I am one of the ones who hit the abuse link. If there are multiple threads on the same subject, then the threads lose focus and posters may miss valuable information. I understand your frustration and respect your decision but think that server performance and keeping the discussion focused should be factored into the decision.
It also would help if people would just look in the Breaking News sidebar or do a search before they post a thread. Many Freepers want to be able to look at the Breaking News sidebar to see what truly is going on in the world.
Excellent advice. I use "search" and this link
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/my/review
Whenever I'm looking for the top stories.
Of course, I subscribe to about 17 topics so my "Review/Headlines" page is quite full.
IMHO having to read in just about every message some little snide remark about how everything isn't done just perfectly is pretty obnoxious in it's self. Frankly, many mistakes are entertaining, much more entertaining than listening to the school teacher's dictates.
What you and those like you who get into huffs because of duplicate threads or whatever; are really about as rude and boring as going around and pointing out spelling errors and punctuation corrections.
Instead of posting a whine about how this or that is a duplicate thread or what ever isn't up to your standards, simple post a link to the other thread.
The 'free' in freerepublic is not about control freaks.
All well and good in a perfect world. . .