Posted on 05/17/2011 1:30:40 PM PDT by stolinsky
Forgive me, Freepers, for I have sinned. My sins are many:
1. I linked to my own website, which is a sign of the arrogant belief that people might want to read what I write. Of course, if I didn't think that, I wouldn't write in the first place, so it's hard to see much difference.
2. I "stole bandwidth," though it's hard to see how posting a short exerpt with a link was worse than posting a long article--or how repeated insulting comments don't also "steal bandwidth."
3. I wanted people to "pay" me to be "showered with my wisdom," though my website has no advertising and costs me $299 a year to run, plus untold hours of time.
4. I used too many bullet points--or is it too few semicolons, I forget?
5. I claimed to have a graduate degree, though this couldn't be true, since I expressed myself plainly, in short paragraphs, and never used a $5 word when a two-bit word would do as well.
6. I claimed to have scars from a line-of-duty injury in the Army Reserve, though this couldn't be true either, since "people like me" usually avoid service.
7. Unlike my critics, I use my own name instead of a screen name, because I'm willing to stand up and be counted for what I say, and believe.
8. I assumed falsely that I was among friends, so any differences could be resolved amicably. Instead, I got more anger and vitriol than I ever got from liberals in the years I posted on NewsMax and on my own website. Yes, they occasionally called me "Nazi," but even the most fanatical never threatened violence or called me mentally ill--both of which are ways communists used to silence those who disagreed.
9. I assumed falsely that most conservatives are interested in saving our nation from leftists undermining it from within, and extremist Muslims attacking it from without. But instead, some are too busy squabbling among themselves about who doesn't really "fit in" with their small group--a sure recipe for defeat.
For all these sins, forgive me. My pennance will be to forgo blogging for a month. Perhaps that will be enough time for the anger to subside. Or not.
Me too. Although, at least the reason this time is that I was out with friends running around in the sunshine as opposed to being in a different, quite sandy timezone.
Looks like this was a good one, too. I'll have to keep reading...
It's nice being home, ain't it? :0)
I can’t see your account from here so I reckon not and I don’t know how to do that.
Sorry.
Who's "we," Kemosabe? ;-)
(Sounds like fun...)
It certainly is!
In fact, this calls for a little song...
There ain't no sand on me
There ain't no sand on me
Well, there might be sand on some of your hands
But there ain't no sand on meeeee....
No, but I can see Russia.
.
.
.
(Diving for the bunker door ...)
Wonderful!
I guess you aren’t familiar with some of the modern, expensive, fast devices that nevertheless have small screens, which lead some people to prefer the ability to choose whether or not to load an entire document.
And I’m sorry that, though I’m not one of the people with a “clunky computer,” that you have no response but sarcastic snobbery to people who are in that situation.
Finally, again, no one forces anyone to click on a link simply because one “opens a thread and finds a sentence exerpt instead of a whole blog entry.” One is perfectly free to decide, hey, I’d like to see what that’s about, or that’s not interesting, or that sucks on principle and I won’t click on it.
Cheers!
Everyone who posts here uses the resources of FR. So what. If the poster is abusive, that can be dealt with the usual mod-way.
Why should he have to and why should I have to see the entire post before I’ve decided whether or not I want to read it?
Why are these threads treated differently than other threads?
It’s so nice to hear your voice without all the bombing, calls to prayer, gunfire, and siroccos blowing in the background! Welcome home! It’s so nice to see you here again, and only one time-zone away.
Do you have enough socks?
LOL - my feet have been freed from their clompy, desert prisons and my toes are happily wriggling freely in sandals.
Get real. You know very well that I support what’s best for FR and it’s my opinion, which you happen to disagree with, that this blog overlord nonsense has reached proportions where it is both embarrasing and damaging to the site.
Of course, I don’t support any of the things you suggest. I expect you to argue better than to simply make sarcastic assumptions about what “I” support simply because I disagree with your approach to what we both agree is a problem.
All of the things you bring up can be dealt with the usual way: by getting rid of abusive posters and by freepers deciding FOR THEMSELVES not to click on stuff that is “ill-conceived,” “poorly written” or a simple “marketing piece.”
I think we can all figure out what those things look like. I certainly don’t need anyone protecting me from links I think I dumb. I know how to not click on them when I don’t want to click on them.
As for the integrity of the site and the forum experience, again, it’s simple: if a poster is abusive, let the mods zot them. In the meantime, if a poster’s threads die a natural death because they are all the things you are complaining about, good.
Could you show me, please, how this particular blogger, the OP, just to try to bring this discussion down to specifics, posted ill-conceived, poorly written, marketing tools?
If I had posted a normal thread (link and excerpt) to the OP’s blog, wouldn’t that have been okay?
You know I’m not trying to fight with you, hg. But I do disagree with this phenomenon (what it has become) and it’s a positive to hash some of this out here.
Because blogpimps are using excerpts to drive traffic to their blogs.
Using Free Republic as a free advertising platform.
This makes me so mad that I want to spank them with a fence post.
And some freepers help pay for “this joint.”
Good grief.
How in Hell's Bells is an expression of disagreement with your opinion an implied statement that you're not entitled to it?
Funny!
You might catch some static about the source not being on the excerpt list.
HOWEVER.. you would not be blogpimping. Not enriching yourself by abusing Free Republic.
If some blogger writes something, there is no reason in the world for him to excerpt it.
Other than using us as a marketing tool, that is.
BTW, do you know who Mark Steyn is?
I happen to like the stuff you post.
You’re a good writer and thinker, and I’m glad you’re on the side of conservatism and common decency.
One suggestion: Save the $300 / year and just use FR as your “blog”. Better yet, send the $300 to FR and use FR as your “blog”. Either way, you’ll get a whole lot more “views” (ie., a lot more people will see your headline and read your columns) than you will at your own blog.
Winning.
FRegards,
LH
I love how every time someone expresses a contrary opinion, it is greeted with sarcasm and insult.
Please direct me to where you answered this question on another thread.
I considered your previous posts carefully and I simply don’t recall you addressing specifically why, as to the propriety of the thread, it makes a difference as to WHO posted it.
Apparently, if I post a link to Mark Steyn’s blog, that’s okay and is handled as the usual thread.
But if Mark Steyn, the author of the piece, came here and posted a link to his own blog, that would be considered blogpimping.
If I post a link to the American Thinker blog, that’s okay and is handled as the usual thread.
But if the author of the piece comes here and posts the same link and excerpt to the same piece on the American Thinker blog, that would be considered blogpimping.
I’m just trying to ask if I’m understanding what you’re saying correctly.
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