There are too many posters on this forum that delight in chasing others around and trying to incite "ZOTS". They'd rather flame someone into an offensive reply that will get that person banned, than they would rebut the other poster's argument. And unfortunately it appears to me that, all too often, this transparent ploy is successful and the other poster is banned.
No doubt this is the case because many of the "ZOT-inducing" posters are unabashadly pro-Bush, and they generally attack criticism of Bush. I understand that the stated goal of FR in this election year is to elect as many Republicans to office as possible, but I submit that site management needs to consider whether the best method of doing so is by allowing pro-Bush posts (no matter how demeaning or obnoxious) to clutter the forum at the expense of all other substantive posts.
99% of the participants here likely already know who they'll vote for - the forum will only have utility as something other than an echo chamber if outsiders take it seriously. And it seems that serious commentary is being overrun by a chatroom mentality in many cases. IMHO, FreeRepublic stands a better chance of fulfilling its stated goal of electing Republicans if the level of discourse (including dissenting views) was raised a few notches, and those who think this forum exists for them to chase others off it, were chased off it themselves.
In short, the threshold for whether a poster is banned shouldn't be political persuasion, but rather how disruptive they are to the forum. Let other posters rebut liberal/foolish (they're one in the same, after all) arguments using logic and reason - not vitriol and insults. (And it seems to me that should be communicated to all posters...reasonable, honorable criticism of the administration shouldn't be met with scorn and ridicule, and I see that happening far too often. The argument itself is ignored while the poster is told to take it to LP, LF or DU...that criticism of the administration is not tolerated here...that this poster since 1998 is in fact a Moby plant.)
Take it for what it's worth...it occurs to me that I'm beginning to adopt the same tone of many of the "oldtimers" when I first signed up here. And at the time I thought it was foolish. Perhaps it's just the natural evolution of internet fora that posters become disgruntled and are replaced by newer posters...
I do wish that people would stop calling for Zots and let them happen when they are appropriate. There is plenty of time for mocking trolls after it has been established that is what they are, rather than trying to be the first to identify them.
That's one of the ways of the world. Every good has its bad, everything that works in moderation can be taken too far.
Thanks, LM