Email: The Future of Free Republic

Email | 06/25/02 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:

Subject: The Future of Our Free Republic

Dear Fellow Free Republic Member,

Many of us at Free Republic are distressed by the extraordinary level of censorship that has been so obviously going on. It is very obvious that individual posts, entire threads, and the entire work of members who have been highly regarded are disappearing into a Memory Hole.

Scores of us have organized an e-mail network that is independent of the communication controls presently, and sadly, being used at our Free Republic. We have carefully documented the unmistakeable evidence that most of the posts, threads, and posters that are vaporized completely are overwhelmingly targeted for their political stance on the Right. These are not Leftwingers. These are not even Middle-of-the-Roaders. These are not disruptors. These are not foul-mouthed delinquents. These are fellow patriots on the Right who disagree with the controllers of FR on specific issues that are now hotly debated by the Right. We have documented that FR will parade before you, as if to hide all of the great posters whose work has been destroyed, a straw-man delinquent that has been banned. This is deceptive.

Treating these fellow patriots on the Right so shabbily is not right. As shabbily as those banned into the Memory Hole are being treated, the most shabbily treated of all are all of the good folks on Free Republic themselves. We came here for honest debate. Free Republic advertised itself as a Forum for honest debate. Without that honest debate...everything at Free Republic becomes shabby.

We can do much better. As a measure of how intense the simmering feelings have gotten among members on this unjustifiable use of deleting, censoring, and banning please link to the following thread. You will notice that one simple and sincere plea from one of our finest members has spontaneously touched off a prairie fire of approximately 500 posts in a mere 18 hours. If it isn't Memory Holed this thread may shoot into the thousands.

If you would like to receive anonymous updates of information concerning the hundreds of Freepers who have networked via e-mail to restore the wonderful honest debate to Free Republic, just drop an e-mail of just one or two words if you like for extreme brevity to:

StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com

And, here's that link back to the snowballing thread at FR:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704701/posts

Thank you so much for giving your thought to this vital matter for our Internet home.

Sincerely, StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com

[WIMom]

This guy?

[sweetliberty]

"What's the worst that can happen"

Encouraging parsy can be very risky....but very entertaining.

[TLBSHOW]

I wanted to PM him to congratulate him. But I am pretty much locked out of FR. jjbrouwer

Look JJ is locked out. He is the biggest FR basher there is. He has many many times come on treads at another site and with a vile attack, attacked bryan and Tlbshow and FR and Jim.

They all are in my opinion a Worthless bunch every last one of them.

[nunya bidness]

Care to explain why you're registered there?

[Gabz]

Well said, Grampa (I know - I will never disclose that you allow me to call you that to your grandaughters!)

I was involved in a couple other threads, and some real life stuff so didn't get you ping til late. I'm still reading posts to this thread from this morning.

But I do want to make an observation. I'm truly insulted by what I've read in the first 100 or so posts I've been through. My email addy is on my profile page and I haven't received any of these emails; the one and only time I ever had a post of mine deleted by a mod was at my request; and finally I've never been banned or suspended from posting here.

SHEESH, I must be doing something wrong!!!

[PhiKapMom]

I could always count on you to be there for the Tax Cut threads. I have never understood the lack of interest on some of the Government threads that mean something to all of us. Working on getting something started for the Fall elections to focus on close races and drum up some support. I want to see daschle go the way of the dodo bird!

[sweetliberty]

ROTFL! That's putting it in pretty plain talk!

[general_re]

Personally, I like the chronological format better, with the option of clicking on "view replies" if a specific post or line of discussion catches my attention. I find the other way much more confusing to follow for just readability. Here, we have the best of both worlds.

Ideally, what you'd have is something akin to Slashdot, where users can configure the comments display to their liking. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but if not, play around with it a bit. Here's a story currently on the front page. Underneath the story itself, you'll see a couple of drop-down boxes, one of which should read "threaded" - that's the default mode. You can scroll down the story to see what it looks like. Then pull down the box and select "flat", and hit the change button - what you'll get is a flat, chrono-ordered thread, like what FR has. And then select "nested" and hit "change" to see the nested display, where replies to posts are indented to preserve the relationship between a post and its replies, and the replies to the replies.

And you can choose your preferred layout in the settings, and have all threads come up that way. That strikes me as a good idea, such that people who like it the way it is now can keep it that way, and people like me who like a little more organization - not that you'd know it from my desk ;) - can view it some other way.

[Lancey Howard]

ping

[4CJ]

There are lots of new posters that are unaware the federalist papers exist.

And the anti-federalist papers. The ratification debates. The state conventions. We have so many sources of the founders wisdom, yet few can even spell Constitution. How can we expect someone to uphold their oath, if they don't even know what the Constitution means?

[Cultural Jihad]

Care to explain why you're registered there?

How would you know it wasn't one of the loons using his FR name there? And would you begrudge him his right to register his own good name so that a loony lib loser cannot? After all, their definition of "liberty" is akin to the Nazis' definition of liberty to engage in dissembling and thuggery.

[NormsRevenge]

Let's face it, very few citizens living today have ever enjoyed true freedom since the Democrats took control in the '30s.

HERE HERE , SIR!!

The New Deal was actually a Raw Deal for the Future of the U.S.A.... And has created an Era of unprecedented Waste,Fraud,Greed & Corruption ... Who has led this country astray?Who held the House for all those years?

Thanks Jim for the forum to speak these truths.

How far down the road to destruction have we been brought by those who have worked from within our own system to work their nefarious schemes? Just take a look at the universities and courts.

[nunya bidness]

Can you try that again using English?

[sweetliberty]

Jim, it is fun when you participate on a thread. You are quite a character.

[WIMom]

That's why it's so important we guide our new members about the constitution. We have to keep showing them. Who else will? Not our public schools presently. The new members already made a big step logging on to a conservative site, we just need to give them guidance. I always try to show respect for our them (except for the obvious disruptors). We have to start somewhere.

[4CJ]

If I was there on the tax-cut threads, it was because YOU had already done all the work.

[WIMom]

Not only universities and courts, but public schools as well!

[4CJ]

YES!

And I don't keep a copy or bookmark it, so I'm always ROTFL when I see it again!

[WIMom]

You are so easily amused!

[sweetliberty]

Ratatoskr - No current Freeper by that name