Posted on 10/10/2003 2:23:07 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Edited on 10/10/2003 2:27:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Dear Free Republic Friends,
My old friend and brother-in-arms BADJOE has promised to warm the cockles of our hearts by publishing an expose (the truth about JimRob and Free Republic according to Joe) on the 18th of this month, which represents the one year anniversary of the date he last posted to FreeRepublic.com and started up with LibertyPost.org.
So, as I believe that only the truth can set you free, and based upon the stratergery of pre-emptive strike, I have a confession to make (before BADJOE makes it public):
I have poisoned the well.
By my sly innuendos behind the scenes.
By my intellectual ineptitude.
By not trusting those that brung me to the dance to bring me home.
By my biting every hand that fed me.
By my arrogance that causes me to think I did it all by myself.
By my stubborness not because of principle, but because of my lack of ability to see what is transpiring.
Evidenced by:
One would think that with half again as many Freepers. with a recovering economy, It would take a great deal less time to raise the necessary funds.
By this time in the June 2002 effort with a goal of $70,000 we had raised $73,000. Not because of who did the fundraising, but because the sense of purpose, of family, of comaraderie, was still present.
BADJOE rang the warning bell, but none heard.
Conclusion:
It is a sad day.
For what was once a great hope, a means of bringing together those who are willing to pay dearly in blood, sweat, and money to save this country, we all love, has been reduced to an asterisk.
So sayeth BADJOE as he promises to publish all this and much more on the 18th. He's been feverishly working on this "project" for one full year. In addition to the "truth about JimRob" BADJOE intends to further betray our trust placed in him by revealing the names of our moderators. And who knows what else?
I can hardly wait.
Is it the 18th yet? Tick, tock.
Uh, what site was that Jim?
What is the "Biker Bar" category for, and why does it have a "warning" message at the top?
The "Biker Bar" category was initially established for Free Republic topics which attracted a crowd of people that were predominantly interested in discussing only Free Republic.
Later, because comments made there tended to be of high volume crowding out the comment listings, we began screening those comments from the "Latest Comments" page as it was deemed beneficial to the rest of the forum's topics (which we are most interested in promoting).
Later still, because other topics not directly related to FR were emerging there, we renamed it to "Biker Bar", and added the "Caution" message and a reminder of our disclaimer, and adopted a reduced set of rules for that section.
A small amount of content within the "Biker Bar" section can be very insulting and abrasive. Many of the people posting there are already familiar with each other from times and places long before this forum existed. Some have unresolved questions and issues related to past events and other organizations, and that area has been set aside for them to discuss their particular issues. Since those issues generally have a very narrow base of interested members, it is set apart from the rest of the forum so that those interested in it can visit it, and those that are not can easily ignore it.
Yes, I can say it now. I am out of the closet. I am a JimRobBot. I am re-donating the same $$ I did last weekend. Keep up the good work!
Some people clearly prefer a "no restrictions" kind of site. Not me -- without exception I find the "total freedom" forums on the net to be overrun with yahoos (not to be confused with "Yahoo!"). It only takes a few immature twits with foul manners and/or empty heads and/or emotional problems to send the signal-to-noise ratio down into the cellar.
Three cheers for responsible moderation.
And yet, I'd bet decent sums of money that everyone would disagree about which way the "obvious" bias went.
For example, on the evolution-versus-creationism threads, it seems that the evolutionists perceive a moderator bias in favor of the creationists -- and the creationists perceive a moderator bias in favor of the evolutionists...
As Linda Ellerbee once wrote about a TV news segment she had done on a controversial issue, "I knew I had done a balanced job by the way I got an equal amount of hate mail from both sides."
You know, since there is so much dirty laundry sired out already, I have to say that someone banned my brother on his first post on FR. When I tried to plea his case, the admin Moderaotr freepmailed me back, the equivalent of "tough luck, his post was racist."
It turned out to be the first article posted on FR about the Illegal Immigrant Rights Rally in DC, a topic that has had more than a few dozen articles posted about it since. My brother heard direct from the horse's mouth, a Commie recruiter on his campus, and posted the article with a big "heads up to what's down the road" warning to give the people his brother spends way to much time on the net talking politics with. He was banned in like 25 minutes. You really pissed him off, and set me back after months of trying to get him to think through politics in a clear manner. And I haven't really been able to get him to think about politics since. My final point, Someone banned him for fun.
From reading that long, histrionic LP thread (thanks, now I need a shower), it seems to me that the major source of their outrage is that anyone would be so foolish as to dare run this site differently from the way *they* think it should be run... (and that any of us "misguided" posters would be so blind as to prefer it here instead of over there.)
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