Free Republic

Threads on Freerepublic prior to 9/11 have a different format. I have tried to search for some of these older articles. Maybe they are no longer available. For example: Catholic ProLifers under attack by McCain From a historical perspective, it is an interesting article. One problem I am finding is that vanity articles may not be accessable... When I try to access such an article, it comes up with: No such file (give_legacy_article) Just curious if there is a way for ol' timers to access the archives? There are much more important things to be done at Free Republic.

Yesterday all was fine, today, on FreeRepublic and only on FreeRepublic. The text doesn't fit in my browser window, I have to keep scrooling back and forth to read it. Any suggestions?

I notice the "New Posts to You" is on the top line and always shows in red. In the old format, this indicated I had new posts waiting. But now, once I go to look at the new ones, the indicator stays red and I can't tell when new stuff occurs. Or is it just me?

I like the new and improved Free Republic flavor.

I had a search engine that went missing on the forum page. How do I get it back? It searches by poster, keyword, etc. (I would search for this search engine but have no engine to search with) Also, I don't have any of the subject links that use to be on top of the page, and the one link that allows me how to add what headings to the side bar is half way off the page. Aside, from that this is a great place and I would appreciate the help!

The forum page is really cleaned up. Looks good! Is this why it was so slow this morning?

Why all of a sudden am I loading the Latest articles page? It used to be clicking on messages in the upper right corner solved the problem. Now, I finally found "Comments" down the right side a bit, but every time ya hit browse now coming out of a thread, I return to latest articles page! WWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTZZZZZZZZZ - UUUUP!!??!!!

Freddy has taken over our Free Republic! What a nightmare ...

This is better than just a post that "FR search is not working" The FR search function has a serious flaw that is not readily apparent to casual users. I will detail it and suggest a fix for users until the management fixes it. In the meantime, you are free to throw cheese and find a moose for me. When a search for a name in an article is made (examples: Bush, Clinton or sheriff), 20 titles are brought up with the search parameter. If the title sought is not seen the user can "Click to show more articles ......

I don't know if it is just me, but it seems that the 'Popular Keywords' section has not been updating itself; it has had the same list of keywords for weeks now. Is this a known issue? Anyone else notice this?

All my FR pages display fine except for PINGS. When I click on the link to PINGS, which displays all my comments and all comments made to me, the text no longer wraps. Each paragraph is a long line of text and the browser has a horizontal scroll bar. Is there a configuration setting in FR where I can fix this? It doesn't happen on any other website and no other FR page except the MY COMMENTS page. Thanks.

Has anyone noticed that the Free Republic spellcheck function isn't recognizing some contractions as spelled correctly?

OK, let' say I want to post an article. How come sometimes I have the option "post" in the upper right hand corner and sometimes I don't? Let me illustrate what I mean: I want to post an article. I open FR and get this: http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm OK, great. I can just hit post. But here is the problem, first I want to make sure that what I want to post hasn't bee posted yet. So I hit "threads", and I am here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse?ao=1 OK, great. I can post here if I want.. but I still haven't checked to see if...

If anybody even reads this thread I'd like to get some input as to whether or not others think it would be nice to have a system on our "My Comments" pages similar to what there is on the threads (ie...first previous 1-100, 101-200, 201-228 last) grouping the replies. This would make things much quicker when searching for our own replies which contain links and other information that we'd like to review or use again.

1,800-Ton Class Submarine Launched By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The South Korean Navy Friday launched its first, 1,800-ton class, state-of-the-art submarine equipped with advanced missile systems, a Navy spokesman said. Named after the country’s first Chief of Naval Operations, the late Adm. Sohn Won-il, the 214-Type submarine will play a key role in securing sea lanes for transporting energy supplies and other goods, as well as extending the Navy’s operation range, Commander Jung Sung-yup told The Korea Times. ``The launch of the 214-Type submarine will give our naval capability a great boost and help safeguard our maritime interests,’’ Jung said,...

Ever since the last Automatic Update from MS, the FR pager has stopped working right. When it tries to work I get the popup below. My husband has played around with the settings in IE at Tools-Internet Options-Security, but enabling Activex Controls there is not fixing it. Running XP Home SP 2 - all up to date... IE 6.0 MS Antispyware PC-Cillan Not sure which of these is stopping me up or where to look.

Just noticed a change in the profiles of Freeper members. Wondering what was up. I guess this thread can be deleted after someone gives an answer, to save space... Example: Now: The changes are in the heading along the top. Ignore the changes in my profile's content, I'm just asking about the formatting.

I need help with the FR search function. I am trying to locate articles regarding the Coast Guard for the first six months of 2004. When I go and enter "Coast Guard", select "match all words", and "order by post time", I get articles back to last September. When I do a "click to show more articles", I get the same articles again. When I click it once more, I get articles from December 2003 and earlier. Anyone got an idea how to get January to August 2004 articles?? Should I ping John Robinson?

See for yourself: My Forums

I put a music CD that came with a book into my computer last night, played, and now my computer won't recognize either my CD or my CD writer. I've tried everything; Norton, Restore, rebooting. Does anybody have any suggestions about what I might try now?

This made me laugh soooo hard! You can see it here.

Why Use Firefox? “Beware of spyware. If you can, use the Firefox browser.” - USA Today “Better than Internet Explorer by leaps and bounds.” - FORBES Popup Blocking Tabbed BrowsingView more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they're ready for viewing when you're ready to read them. Find out more... Privacy and SecurityBuilt with your security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity your business. Smarter SearchGoogle...

I am showing Jim Clymer (CST) in the PA Senate race at 4%. Does anyone have any other 3rd party candidates that have performed better in House or Senate races?

What is crawling/spidering?

Just wondering - has FR considered implementing an RSS feed? One that would alert to pings and mail, and maybe threads deemed important, would, I think, facilitate discussion here, without having to constantly check back.

Alan Keyes's daughter is a selfish hedonist. Yes, she is a lesbian, and these pictures prove it. http://i.xanga.com/AvaAdore/DSC00926.jpg http://i.xanga.com/AvaAdore/DSC00920.jpg I got this from the following blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=AvaAdore&nextdate=7%2f23%2f2004+21%3a56%3a5.607&direction=n Still don't want to believe it, compare it with this picture family picture. http://www.keyes2004.com/family.php Yes, it's Maya, and now it's official. Maya Keyes is a lesbian. She is a sinner, according to Alan Keyes.

I find it very difficult to find important discussions. Sometimes I log in late at night and find many fluff threads. I would like to be able to see the threads with most comments, etc. Is there a way to convert the forum to a traditional message board software (like those forums running on vBulletin, phpBB, infopop, etc.)

Before posting, I (almost) always use the 'search' feature to look for words in the article title. All too frequently, however, people have invented their own titles (yes, against policy, but they still do it) or I mistype a word so the search fails and I end up posting a dupe. I think a useful feature would be the ability to search on the article's source URL, which wouldn't be subject to these kinds of problems. It would also facilitate finding the discussion of a particular article. Just a thought.

The site really should be improved. Interesting stories with a lot of activity are treated the same way as those that amount to just filler. The simply slide down the list and quickly disappear. As crappy as their politics are, www.democraticunderground.com has a much better site. One of the things it does is bring those stories with recent posts to the top of the list. freerepublic.com should do the same.

I went through all my "Comments" pages and grabbed source to build a better list I'll keep on the local drive. Anyway, I found these: On the "My Comments" pages: <font size=-1 color="#777799"<b>News/Activism... They're missing the close tag for the font code. The ends of "My Comments" pages end like this: </html></body> Should be the other way around.

Blue Apples, privacy, and Web Bugs at FR Some freepers use a visible graphic or 'icon' on their every post such as one person that uses a "blue apple" from his own home webspace. Icons like that can serve as a 'web-bug' to harvest personal info from freepers. Now I realize FR doesn't allow java, javascript, vbscript, or active-x content so the risk is lowered. But some of these same freepers are also amatuer programmers with access to detailed webmaster server-access statistics. Those stats can collect the IP addresses, and a number of other environment variables from every computer that...

Since the new Free Republic software has been up you can view how many total threads and replies you have posted. I am curious, who on FR is in the top 10 of posts and replies and how many do they have?

Posting in chat. Link colors within articles only are backwards. Red until I click on them. No spacing between user typed text and the forum text/links within articles. Main 100 article list page looks normal.

Hey Jim(Robinson), I've gotten some emails from people asking if Freerepublic can help them. They are dealing with unsympathetic judges(not to mention attorneys, social workers, and GAL's). This is about child custody and vistitation. There are so many horror stories out there, that I'm sticking my neck out and seeing if we can help them with positive ways to change the laws, and of course public perception :) Remember that sign I had for my first FReep? I believe that a child should know his/her real rather....and that a man should not be a victim and slave to the state....

Free Republic My Mail | My Comments | HairOfTheDog My Comments Brief | Full Once upon a time.... That "My Comments" link used to light up when I was browsing around and would say "New Posts to You". It doesn't do that any more when people post to me. I have to click the link and check the My Comments page for new posts to see them. It's been broken a little while, I thought the software no longer did it... but I notice on my love's computer it works. Is this something in my settings?

If you aren't familiar with the technology, RSS is a method for news & opinion sites (such as this one) to publish an index of new topics in XML such that visitors to the site can get regular updates using a news aggregator client (such as 'Feedreader'). The benefit to the user is that they don't need to continually refresh their browser because the reader just checks the index every couple minutes and lets the user know if any new topics exist. They can stay on top of hundreds of sites without any effort and can instantly go to a...

Christmas in Iceland: Rotted fish, 13 trolls and no sign of Santa By JIM WALSH Courier-Post Staff Oh, those wonderful Christmas traditions! The rotten fish and mushy potatoes. The deadly attacks by a fiendish beast. And late-night visits from a guy named Meat-hook, skulking in your kid's bedroom. OK, maybe not in your house. Not in mine, either, I hope. But definitely in Iceland. Now, let me digress for readers thinking, "Hey, this is South Jersey's newspaper. Why are you writing about the suburban North Pole?" Well, today's column started as an exploration of eggnog, which is local enough. How...

... How long has THAT been there?

I was just at www.D*********U**********.com (URL censored for your own safety) and noticed that they have an interesting section full of email from us so-called "wingnuts." Each letter is followed by a pathetic attempt at a retort. This prompted the following questions: 1. Does Free Republic get hate mail? and 2. Is it funny? ;-)

Like the title says, is there a reason to bump, other than as moral support for the thread in question? Bumping doesn't actually "bump" the thread "back to the top" in this forum, unlike most forums on the net. I understand that this is a news forum and that the most recent stories should be the first ones listed. It would be wise, though, to at least give Freepers the option to view threads by the most recent post rather than by the most recent thread. New threads would still come in at the top of the list, obviously.

Is anybody interested in a structured debate program? My idea is to model one of the standard debate formats. Probably vaguely resembling "Team Policy" as it is the only one I know that lends itself to an online adaptation. Team Policy DebateTeam policy debate is the oldest, and still probably the most popular, format of debate practiced in American high schools.  The proposition side is called the Affirmative or Aff, and the opposition side is called the Negative or Neg.  Each side is a team composed of two debaters, so that there are four people participating in the debate (not...

In my spare time :-) I've reimplemented the "My Comments" (self-search) routine. It should now provide a "More" button back to November of last year. Previous implementations where hampered by a severe MySQL bug, which required a somewhat buggy workaround, which sometimes failed to notice very old comments. I've since upgraded MySQL, and as a test of the new code, I've reimplemented "My Comments". There are about a dozen of my workarounds which will need to be reimplemented once the new "My Comments" code proves itself. This will affect anything which lists a large number of entries in reverse order....

I've made a few changes to the forum software with respect to posting articles. These changes will facilitiate FR's compliance with the terms of the LAT/WP settlement. Jim now has the capability to add actions based on the source URL entered on the post article form. Such 'Source URL Actions' (SUAs) include: forcing excerpts of material This will be triggered mostly on the LAT/WP owned URLs, and only on articles that do not have the new "This is an excerpt." box checked. When triggered, the posting program will issue an alert similar to "Washington Post articles must be excerpted." The...

Apparently some version of AOL Browser does not handle PNG graphics at all, and instead prompts to download them. Either the same browser, or another, invokes RealDownload on the PNG graphics each time they're displayed. I removed the PNG graphics from FreeRepublic until I can find a more acceptable format. GIF graphics are encumbered by patents, the patent holder requires a royalty payment for each graphic generated, so that isn't a go. Will probably end up with JPG graphics. Sheesh.

In the new software update, I've implemented a small routine to clear out old Free Republic cookies that had probably been piling up. For purposes of evaluation, I log the name of the cookie and its value before clearing it. Okay, first problem: the cookies are not getting cleared for everyone. Some people keep dragging back their old cookies, over and over again. The HTTP header which is set for each cookie is: Set-Cookie: [name_of_cookie]=; path=/; expires=[standard http date "right now"] This works fine for every browser I have tested. But it doesn't work for a significant number of people....

As soon as I figure out a plan of attack, I will begin fixing all these minor timestamp issues. They are all along the lines of exactly 1 to 8 hours off plus or minus. This is due to the lousy time zone handling and adjustments I've made in the past. Technically, the system is running in the Pacific time zone with daylight savings adjustments. All timestamps are written in the database at either the current localtime or "adjusted" to UTC/GMT/Zulu. When read back, I make adjustments to display the time in the user-preferred time zone. Its become utter chaos...

<p>I've updated the software, you may have bumped into the new features, maybe not.</p> <p>The voting results now have colorful graphics. Isn't that just great?</p> <p>Log In/Log Off have been greatly enhanced. You can now choose a security level at login time, with options ranging from More Convenient to More Secure. The More Convenient setting remembers your name when you log off, the More Secure setting doesn't ever save a cookie to your hard drive (it uses "session cookies" which go away when you close your browser window.) And with the More Secure setting, when you go to the Log Off page, it logs you out of all computers you may be logged into. There are two settings inbetween. Visit the login page for more information.</p>

I often use "My Comments" to keep track of posts to me when I don't have time to follow the thread itself. Lately I've noticed that "My Comments" doesn't list all posts addressed to me - causing me to make mistakes. Anyone else have that problem?

I've setup a test database on my development server to test the new focus software. I've made extensive changes to the underbelly and in a few other places visible to you where I've basically rewritten the software. This database is almost completely empty! You will need to create a new account. DO NOT USE YOUR FREE REPUBLIC PASSWORD. Just in case this thing isn't as secure as I'd like it to be. Give it a good run! I've spent dozens of hours testing it, but I'm sure somebody will find more critical bugs that need to be fixed. When all...

You should now be able to toggle word wrap on and off in the post reply window. I will add similar functionality to post_article as soon as possible.