Posted on 11/14/2015 7:47:15 AM PST by Leaning Right
Like many others here, I don't have cable. So I rely on FR for unfiltered breaking news. And there where quite a few good and informative threads last night about the Paris attacks. Thanks to all the posters for that!
Unfortunately, those threads were also peppered with distracting and silly attempts at humor. So here's my humble request. When the news is breaking - and serious - can we stay on-topic and avoid posting distractions?
I have cable internet and local tv but do not subscribe to any uppertier packages that would include the cable news networks.
I used to post about ‘Swedes’ until a few Jihadis killed in Somalia had Swedish passports.
Method I:
The vast majority of the sites we post from have RSS feeds (RSS is the protocol that automatically 'publishes' those articles to a news stream). Even FR uses RSS.
You can use an online RSS aggregator like Feedly to collect all of those news feeds and present them to you. (BTW, the basic Feedly service is free)
From there, you can stay completely up-to-date on what is being published very, very quickly...and from multiple sources.
You could even decide to post some of the articles to FR that you find interesting. Then people can make snarky comments about them (it's great fun, you should try it).
Method II:
You can use social media, such as Twitter.
Most news sites and individual reporters, blogs and individual bloggers, all use Twitter for real-time reporting.
Twitter has a really cool feature called "lists". Using a list, you can grab all of "tweets" made by news sites, blogger sites, news reporters, and individual bloggers and view them. This tends to eliminate the flotsam that is normally associated with Twitter and turns it into a decent tool. If you'd like to check out a few of my compilations (and you DON'T need to be a member of Twitter to view "lists"), here are a couple of samples:
Hope the above helps.
And quit being so preachy </sarc>
Yes. There are some people who don’t understand when a joke has lived it’s life and deserves to die.
I’m a little disappointed at the sparse use of Cheee Eating Surrender Monkeys last night. That never gets old.
Have you ever been to a meal occasion after a funeral? It is extremely difficult in human nature to be fully 100% saturated in negative the whole time.
No problem to request no humor during tragedies as long as you know that since it is against human nature and unsustainable, it won’t happen.
I wasn’t able to be funny last night but maybe some people felt more detached. I was hurt and devastated, both from having lived in France and Francophone Europe for 4 years, and especially because both my sons have been to concerts of that band, and I kept thinking of those families, it just hit too close.
An attempt at humor can be the difference between retaining your sanity and losing it.
I agree with you about funerals, but it is my understanding that what LR was saying was that breaking news threads are about information. Joking posts just get in the way of acquiring information, particularly when so many people are posting.
Oh, sorry, I meant cable TV. As for the TV, I bought a high-quality digital TV antenna for $60. Now I get all my local TV stations in HD, all for free.
The problem is that I don't get any cable news channels (CNN, etc.). Usually I can live with that.
I agree. I literally look to FP to get some insider news in real time when these stories are breaking. Freepers are everywhere and are generally more informed. I remember being up the night before the tsunami hit Indonesia and there was a thread started by a freeper about a seismic incident that he was watching. He literally called the tsunami before anyone knew it was going to happen.
Thank you for your financial support of Free Republic.
That's why we have the < /sarc > tag.
Hint: To get it to come out right, put a space after the < and before the >.
Why don’t you just get cable?
Don’t be silly he logged in
Oh, sorry, I meant cable TV.
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Thanks for the clarification.
Two reasons. Maybe they're not very good reasons, but here they are:
One is the cost. It keeps going up and up, much faster than the rate of inflation. So I got off that train.
And two are the commercials. Either I'm imagining things, or 1/3 of each program is now a commercial. I'm getting older, and just don't have the patience for that anymore.
When some bozo decides to throw mis-information in the mix, it increases the work load of those just trying to get accurate info.
Not my board and they obviously can do whatever they can get away with.
I'll just keep track of those posters and not rely on them for important and factual information. ;)
/johnny
You think “serious news” is on cable, much less any additional information?? Maybe you should get cable and try out that theory of yours.
The lamestream media jams everything they know into the headline these days. Read the headlines and you know everything they know. After that, it is just social commentary.
Sounds like someone is suggesting that we create a “Safe Zone”. Is that what you really want? With a lot people posting a lot of items here, it would be very difficult to identify what you or others deem is necessary to “lock down” for only serious discussion. Some times you just have to filter the crap.
And by that I don't just mean the links FReepers supply. Many times FReepers are close by, and have first-hand knowledge.
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