So, What Sort of Free Republic Should This Be?

[Lead Moderator]

"Pantless driver charged over kiddie porn"

Dr Who fans to mark anniversary (40 years!)

DRUDGE "THE 'LOVE' LETTERS TO 'RUBBA' THAT MAY DESTROY JACKSON"

Seeking Help for a Computer Problem (Vanity)

'Can YOU Be A Porn Star?'

Oklahoma U. Qualifies for College Football Title Game

Man tries to smuggle bologna in shape of car seat over border

Posner is a fraud........

Screenless TV's Picture Floats In Thin Air

Syphilis Cases Rising In Idaho - many of the victims are pregnant

Michael Jackson: Take me to South America! (Midair meltdown as he returned to CA)

Teenager narrowly escapes crocodile attack

Dixie Chicks Singer Still Speaking Mind

All of the above were originally posted to news. That means that for a person having their settings for 50 threads at a time, their latest posts page would have had all of these.

All have been moved to chat.

[Lead Moderator]

Those were all posted within 22 threads of each other. Some are news. Some are widespread news, some are local news. Some are news of the bizarre. Some are interesting. Most aren't.

But do they have anything to do with what our site is about?

Perhaps an argument could be made for one or two of them, IF the discussion went a particular direction. Big if, from what we have seen.

If you have an article that is something you think is funny or interesting or bizarre, but it doesn't really have anything to do with conservatism and in particular conservatism in America, please post it in the chat forum. We don't move over everything that should be, but perhaps we should and perhaps we will. We would prefer people to do the right thing on their own.

To be perfectly blunt, if I were trying to think of the perfect way to disrupt a website from its objective, it wouldn't be to come in and post things that would get me banned. It wouldn't be to come in and talk off the wall. It would be to come in and just gently steer the site to irrelevance. I am NOT saying I think that many of you are doing this on purpose, but I am saying that lately that has been the end result.

Please, show a little bit of sense. Post the news of the weird and the tabloid stuff and such over in chat. If it truly is as popular as you think, people will follow and that forum will pick up. If you post this stuff over there and that forum doesn't pick up, you will know.

Either way, please give it a whirl, and don't gripe at us when we try to keep the main forum in focus.

Proceed with the moderator bashing on this thread as is customary for these threads.

All the best,

Lead Moderator.

[Admin Moderator]

"Proceed with the moderator bashing on this thread as is customary for these threads."

Those dang moderators.

[Old Sarge]

Wilco.

Out.

[tet68]

Led Moderator was one of my favorite bands.

[onyx]

Finally. Thanks.

[maxwell]

Hey what is this Lead Moderator business, and what happened to Daryl? Hey Daryl, d'ya know this dude? I swear, I lay off FR for a couple weeks and the whole place goes to lala-land...

[Straight Vermonter]

I'm with you on this one. FR used to be a great place to debate constitutional ideals etc. Now it is difficult to find important news while weeding through the morass of Michael Jackson and other nonsense news.

[Pikamax]

from the short time I have been posting, I think the above examples(except for maines, that concerns news)usually comes in spurts and I don't think is becoming the norm for the forum. Another is that its the weekend and news is usually slower.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Proceed with the moderator bashing on this thread as is customary for these threads.

It's no fun if you give us permission!!! ;-)

[Admin Moderator]

I was poisoned by too much lead.

[umgud]

Given the theme of FR, shouldn't moderators be conservaters?
But......... I do agree with you. The consevative bent of this site is what attracted me in the first place.

[Admin Moderator]

Daryl here.

[Little Bill]

When politics slow and things get quiet topics will dift, I think that the collective memory will testify that things were rather slow after the Bent One was put out to pasture.

Things will get back on track when the next outrage happens, remeber 9/11.

[Lead Moderator]

Shhhhhhhhh. People will think that was my plan all along.

[sourcery]

When users don't use a system the way it was intended, is the fault with the users, or with the system?

[Senator Pardek]

DRUDGE FULL - HERPES STORY

[Admin Moderator]

If you see a 'chat' article, let us know, hit the abuse link. Thanks.

[wimpycat]

Just out of curiosity, how does one post something directly to "chat"? There is no "chat" option.

Choose any number of topics

General Interest
	Activism/Chapters activism	Activism, protests, news and business of Free Republic Chapters.
	Business/Economy business	Business, industry, financial, markets, trade, banking, budget, debt, taxes and economy news.
	Constitution/Conservatism constitution	Discussion of conservatism and conservative principles and issues.
	Crime/Corruption crime	News and discussion of crime, corruption government abuse, power grabs, and scandal.
	Culture/Society culture	Discussion of health, education, welfare, drugs, abortion, environment, housing, unions, employment, social security, religion, arts, humanity, sports, and other cultural and societal issues.
	Foreign Affairs foreign	News and discussion of international politics, foreign affairs, diplomacy, national security, war, military, defense and armed forces issues.
	Government government	News and discussion of all branches of government, departments, agencies, law, policy, legislation, processes and judiciary.
	Miscellaneous misc	Anything which doesn't fit into another category.
	News/Current Events news	News and discussion of current events.
	Philosophy philosophy	Discussions of philosophy and ideology.
	Political Humor/Cartoons humor	Funny stuff
	Politics/Elections elections	Discussions of politics and elections.
	Unclassified unclassified	Articles awaiting re-classification.
	Your Opinion/Questions vanity	All non-sourced non-news threads are posted here.
Highlights
	Announcements announcements
	Breaking News breaking
	Editorial editorial
	Extended News extended
	Free Republic fr
	Front Page News frontpage
Hot Topics
	Anthrax Scare anthrax
	War on Terror wot

[July 4th]

These kinds of articles have always been here, at least as long as I have been. (Over three years now...whoa!) But you're right - they don't belong in news.

[deadhead]

"Proceed with the moderator bashing on this thread as is customary for these threads."

OK