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]

All for having fun. I love playing around on the threads and enjoy a good diversionary thread as much as anyone.

The point is that they have become too frequent, and the news of the absurd and the fluff and the tabloid stuff and the freep this poll stuff is getting to the point where it is overwhelming everything else.

If we could get it back to where it is just, um, whelming everything else instead of overwhelming it, then I would be all warm and fuzzy inside.

[martin_fierro]

[Prof Engineer]

Well said. Thanks for FR.

[sharktrager]

I'm curious. All of these stories are deemed chat worthy, but every day we have numerious parodies and other "humor" posts allowed to stay in news.

Now, to me, a story about rising syphilis rates, even as a regional story, is a hell of a lot more news worthy that the 50,000th different caption this pic or 10,000th song parody. At least the "regional" story shows a cultural decline, which is, in fact, a reasonable topic for this site.

[SuziQ]

At this point chat may as well be renamed Hobbit world... 8 * )

Works for me!

[tpaine]

Hmmm, --- no wonder I'm always in so much trouble around here, I've been calling the wrong mod fer help..

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Is there any chance we can get free bagels on Fridays?

[The Westerner]

Excellent point! One of the real values of FR is watching cultural trends.

[The Westerner]

Jim,
Remember the old button that allowed us to not display certain threads? That was a good one. So if I wanted to see mostly news, I could opt out of Kobe/Michael/Scott. Or opt back in when the mood moved me. Now that I have your attention, would it be possible for John to de-highlight "New Posts To You" after posting a comment?
T.W.

[Amelia]

All of these stories are deemed chat worthy, but every day we have numerious parodies and other "humor" posts allowed to stay in news.

Exactly my point about there being no consistency in enforcement right now.

[headsonpikes]

no consistency in enforcement

A foolish consistency is the crutch of little minds.

Somebody smart said that.

[Rebelbase]

"Ok. So what about the 1,000 Scott Peterson threads?"

What he said.

[Rebelbase]

test

[Amelia]

A foolish consistency is the crutch of little minds. Somebody smart said that.

I suppose quoting smart people is the next best thing to actually being smart.

[Charles Henrickson]

"The Island of Misfit Threads"

[Prof Engineer]

You'll they're in Chat as well.

[Jalapeno]

Jim,

From a user perspective, It really isn't very clear for old and new people alike (how to post to the different the forums), and it took me a while to figure out how to not post "non-news" items in the "news" section.

I think a lot of folks,like me, link to the news page itself and rarely visit the homepage if ever. Perhaps when you hit the "Post Article" link, you can first supply an option for which "forum" it needs to be placed in (with short description).

Just a thought. I think it might save those 'evil' moderators some time and energy if a mechanism like that was in place. ;>

[martin_fierro]

Man, are we on a wavelength, or what.

I'm a-skeered.

<|:)~

[The Westerner]

Jim, Sorry to have posted to you before I read the thread. Whatever you say goes, of course. One last wish, could we go back to the system whereby you could see what "latest posts" looked like at any particular point in time? It was invaluable to me when I came home from work, to be able to see what the noon crowd was entranced with. Thanks for the whole gizmo. I'm hooked.
The Westerner

[Jim Robinson]

Well, there is a crude way to do that now.

Scroll down to the bottom of the latest posts page and click on "Show more threads." You should receive a page that has a URL similar to:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse?more=1027625

Subtract a couple hundred or so on a week day (fifty to a hundred on a Sunday evening) and you should be there:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse?more=1027565