Posted on 09/11/2026 3:48:29 PM PDT by Openurmind
So many conversations just gated up like we are Cattle and just livestock.
I saw that happen. The OP realized that there was already a thread to the same topic of interest. But still there were conversations and sentiments being also shared in this second post too and it is rude to just shut it off like that. Doesn't anyone know how to just "forward" any new comments to the older thread? It is not rocket science and only take minimal effort... I can teach you how... That way those conversations are not lost to the wind...
Does anyone care about the members here and have customer appreciation? Or is the arrogance so great that we should feel lucky you even allow us to participate here? If it is the later you are wrong and that is a mistaken perspective. That arrogance will be the downfall of this domain in the end.
Wow, Drago, for the fine details. Appreciate knowing that the server is American. Thanks.
Thanks for your wide-ranging response to the topics at hand, FRiend rlmorel. Like you, I regard those of us who support FR financially are donors, not customers. Freedom is like that!
No one is forcing a disgruntled, dissatisfied user either to give or to stay here! FR is not a government agency. We are not taxed for it.
But FR can go away without support, so free people support it—and do have the option of disagreeing point for point with the freeloaders, trolls, and disrupters.
The responses to my questions from several whom I pinged have been enlightening, and sane! Greatly appreciated.
[Free Republic - it’s an influential force]
👍👍👍
ABSOLUTELY & with Conservative Politicians too
Now this is a very intelligent and productive statement and I thank you my old friend. This is how issues get worked out with mutual respect. They will never be solved in an intelligent manner when one side is calling the other member a Tranny, Faggot, or disparaging the other members deceased wife with full intentions of causing cruel sadistic harm for personal enjoyment. Which is what is currently being presented and accepted here as “FR Tradition”. Is tradition that you can “buy that right” to abuse the hell out of others and run them off even if THEY might be potential contributors too? THIS is the reality here. And it is biting the hand that feeds it, it is bad business... It does not build, it destroys. And it is doing that now...
Something that has always bother me about this place is that the users just cannot get past their own selfishness to put themselves in the shoes of the domain and website owner. They never ask what is best policy for the website and community as a whole from the perspective of the owner. Being a domain and web forum owner myself Jim and I had countless discussions in private about this disconnection. People assume that I did not know Jim well because he did not engage on the public board very often. They are wrong, we had a very productive friendship and mutual respect for each other off the board because we had some things in common. We were both Conservative Forum community owners, we both wanted what was best for this country, and to top it off we shared the same birthday. He was even a member at my own forum and dropped in once in a while when it was slow around here.
Now I do not know how many actually noticed, but despite all the complaints around here about the moderation when Jim was alive, the truth is he moderated with common sense, objective neutrality, and in reality he actually very very seldom moderated based on his own personal biases or ideology. He allowed open and objective articles and discussion, which is the true policy in how a forum should be moderated. This has changed. Now it is to the point where it is moderated with personal ideology and personal hangups. Members they personally like are allowed to abuse the board all they like, while others they do not like are personally targeted and harassed with the power of moderation. This is something Jim would have NEVER allowed. Moderating based on personal ideology is not productive for the Community as a whole. Several others and myself called this before it happened, we saw the writing on the wall even before Jim passed...
As for Chris Robinson I have a whole lot of respect for the fact he even kept this mess and train wreck up and going. If I had other work responsibilities and an easier life without this train wreck, I would probably not have wanted to have this place be a burr under my saddle. Honestly, I would have just sold it and been rid of the added stress and issues in my life. Sometimes peace of mind is priceless. And I fully understand that he might not have the personal time to stand right on top of it 24-7 like Jim did. And because of this he has to delegate monitoring and policing to helpful moderators. But there needs to be a standardized set of policy rules for the moderators too, or they moderate based on their own personal ideology, associations, and dislike of certain users. THIS is absolutely unproductive in real practice and it is now harming the very future of this domain... “As a whole” the overzealous personal abuse of authority is doing much more harm that good.
Albion Wilde.. Of course it is a private organization and business, in fact it is a for profit LLC corporation. And as such the private business has absolutely every right to do anything they like. But just because you can does not always mean it is good for business or even should be done. Allowing one party at a table in a restaurant drive away all the other patrons in the restaurant is not productive and never prudent. In fact it is really bad business and this is exactly what is happening here now. It wont be long and it will only be open for a very few selective customers. And THIS will not “keep the lights on”. And make no mistake, my own personal efforts here with this dialog are to support the domain and community here. For several reasons I am putting the health of this domain at the forefront of my actions. We need to all the Conservative outlets we can get. And even though I have my own and can live without the FR, I also know that every Conservative Domain must continue or we are going to lose the battle to the Democrats. It is of the upmost importance that the FR does not self destruct like it is right now for the sake of Conservatism as a whole and our Free Republic...
I am hoping that both the users and moderators wake up and put the overall future security of the domain and community as the #1 priority here before we ALL lose it. And I am not just speaking from my own personal views here. I have discovered I am speaking for a greater majority of this community who are observing the very same thing. They too are extremely worried about the future of the Free Republic for the very same reasons I am sharing. And their pleas and worries are being completely ignored because of self righteous arrogance and egotism. It was time for someone to bring these issues to the forefront...
Thank you again for the intelligent and productive discussion. It is now becoming rare here on this board.
Thank you for saying so, Openurmind...unfortunately, I fail at civility often enough that it makes me wonder if it is even possible to moderate myself when I get angry. (Of course it is possible...I just fail here and there often enough to make me wonder.)
I remember some years ago I had such an acrimonious exchange with a particular person that reached such levels that Jim Robinson had to post to the thread one of his famous “Knock it off” posts. I tried do conciliate after the fact, but...when the damage is done, it is done for some people, and there is no turning back the clock. I do view those exchanges as a two way street in which I bear culpability, and I always try-in the open thread (not in a FreepMail) to extend an unconditional apology, which isn’t always easy for me, being as stubborn and irrational as I sometimes get when I get really angry.
I have always been a hothead, it is a self-recognized character flaw. I have found a lot of relief in my late journey to Christ, but...I still backslide.
It makes me think of Romans.
That said, I have noticed that the moderation is more unpredictable and seemingly...arbitrary, and I will on rare occasions send a Freepmail to the originator of the pulled thread which I found interesting to find out the cause. I admit I am peeved when I write a lengthy response as I am wont to do, and when I click the “post” button, it says the thread was pulled.
I am invested in this forum...I have met dozens of Freepers personally, and to my delight, I have ALWAYS found them to be in person just who I envisioned them to be in nearly every way (apart from physical appearance...and even then) from our online interactions.
The lesson there is that I am buoyed by the belief that I am picking up what they put down and I get great satisfaction from that.
In the end, I enjoy this forum. It is the most consequential Internet location for me, bar none. Any way we can make it work...works for me.
“..the freeper claims that s/he knows that FR is on cloud servers with a company that also serves China. I do not know if this claim if true.”
How about asking me? I can...
https://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/freerepublic.com
https://www.wmtips.com/technologies/cdn/akamai/
https://www.wmtips.com/technologies/cloud-services/akamai-cloud/
Of very high interest are the Akamai Cloud Server rates...
“In the end, I enjoy this forum. It is the most consequential Internet location for me, bar none.”
I am absolutely going to agree. It is the Flagship of Conservative Domains. And I did too until “FR Tradition” became sadistic abuse of each other with selective preferential enforcement. In fact most of the other Conservative Domains including my own depend on the FR as a great resource of article research from the efforts of the very members here themselves. And this is why I really do care and hate to see it destroy itself. It is running off all those who do indeed make efforts and take time of their own to find and post articles here. And those who make efforts to have intelligent productive objective conversations.
Folks here are not stupid but they are treated like they are. They are not blind and they really are worried about the future of this Domain... They see it, even if Chris and the moderators do not.
I have to agree with some of your points there, particularly where “preferential enforcement” is perceived.
I see the same people who, day after day, universally without cease, post their TDS crap in an effort to bring people down. And the leadership doesn’t step in. That bothers a lot of people, not just me.
But I find the crowdsourcing of analysis by knowledgable people from all walks of life to be a tool that allows me to better understand this world we are navigating. I am stubborn and vain, but even I have to accept that there are people who know far more about many things on here, and I sometimes grudgingly allow them to educate me even when I don’t want to give up a cherished viewpoint...:)
“I see the same people who, day after day, universally without cease, post their TDS crap in an effort to bring people down. And the leadership doesn’t step in. That bothers a lot of people, not just me.”
Ok now let’s be honest about that. That is a two way street. There is also the Cult of Trump Purism that refuses to allow “any objective dialog” that questions the actions of God Trump and Trump’s administration to the point of crying for immediate banishment at the very hint of impurity or objective dialog. That is an absolutely observable fact. And it is absolutely hypocritical. In absolutely no way would they accept these very same things if it was a Democrat in office...
So from a completely objective perspective I have now realized there are now two forms of TDS. “Orange Man bad” TDS, and the irrational extremist nonobjective Trump cult TDS. And neither can claim righteousness and lack of hypocrisy.
And I did too until “FR Tradition” became sadistic abuse of each other with selective preferential enforcement.
I was a lurker for years and then joined on Oct 25, 2016.
It was when the Ukraine/Russia war started that I really started seeing a lot of vitriol on here. I was constantly wondering why those threads in particular were not moderated. Nothing happens. To this day, there are some really really nasty pro-Russia folks in those threads.
I know, I know.... don't look at those threads if it bothers ya. BS. Everyone needs to be treated with respect on here.
I've been attack viciously when some go into a vaxx or DEI mode without evidence. A good example is the Amazon plane crash last week. Or every time someone dies, it's always the vaxx. Let's not wait for a coroner report.
It gets old and tin foily.
My whole point is: Why become a contributing/paying member when moderation is either non-existent and/or biased? If I'm going to be attacked for an opinion or a proven fact, then it's not worth my dime.
All that said, I enjoy most articles posted here. I enjoy differing opinions. I do not enjoy being disparaged for my occasional differing opinions and then attacks allowed to continue via lax or non-existent moderation.
Like some have said, people are either leaving or just don't donate.
I view it differently because these people that I have flagged RARELY post about other things. It is all they do. It is their reason for being here.
If I see an anti-Trump thread started by someone who does not have that kind of history, it does not evoke the same reaction in me. I can go in and have a discussion.
But if that is all that person posts, universally, day after day, predictably, then I do have a real problem with that.
“My whole point is: Why become a contributing/paying member when moderation is either non-existent and/or biased? If I’m going to be attacked for an opinion or a proven fact, then it’s not worth my dime.
All that said, I enjoy most articles posted here. I enjoy differing opinions. I do not enjoy being disparaged for my occasional differing opinions and then attacks allowed to continue via lax or non-existent moderation.
Like some have said, people are either leaving or just don’t donate.”
Absolute truth and very well stated. This is exactly what I am trying to point out with this post. This is exactly how most of this board is feeling right now. To make things worse, moderation is “too good” to even communicate with the regular users who are no better than ignorant livestock as far as they are concerned. They consider themselves as a superior class over the livestock.
This is the very arrogance and egotism I speak of... Zero transparency, zero appreciation and respect for the members of the community. And then they expect people to allow themselves to be ignored and abused like this and still donate? Why would anyone with any self dignity do that? It is totally counter productive in the least.
I can understand your perspective about repetition. But in real case this is not the case. Those are one in ten that get scrutinized in this way. Even when I am not on the board participating I do indeed come read everyday. And I have seen so much unjustified abuse this way it is incredible. I have seen a simple misunderstanding end up in banishment based on this 100% purism. It is way too extreme and unproductive. And... The quarterly donations prove this as fact. It is time to reconsider this 100% purism tendency in the best interest of the domain as a whole. Or it is going to end up being just five good old boys who are 100% pure.
You and I disagree on this. I can live with that.
And I respect your right to disagree. But one thing that cannot be changed is the hundreds of cases that I speak of that are archived here. It is fact that can be proven by the Database itself...
They locked the thread because they remembered what happened when someone left the dimensional door open ...
No, no. A Roman.
But everybody else was doing that too.
There is a monthlies page??
The hypocrisy from the complainers is astounding...
Do they even listen to themselves?
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