I respectfully disagree.
I think that is the function of the comments.
Your views may not be my views. I do not “need” anyone else to post a vanity to explain the news to me. As I wrote, I say this as a general point of discussion—not as a personal attack.
I am OK with rants. I just like to know that is what I am reading. Look at the messes that come up when someone posts from a blog. It can get brutal.
Free Republic used to be one of the best, most diverse, news aggregator sites on the Internet. It is not that anymore if we have to wade through five vanities about how “you” felt about the debate. (Again, I use “you” as a general term, not specifically you.)
I know there are people who disagree with me. That’s fine. I can be somewhat irritating at times. I have thick skin.
You can serve both ends. I get a lot out of vanity posts, in that they often render news of a more alternative sort.
We have a news category, and there is excellent technology out there in the way of aggregating free news, categorizing it, and then deploying it in any number of ways.
Its a direction that Jim and the others that make this site could go in should the choose too. Mission creep, however, is a concern.
One of the major reasons why I rely on this site for news is that reliable, relatively unedited news is very hard to come by. I still find myself coming here for it despite the increase in vanities. If the vanities appeared in a place where vanities were welcome - like in their own category - it would likely solve the problem.
News aggregation is a good thing, too.
But news I’ve aggregated into this forum from the BBC of all sources has been taken down. Reasons like it was a ‘wraparound’ were given.
The story was about rioting in Corsica, which is part of France. An Islamic Center was attacked and there was a lot of anger for and against the violence.
I think it was taken down when I posted it from the BBC and even other sources because of fear of what the comments would read like since Islam was involved.
My persistence in trying to post the story which was legitimate news and complaining about it in the forum only got me banned from posting anything for several days.
All the news is not allowed to be aggregated in this forum and other cases it is suppressed.
My posts from MSM sources, MSM news stories about the Oregon Standoff have all had the topics taken out of them within minutes of my posting from “Front Page News” to “Breaking News” to “Extended New” to even “Oregon”.