Posted on 08/12/2021 11:24:56 PM PDT by ransomnote
This is a quick, basic example of how to post a thread for those interested in learning how to do so. I have learned through trial and error (and more errors), so if I need to change the instructions, please post the corrections on the thread for me to include in an update.
1. Select 'title' in the drop down menu.
2. Then copy and paste the title of the article into the search window, and click the 'SEARCH' button to the right.
3. If there are no prior instances of the article, move to the next part.
PART B: Check to see if the website is permitted on Free Republic.
4. At the top of the forum, click on 'CopyrightList.'
To become familiar all the sections of the list, and note additional restrictions mentioned in the comments above the different lists, plan on reading the entire CopyrightList post carefully for at least the first 3 times you use the list.
5. Once you're familiar with the layout of the list, the fastest way I know to compare the name of the site publishing the article you want to post (e.g., TheHill.com, WashingtonPost.com) to the CopyrighLists, is to past the name into your browser's search window and automatically search the page for it.
Example: If your browser is MSEdge, hold down 'Ctrl' and type 'F' to open a search box at the center top of the page. A browser 'search' or 'find' command will check the entire webpage for the word(s) you enter.
6. Paste the name of the website in the browser's 'search' box . If the name is present more than one time on the page, you can use the arrows to skip to each location, but I think all are included at the top of the page and you can just check the first one or two.
NOTE: mercurynews.com is hi-lighted in the list which includes the following instructions.
"Here's an updated alphabetical list of the sites that have complained about copyright violations thus far. The posting program will only allow excerpts and or deny posting where designated from the following sites:
These sites must be excerpted and linked only [300 words or less, 1/2 the words or less for short articles]:"
IMPORTANT ADDITION: For websites in this list, you may not post any images or art included in the article. Only Text is permitted (300 words or less).
7. Once you confirm that the website content can be posted to Free Republic, click 'POST' at the top of the Forum to start the process.
8. Choose the forum to which you will post your article.
Here's the next web page to post your thread. It may look a bit daunting but you get used to it. I'll walk through the boxes to fill in one at a time.
STEP BY STEP:
9. Type or copy/paste the title of the article in the first box. There is a character limit and it seems to be a little over 3 lines of text.
Use the title on the original article so others can search for it reliably. The title box does not accept HTLM coding.
10. Type in one or more 'Topics', or click 'CHOOSE' on the right edge of the box to choose one or more from lists. I'm typing in 'misc' which has to be lower case.
11. Keywords are optional and can be added later. Separate each with a coma.
12. Add author and date. I add multiple authors as needed, as much as space will allow.
If too many authors are listed to fit into the space, I add as many as will fit and then add the full list of authors within the body of the post (top). I don't know if that is correct. It's just what I have seen and learned to use.
When no author is given, I provide the name of the website.
If you are posting something you wrote, write 'vanity'.
[friendly suggestion: It's usually wisest to completely ignore those who may show up and ridicule you for writing a vanity, or tell you that there are 'too many' on FR, or complain that they don't like the author or website you chose.]
The date box accepts numeric format 08/09/2021 or text 'August' etc. If no date is given on the webpage, I use today's date.
13. Paste the simple name of the website or publication (e.g., greatgameindia.com or Great Game India) in the 'Source' box whon below, whichever is more recognizable, so people can decide if they are interested in content from that source.
AND
Copy/Paste the full 'Source URL' in the second box. Free Republic will use this URL to link to the article for those who want to check out the rest of the text or publication. If it's something you wrote, leave both blank.
14. Type or paste the text into the 'Body of Thread' box.
You can use plain text or you can use HTML code, but if you accidentally use both in one post (it happens), you can suddenly have a 'wall of text' or portions of a wall of text when you preview the thread before posting. You can accidentally pick up portions of HTML text you can see when copying and pasting.
The only way to 'repair' a wall of text, that I know of, is to add HTML formating throughout the entire post, or try copying and pasting the text a second time but avoiding combining the two styles of text (plain & HTML).
I've seen threads where the FReeper just types what is at the link. "Click the link for De Blasio's latest ridiculous comments about masks" or "More at link"
Find the excerpt box at the lower left. If the article is on the CopyrightList titled "300 words or less", check that box. If you forget to do so, Free Republic will (usually) kindly remind you.
NOTE: Some publications are not on the copyright list. After getting this far, if you try to preview your post, you may be told that the publication is not welcome on FR. It doesn't happen a lot - don't get discouraged. I think ZeroHedge is one of those. But I have learned that Zerohedge usually get's its content from a second website, so I find the second site and can often post from there.
15. You have the option of posting a comment in post #1. The only thing to keep in mind is that post #1 doesn't behave the way the rest of the comments on the thread behave.
Those posting other comments can paste a link, click 'enter' at the end of the link, and the link will then 'clickable' for others. The only way to make a link 'clickable' in post #1 is to format it in HTLM. This would require you to format everything in post #1 in HTML. For this reason, if you want to add links you might want to just wait to post them in comments following.
16. Just like a regular comment, click preview.
17. If you have errors that must be corrected, you will not see a preview but can scroll through the template you just completed, looking for instructions to correct errors that will appear in red letters above the problem section(s). The most common one I have is more than 300 words in the Body of Text box.
I sometimes have to delete words and preview again to see if I have removed enough.
Post your thread.
Congratulations. It gets easier with time and practice.
Mistakes will be made.
Expect unusual people to show up sometimes, simply to tell you they wish they hadn't seen the thread you posted, or post, "NOT THIS AGAIN!" Please don't take it personally. Some people just prefer to post complaints instead of threads.
I hope this helps. Others can improve on it, and if I see suggestions, I or others may post an updated version.
PING
I don’t put the entire title of an article in when I search, just a major word from it. Sometimes news services will put out articles to papers and the titles will be different in each paper, or the poster will change it themselves.
Thank you for your service!
o7
You forgot the part where you get all ready to post the article and you get a message telling you that what you posted under news can only be posted in bloggers or chat. So you have to start all over.
Bookmark.
Every time I tried. I get a moderator or someone saying I did something wrong. Sometimes with a warning with the post removed.
Thanks for the info. Bump for later read.
On hot breaking news or events, you have to go into another browser window and do the search right before you are going to click Post. If you do it up front, too much time has passed since copying and pasting and formatting and others doing the same will all post dupes.
John should change the “Post” button code to do a Search and throw up a popup window. If you see dupes, you can cancel out.
I would like to know why so many posts have duplicated paragraphs, sometimes in the middle of the body!
Also, you should remind people that if they copy the whole content at once, they should take the time to delete spurious ads in the middle of the text.
Clearly some people do not even look at the preview before posting!
Thanks for posting. I’ve posted many threads, but I never knew about the Copyright List until now.
I would include an extra step(s) in the “Search” portion.
Pre-test the Search module:
Take an existing thread title in the Forum.
Enter it in the search-bar.
Choose “Titles” and click on SEARCH.
If the thread is returned, then the Search module is working \at that time\.
Enter the title of your thread and search.
If it doesn’t, all bets are off and post away!
You forgot to mention if they are going to post their own blog, make sure they excerpt the posting and ping humblegunner as the first comment. He loves to chat on excerpted blog threads.
>>I don’t put the entire title of an article in when I search, just a major word from it. Sometimes news services will put out articles to papers and the titles will be different in each paper, or the poster will change it themselves.
This, this, so much THIS!
And most importantly, the FR search function just doesn’t deal well with multi-word searches. So find a unique word in the article title, as you recommend, and search on that. That’s your best way of determining if you’re about to repost an article.
LarryLucido too
There needs to be a few words said about html tags like paragraph tags shown in the example. As soon as you use 1 html tag, the entire post goes into html-tag mode or whatever it is called.
Formatting is not preserved even when there are NO html tags.
Thanks for this short and solid info.
for really big breaking news, i have learned to be patient, as there are regular great posters that will likely have something up before i have a chance to finish formatting.I have always opened my potentially informative or sarcastic posts in a new window, and refresh the original FR forum before i click ‘submit’.
More often than not, something i’ve found to be important, someone has already posted MOMENTS before.
Bookmarked
bookmark
A link to this thread should be where you go first when you click the post button. lol
Occasionally you’ll attempt to post from a website that is prohibited from linking to. Be interesting to see which ones are black listed.
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