[MissAmericanPie]

OK everyone, since you are about to find out anyway, I confess, I am not an Administration Moderator I just like to play one on FR because I like posters to be in fear and awe of me when I hint that I might be one.

Hey! I thought Free Republic was wholely owned and funded by the Republican Party keeping it financed under the table...no?

Seriously, no one has to be worried about BadJoe having your credit card numbers, the man has integrity in every cell of his body. When I signed on FR we were going places, we were going to be activists, a force to be reckoned with, the electricity was in the air here, the charge could knock your houseshoes off sitting at your keyboard, and the posters were amazing in both their passion, fire, and intellgence. I was in shock and awe of Freepers like BadJoe and others with a 199- sign on date, I had found my people and what people they are.

It was like the Old West, shootouts in one area, flame wars in another, and everything from tin foil fans who wore their hats proudly and I might add proved to be less out of bounds than accused in the end. To the most highly intellectual discussions between the most brilliant and educated people in America today that I've ever been blessed to read.

The weak could not survive on FR and that was fine by me. The doc reattached my ear quite nicely, and my lip doesn't look as much like a limp flag when I smile anymore. So bring it on.

Some have made the accusation that because the weak, like liberals, cannot survive full frontal reason and logic, or just a good old toe to toe verbal brawl, they burrow in like ticks and suck the life out of a host by asking that things be toned down, suggestions that we must worry about perception, image, prestige. Myself, I think to a point balance is a good thing, just hard to attain 100% of the time.

Posters on this site would find, to their delight and astonishment, that they had been quoted by famous people, that their ideas ended up on Fox News, or in a famous authors book, or speech, we were read by everyone from Senators, to Authors, to nervous CEO's when we went into boycot mode, it was a heady time. Every time you posted was with a sense of responsibility to get it right. It was vitally important to the individual to be a part of it, love, sweat, and effort was poured into this site.

To be banned or dismissed was not just a trivial little thing to be blown off or move on from, it was being cut out of a historical event, a powerhouse site. It was a rejection that cut to pieces like an amputation. It was a loss that truncated the individuals ability to influence powerful people. It created enemies, and some enemies that are very fine people in their own right.

Hannity was a Freeper, I was dismayed to find that he had been throughly roasted to a golden brown to such a degree that I don't think he has been back. That, to me was a big loss. I had wished for a moderator that could handle situations that arose when someone famous and influential could not hold their own. Not so much that they couldn't hold their own, but that some Du'ers, or just imbicels, would not back off.

I feel we need moderators, have they sanatized FR, or nutered it into a tame boring site, did our activism bite the dust? Everyone has their own opinion. I see alot of good exchanges going on, but I also see topics that are taboo and will end up with the producer of the threads vanishing eventually, and it lends a sense of paranoia that has led some posters to leave. Some detractors believe the site is not as open to the exchange of ideals or as conservative in it's goals as advertised, but that is the owner of the sites perogative. Like it or leave is the rule of the day but that also gives rise to resentment in the individual who is deeply invested in FR.

I have been suspended, I deserved it, I spent a couple of weeks wishing for a magic backspace key, but I never resented my situation or felt that an injustice had been committed against me. I didn't fly off to other sites to down FR or it's owner, but every situation is different, some feel to their last breath that they didn't deserve it. That the site has changed to a point that it is no longer a force to be reckoned with, hey it was bound to happen. We no longer have a democrat in office to bind us together in a common goal, getting rid of the scum. We have a President that some are for and some are convinced is a monumental mistake. So there comes the infighting, personal attacks, the rift.

So, do we hang in there, despite our disappointments in each other and the differences of opinion and perception, real or imagined, of what constitutes a really conservative, dedicated to root out corruption where ever we find it site as opposed to just a party first, no matter the sins, site? So far I have not seen all of those that hold the kind of rock ribbed conservative ideals that I do, leave the ship or be forced to walk the plank, as long as we stay within the rules.

So, even though at the moment and for the foreseeable future, I am the sole breadwinner of my family and strapped to the bone, I am pledging $100.00 to keep a site going that I love, am emotionally invested in, connected to people I care about, and that I feel still has the ability to make a difference, and that, in the end, is what it is all about, making a difference.

[Jim Robinson]

Wow! Love your post. Thanks very much MissAmericanPie!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Great post, MissAmericanPie...

[Mo1]

Nice post!

[don-o]

I feel we need moderators, have they sanatized FR, or nutered it into a tame boring site, did our activism bite the dust?

As a 199'er - I saw the absolute need for Mods to be added. As we grew, we attracted all sorts of vermin and drive-by shooters.

Plus good folks who had a problem with tempering their rhetoric.

I have yet to be banned, but I have had my moments with the Mods and with JimRob.

It makes me sad that folks think bad of Jim, and by extension, all of us. But, all I can do is what I do; toss a dollar or two to keep the best site on the net up and going.

[Radix]

I have been suspended, I deserved it, I spent a couple of weeks wishing for a magic backspace key, but I never resented my situation or felt that an injustice had been committed against me.

I have not yet been suspended from FR.com, though, there have been many times when I thought that prospect was inevitable.

FR.com is not a perfect place, but it is indeed my favorite place on the Internet. I want to post here forever, but I do not see that as a likely paradigm. I am just too darn radical.

There are a few persons out here who I just want to kick the ass of, but that is not likely going to ever happen either. I sort of like the idea that they might know how I truly feel. If those persons do not know who they are, then I hope that they might actually read these words and actually consider the prospect that I am talking about them.

I like that concept, that I am truly waiting to beat on them. Of course I won't ever do it, but I like thinking about it, in some odd way.

In the end, it is all about debate, and the fundamental reality that, "reasonable people do tend to disagree." That is the profound reality. We think, we ponder, we wax pensive, and we end up somehow contrary.

That reality, is problematic for me. Oh well, that is just the way that it is. Thank God for the FR.com. If it were not here then somebody would have had to invent it. Well then, that has been done! I must bow to the Robinsons, They did what we all could not, or would not do. Kudos to them!

-Radix

[TaxRelief]

The problem is that the rules aren't clear enough. For instance, discussions of anarchy are verboten but why does no one get zotted for trashing free trade?

The challenge is to stay alive long enough to learn all the rules and long enough to learn to conform. The rewards obviously are countless.

[Sabertooth]

Posters on this site would find, to their delight and astonishment, that they had been quoted by famous people, that their ideas ended up on Fox News, or in a famous authors book, or speech, we were read by everyone from Senators, to Authors, to nervous CEO's when we went into boycot mode, it was a heady time. Every time you posted was with a sense of responsibility to get it right. It was vitally important to the individual to be a part of it, love, sweat, and effort was poured into this site.

To be banned or dismissed was not just a trivial little thing to be blown off or move on from, it was being cut out of a historical event, a powerhouse site. It was a rejection that cut to pieces like an amputation. It was a loss that truncated the individuals ability to influence powerful people. It created enemies, and some enemies that are very fine people in their own right.

Kudos, MAP. Yours is the Bookmark Post of the thread.

[united1000]

OK everyone, since you are about to find out anyway, I confess, I am not an Administration Moderator I just like to play one on FR because I like posters to be in fear and awe of me when I hint that I might be one..... #549

 

Ditto to that!  Wow, well said.

[MonroeDNA]

Nice!!!

[freedumb2003]

I have been suspended, I deserved it, I spent a couple of weeks wishing for a magic backspace key, but I never resented my situation or felt that an injustice had been committed against me.

I have been there (suspended appropriately once) and some other times I have said things that I KNEW were too far and wanted that magic undo function.

I really thought I was the only one (or one of a very few). Thanks for making me see that I am OK and that I can stop beating myself up (I can, can't I?).