Every so often, a freeper flips out and, rather than just complaining, the freeper announces his/her intention to GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK.
The post with the announcement is refered to an an "opus." (A "work" where work is used in the classic sense of a serious -- at least to the creator -- piece of business...)
They are often self indulgent and silly. Sometimes they are poignant. Sometimes they are flaming and fun, or flaming and embarassing.
Some people keep some bookmarked, so if people see this, you might get a reference to one or two. (The last one I remember was a Danish guy who got pissed that nobody here took the problems of the Netherlands seriously enough, and some conservatives actually made fun of that guy Pim -- the homosexual marxist right winger [!] who got shot... So he put up an OPUS and said goodbye...)
Sadly, many people get banned without ever having the option of putting up an opus.
Jim: Perhaps the forum should have an option for everyone to create an OPUS, and, upon getting banned, the OPUS would be automatically posted to a pre-selected list...
-- KotS
Oh. One final note. There is a Freeper Glossary put up by freeper Risky Schemer where much of the cool stuff gets explained. I don't know if there is a more updated version, but one version is here:
Revised & Updated! -- THE LEXICON OF FREEREPUBLIC -- (FR dictionary, more help for newcomers!)
For instance, the OPUS entry is:
Opus -- The mother of vanity posts, an opus is a long rambling resignation from FreeRepublic, listing all the offenses and wounds (real or imagined) that have provoked the resignation, in the misguided idea that somehow the ones who "wronged" the resignee will be sought out and pilloried for causing the magnificent and dramatic wounds. Of course the poster of the opus hangs around in his or her death throes for days replying to the opus thread, provoking the usual "so GO already" responses. And most opus posters are thought to still be on FR posting under new nicks anyway. Most opuses are written in the following form -- "So-and-so called me a name and I've had it with Free Republic". This is where a FReeper, in a pique of rage, goes on a rant about how FR has changed since they first came onboard, and the flame wars are out of hand, yada, yada, yada. They must announce it to everybody that they are leaving, and aren't coming back. One FReeper, who is a bigtime pol in (deleted), does this every 6 months or so.
Here is a link to a real life OPUS from freeper knighthawk: My last post: in Silence (As you will see, there are traditional ways of responding to an OPUS, too...)
-- KotS