[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.

[cgk]

Thank you for posting this. You have a thankless job, and you've bailed me out many a time correcting title typos, inserting articles into threads, etc and I appreciated each and every time you did so. And you did it with all this other nonsense going on to be monitored.

Thanks again.

[Reagan Man]

Free Republic has a tendency at times, to drift away from the discussion and exchange of conservative values, ideas and beliefs, into what I call the soap opera of gossip, heresay and irrelevency. Free Republic is meant for serious political engagement. Free Republic is not "Peyton Place".

[woofie]

I will ak again

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1026932/posts

Should this be chat? Why isnt it?

[Prime Choice]

Dunno if it's already been suggested, but maybe a "Tabloid" section could be added? Then Freepers could post the gossipy stuff about Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, porn stars and crocodiles could go there?

Just a thought. There may be many others like it, but this one is mine. : )

[woofie]

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

BASH!

[ambrose]

You're not the same mod that allows 500 zillion different Lord of the Rings vanity threads each year? It seems that some irrelevant garbage is more equal than the rest....

[Molly Pitcher]

THANK YOU! Besides NOT posting this kind of stuff you've linked, those of us who can, ought to post more of the pertinent, worthwhile items.

Thanks to those like JohnHuang2;kattracks, Utah Girl, The Raven, and all, who do!!

[leadpenny]

Yesterday, a couple of Michigan v Ohio State Football Game Threads got blocked or relegated to "Chat." In the future does that mean that all sports threads posted on the main board will meet the same fate? If so, I agree with the policy. If not, you are being arbitrary.

[M Kehoe]

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

OK.

You remind me of Ash and Eschoir combined, with a touch of DITHF to top it off.

Newbie.

How was that?

5.56mm

[P.O.E.]

Historically, this approach (asking via this sort of thread) only works for a while, without addressing the underlying dynamic that brings about the symptom.

IMHO, and based on some earlier responses, those dynamics include:

1) Trouble navigating to find such "non-core" threads
2) People like such threads (for fun, diversion, "breaks in the action", cameraderie, esprit de corps, etc).
-----They're one of the things I love about this place
3) Posters wanting to get attention to their thread (in rare cases, it's ego, but I think mostly it's because the poster truly thinks it's either interesting or deserves to be brought up).
-----The wide fields of expertise on FR is another one of the things I love about this place.
4) People need help (from the mundane, such as PC help, to the divine, such as prayer requests).
-----(FReepers helping each other is yet another thing I love about this place)

Is upholding the constitution one of the things I love about this place? - You Bet. But there's so much more.

Perhaps a bit of navigational redesign, while costing more than this approach, may be necessary. Otherwise, I would only expect you'd have to do this again, sooner or later.

[GOPJ]

FreeRepublic is so much better this morning.

Professional disrupters break up our ability to form a community by posting large numbers of articles and by posting bonding type articles in the middle of the night. My guess is that they also contribute heavily. If they acted like Ash, they would unite us. They act like one of us, but the effect they produce is destruction.

Remember when a first post was a thing of pride? Contrast that with broad search-dumps that posters couldn't even have the time to read themselves.

Maybe it's time to come up with a FreeRepublic statement of ethics: a post is a gem you want to share with others.

[NormsRevenge]

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.

---

The same can be said for the "moderate" influence that taints some threads and supports the further infecting of our govt from top to bottom. Heck , I saw a title labelled with (Misleading Title) as part of its title. I guess we don't need to read things for ourselves anymore, just let someone else do your thinking for you. You can't get much more user friendly that that, huh? ;-)

When we are told to quit having fun, I'm out of here. Seriesly. ;-\

[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.

[185JHP]

"We can read and post in safety because strong moderators stand ready to protect us from nuts and disruptors" (a paraphrase).

[Modernman]

Chat is such a black hole, I think everyone is extremely hesitant to post there. You're better off taking your chances posting in News. Unless the article is abusive, the worst that can happen is that it gets moved to chat.

Might one possible solution be to increase the number of forums and better define what the different forums are for? That way, you could more strictly enforce what goes where.

[Fledermaus]

I'll be happy to comply, but yet again, for the UMPTEENTH TIME...where the hell is the "chat forum"? I can't find a button on the main page that says "chat forum".

Maybe most posters don't follow the guidelines because they, like me, don't know where the heck "chat forum" is!

I'm just asking. It might be me. But I can't find it.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I don't know if those stories detract from the main focus of this website. To me it simply means that conservatives have a sense of humor. We need one these days ;-)

[k2blader]

Bumpity!

[Cubs Fan]

This forum may have a problem with tabloidism, but it has a worse problem with censorship.

It seems to me at least some of the moderators are way too eager to move threads, toss threads, suspend and ban people.

Just as a government that governs least governs best, a site that governs least governs best.

[Wolfstar]

Not intending to be unkind to those who have family members with medical problems, but the "prayers needed" threads, and cooking threads, and such, really don't belong on a news/political site, either. There really is so much irrelevant (to news/politics) stuff cluttering the site these days that it's beginning to get a bit discouraging.