Yet Another Vanity on Vanities - Message from Jim Robinson

Our Fearless Founder ^ | 11/17/2000 | Jim Robinson

[Straight Vermonter]

FR has a policy on vanities of which many of the newer posters may not be aware. So here in the Big Guy's own words:

There is still a lot of confusion about vanity posts. I know that it doesn't look like it at the moment, but this forum was intended to be a place for conservatives to have somewhat serious discussions regarding government corruption and abuse and to try to discover a way to make progress toward returning to the constitutionally limited government as established by our Founders. The original idea of this forum was that our participants would post newspaper articles or other published information, or transcripts of congressional speeches, or other government or political information and then we would discuss these items. The forum was not intended to be a chatroom or comedy central. Some chat and some comedy is acceptable, but it tends to get out of control. The easiest way to control it is to restrict vanity (non-sourced) posts. If you want to take the time to write and post an informed commentary piece or a first-hand report on some newsworthy event, please do. But the short comments and rants, etc, can just as easily be posted as a reply to an existing article as was intended by our original design.

We recently added an "Opinion/Question" topic, because of the explosion of newbies and vanities being generated in response to the fast-breaking news. We thought that if we could contain vanities into one area they might be easier to control. But the quantity of these posts is now totally out of hand. The problem is that each vanity adds a new title and a new thread to the mix. We are now creating nearly a thousand new threads per day. The volume is making it extremely difficult for our readers to find the real news as opposed to someone's rant or joke. Also, the high numbers of threads puts a strain on our database and causes the server to run slower. We have a new server and new software in the works to help alleviate some of these problems, but implementation is still a few weeks away.

Please help to reduce the clutter and the strain on the server by refraining from posting vanities.

Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.

I apologize to anyone who is hurt because I delete their posts. Just trying to keep a handle on this thing.

---

ADMIN MODERATOR UPDATE 7/15/02: We have been getting a lot of vanities again. Just a reminder to keep them well researched and infrequent. Thanks

[PhiKapMom]

Pleased to bump this one!

[KC Burke]

Bump for those unaware of this guideline.

[TheOtherOne]

RULES BUMP

[Willie Green]

Bump for those unaware of this guideline.

And a pox on those who intentionally ignore it.

[Stentor]

This is a bump, but how are we going to know that fifty or so separate people think, know, suspect, fear, that sometime within 1 day, 1 week, ... up to ten years that the U.S. may or might have nuclear weapons on its soil and that they are really upset about it? I do not kow how I would live without those threads.

[Howlin]

I wish the moderators would MOVE these and other threads into a category we can ignore. Some of them are very distasteful; there was one on condoms this week.......YUCK......and not very political!

[Peach]

Bump

[francisandbeans]

Please remove this post...he changed the title.

[technochick99]

But how else do we know what people got in their email inboxes this morning?!?

[Straight Vermonter]

Its is supposed to be possible to eliminate "opinion/question" threads but it doesn't seem to work. I sent a Freepmail to John Robinson about this but got no response.

[F16Fighter]

The forum was not intended to be a chat room or comedy central.

With all due respect to you and Jim Rob, IMHO there is cause for occassional vanities or for real-time "chats."

One example might be in the case of real-time World Series games -- Freepers may be watching the game while surfing FR -- and let's face it -- even Freepers can't be serious ALL the time. It's also an outlet within the framework of a fraternity isn't it? And for that we can be thankful.

As far as "vanities" go, occassionally Freepers are intelligent enough to touch upon and disseminate valid viewpoints that merit discussion when Ann Coulter, Joe Farah, the India Times, NewsMax, etal. don't, or happen to miss one.

[TLBSHOW]

The Essay Of The Week winner this week is: section9

Longshore, JoeEveryman, MHGinTN, Master Zinja are given honorable mention as first, second, third and fourth runners up.

PatrickHenry takes the honors for Quote Of The Week.

Don't miss our Bonus Bytes from: Clinton's a liar, Bommer, ClancyJ, Heisenburger, PJ-Comix, wayne_shrugged, Southack, Positive, van_erwin, Eustace, rstevens, drypowder

Really good vanities are rewarded

[error99]

This article has been posted before.
Please try to do a search first and avoid duplicate posts.
It will help cut down on wasting the "bandwidth".
The band can only get "so" wide, you know.

[Willie Green]

I wish the moderators would MOVE these and other threads into a category we can ignore. Some of them are very distasteful; there was one on condoms this week.......YUCK......and not very political!

IMHO, they can move them to cyberspace oblivion.

And speaking of condoms... I think Ananova should be banned as a source for "news" that is posted here. That tabloid website has nothing but odd stories about genitalia for the amusement of snickering adolescents.

[Jim Robinson]

It doesn't work. Will someday, I hope.

[jjbrouwer]

The chances of the average freeper resisting vanities are about zilch.

[Straight Vermonter]

Well I can always dream. LOL

I find the worst offenders are those who are not regular posters.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Bumping this one to the top in the hopes that some who may not be aware of the vanity post policies (and requests from our host) will read this, and comply with it.

I'm quite prepared to be flamed as being too insensitive (a quote from Catcher in the Rye comes to mind), but the situation on the News/Activism pages is getting out of control. There are at least three "prayer requests" and a FReeper obituary on the first page of my screen. I think it's great that Jim provides a place for such posts. But the News section isn't it.

I hope the moderators will enforce the policy. If they do so rigorously and consistently, there shouldn't be any hurt feelings. Just an idea -- but what about simply requiring, on the posting page in the News section, an operational link to a published news story? No link, and the would-be poster gets an error message for not filling in all required fields.

[AppyPappy]

Agreed. Prayer requests and such should be moved to the Religion section. We need the activity.