[catfish1957]

Sounds like the reasoning is that the mod (rightfully?) is trying to keep blog content from cluttering up legitiment news threads.

I can understand Bryce's irritation, but if the mods didn't keep order and prevent that content clutter, FR would be unusable.

[shibumi]

It’s deeper than that.

Reblogging is a plague.

You have bloggers stealing copyrighted material wholesale and then in serial fashion, stealing it from each other - in this case four times!.

Let’s assume that Washington Post is an “excerpt only” site. (I don’t offhand know, but let’s just assume.)

By allowing this chain of repeated copy theft to end up here, FreeRepublic becomes accessory after the fact, but nonetheless liable for damages arising from infringement.

This means cash out of the coffers - which is actually the money we donate - going down the drain for legal fees and possibly damages.

While clutter is annoying, it’s nothing compared to the mess from having stolen material as the source of the clutter.