me on twitter. I spend almost every waking hour defending conservatism. I don't expect everyone to intuitively know who I am or what I do - I do, however, expect not to be flamed and attacked by people who are supposed to be my friends and allies. You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves - really.

Is there a time limit someone needs to be on the site before they’re allowed to make threads? I was unaware of such a rule.

Ok... so in order to ask a community for input on a discussion by linking to my blog in the BLOG SECTION, I have to first write a thesis on the subject? And then, when everyone erroneously accuses me of being something I’m not, it’s my fault because they’re too lazy to click on any one of the half dozen social media I’m actively involved with to promote conservatism? That’s brilliant, really.

This is the BLOG SECTION. God forbid a registered republican and active member of the conservative activist community post a link to their blog and ask for (GASP) comments! I’ve been on this forum for a half year. I’ve joined several discussions, made several threads, pinged and exchanged several PMs. It’s not like I’ve popped out of the ether. I’ve been an active member of this community for a while now.

Again, there are Millions of conservatives who do not frequent (nor have they ever visited) FR. The fact that there have been other threads, however extensive, discussing Romney’s political lean is totally irrelevant 1) Because this is a conversation about the specific comments he made in the 1994 debate 2) just because it’s been mentioned on FR doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be mentioned elsewhere. If YOU had done a “little research” you’d know that questioning my conservatism, my dedication or my ability is ridiculous. If YOU were a credible conservative, YOU would know better. Give the ad hominem attacks a rest. They clearly aren’t valid.

Still not going to discuss Romney and Kennedy? You really want those hits on your blog, don't you?

I work too hard for conservatism not to try to get a little traffic here and there ;)

I will, when the discussion about this debate has concluded on my blog, post my replies to other people's thoughts. If you have a specific concern about his comments in that debate, feel free to post them,and I'll get to them when I reply. I doesn't make sense to waste my time formulating a full response now when I'll just have to add hundreds of caveats later. But, as I've said, I widely and publicly opposed Mitt's stance on the bailouts and healthcare. I will add, however, that I don't think this particular video disproves Romney is a conservative. There are other more damning things that he has said and done that bring his relative conservatism into question. I will provide examples of those in my full reply/blog post.