BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES! A plea to all FReepers... mostly new, a few old

FreeRepublic ^ | 11-7-04 | Red State Denizens & me

[cgk]

Now that the Election is over, and we've let the rest of the country know Loud and Clear where we stand, and who we stand behind... it appears to be a good time to get re-organized here on FR.

Perhaps it's the euphoria that isn't quite wearing off at the 5% mandate the President earned and was given voluntarily by all of us. Maybe it's the fact we picked up even more seats in both the Senate and the House. Maybe it's just knowing Sen. Daschle has been voted out.

Whatever it is... we need to get back to work. "W2" is just the beginning of our battle. If you've been over to DU lately... they're not exactly throwing in the towel, and neither should we.

HOWEVER - this seems to be a good time to remind everyone a couple of things. Flame away, I expect it, because I know I am by no means some kind of old-timer around here breaking my seniority out at every perceived slight. Then again, I've been waiting for one of those "since the 90s" FReepers to say this, and haven't seen it yet.

To those of you who found us after the Buckbeak/CBS Memo scandal... many of us (not all) do not consider FreeRepublic a Blog. Because the MSM has labeled FR as a blog, doesn't make it so. FreeRepublic is considered by most (from what I've read here since before the CBS debacle) as a Forum. A Blog has been commonly defined as a website hosted by one (or so) people - where they post their thoughts. An online diary. People comment or analyze on that person's thoughts sometimes. Sometimes not. Here on FR we comment on various articles, news events, editorials, and call out for action.

All that being said - because FR is not by common definition a "blog" - your every thought does not need, nor sometimes deserve its own thread. If you feel you really need to share something with everyone, it is best posted in the General/Chat forum.

Next... PLEASE PLEASE USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION! It can be found below, in its own link, and it is also found on the Main Forum page as a Handy little Box above all the current threads.

Hot tip: Searching for an exact title is less successful than typing in ONE keyword FROM the title of the article you're trying to post. Especially when people miss spelling errors in their titles, and change the titles of the articles. Searching for ONE word works, especially when it's by DATE.

We can all understand the excitement and confusion of Election Day, exit poll madness, and Arafat and his 72 lives.

There are pros and cons to duplicate postings.

• How many times have you clicked on an article you've never seen, only to see 2nd or 3rd in the comments "Already posted"?

• Suggested Solution: Notify the Admin Moderator or Sidebar Moderator about the Duplicate post by PROVIDING THEM THE LINK TO THE MAIN THREAD, so they can "lock" the thread and direct all future responses to the "Main" thread. This will help all of us from trying to follow news events on sometimes up to 8 or 9 threads. It stands to reason that if we help the Moderators out by providing the links for duplicates, things will proceed much more quickly and smoothly.

• Try not to abuse Topics when posting an article. If you want to get maximum exposure, it actually works if you post the thread where it belongs. I assume I am not the only FReeper who uses the Headlines page to gauge what the "Top Stories" are on FR. It's something else to see "Arafat Dead!" on every topic from "Breaking" (yes) to "FR" (no) to "California" (hardly) to "Anthrax" (source?). Not every story is breaking, especially those coming from unreliable sources. (Your own head comes to mind). Not every news story belongs in all 50 states. And no, not every thread from DU belongs in "News." (And if you're posting profanity-laced threads, clean it up please. We can all follow the original link, should we choose to expose ourselves to garbage.)

  ---

  I'm sure there's more others would like to add to the Bonfire... whether it's to agree or disagree. Long-winded I know, but much of it seems to be overdue. This seemed like as good of a time as any to gather all the valuable informative links and resources of FR and stick it in one place.

  I honestly am just trying to help out those who are new, and who are still riding the W2 wave. Let's not get sloppy.

  :)

  ---

  Recommended Bookmark/Starting Point:

  Your Headlines Page

  Main Forum

  Main FR Search Page

  ---

[cgk]

Don't forget the part about not speaking bad about them unless you want to incur a mighty painful wrath!

[Arizona Carolyn]

Buckhead is a "famous" freeper! Unfortunately Little Green Footballs keeps getting credit for breaking the story ---

[ChadGore]

We want to know what *you* think, not some 12 year old banging out liberal drivel on his Mommy's keyboard.

[DBeers]

nice vanity -do you have a mandate?

[Gumption]

and develop and pass legislation that ensures one qualified citizen, one vote.

How many votes do they get now?

[Hildy]

That's interesting...who cares? If I didn't know what FR was, and I read it was a blog, I wouldn't bother visiting the sites because, to tell you the truth, I think most blogs are exercises in vanity for people with enormous egos. I mean, who cares what somebody thinks about EVERYTHING. HOWEVER, a forum means just that. I would visit a forum, not a blog. That's why it means something.

[Polybius]

We can't actually clean it up until Arafat is completely dead, which may take weeks.

The true "Arafat is Dead" thread will be deleted as a duplicate.

[mlmr]

and develop and pass legislation that ensures one qualified citizen, one vote.

How many votes do they get now?

Unqualified citizens now vote.
Non-citizens now vote.
Some citizens and non-citizens vote more than once.

We now have a system that best fit a time where people in the precients knew their neighbors and fraud was minimal.

Because of travel and anonimity we need a better voting system.

[searchandrecovery]

BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES

A vanity criticizing other vanities? Dude, that's, like, ironically self-referencing. I myself like a little bit of messiness here - the spills usually get cleaned up pretty quick by the mods. But let me ask you one question: do you work for a large corporation in the human resources department? Well, also, a comment: Mr. Robinson sets and enforces the rules here - why not send this as an email to him first?

[ml1954]

IMHO, people that don't know the difference between a blog and a forum don't care and won't. IMO, this is 99.99+% of everyone. The MSM will try to say FreeRepublic.com = 'unreliable extreme right wing whatever'. They won't make the distinction between extreme right wing blog or forum. If people hear 'freerepublic.com' they will check it out if they are so inclined. How does that old saw go? Something like any publicity is good publicity as long as they get the name right. It's a marketing thing.

[Krodg]

While commenting on another post about how amusing they are, I did tell you what I thought..

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1273033/posts?page=63#58

... but I didn't want to start another vanity.

[Hildy]

I'm a Marketing professional. And I disagree with you. But that's what is so great about a FORUM, isn' it? ;)

[ml1954]

avoid cliches like the plague;

Isn't that a cliche?

[onyx]

I didn't have to read your name to know it was your question.

[ladyinred]

While I understand the concern about duplicate threads and vanities being posted, I do think some people here, new and old are downright rude about it, and many appear to "shop" around for them just so they can feel superior enough to call them on it.

A simple, "already posted would suffice, but that is not what they do. It is usually something like, "You joined (fill in the date) just to say this?" I wonder why they even click on the post in the first place.

Bad enough we have always had the spelling and grammar police, now we have the thread police. Just my opinion, and I am most likely alone in it! :-)

[onyx]

Exactly right Hildy.
FR is a FORUM, and its
vastly different from a blog.
In fact, I can name a few FReepers
who use FR to post ONLY their own blogs.

Like you, I like FR for NEWS articles,
and the comments of our membership.

The vanity threads are out of control,
particularly the one or two sentence types.

[ladyinred]

As for California, we are getting closer! The main thing I see is we need to get better election laws.

Were we somehow able to do that, for example showing ID at the polls and for registering, we might not have the fraud we do, thus getting rid of some of the liberals who win that way.

We need to get together and lobby somehow for these way too lax laws to be strengthened. I tried it by myself after the election of 2000, and got nowhere of course. Strength in numbers is something that might help.

[ml1954]

http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Weblogs/Politics/</url>

[EdReform]

many of us (not all) do not consider FreeRepublic a Blog. Because the MSM has labeled FR as a blog, doesn't make it so. FreeRepublic is considered by most (from what I've read here since before the CBS debacle) as a Forum.

Indeed. Free Republic isn't a 'blog' or a 'board'. We are

FreeRepublic.com ~ The Premier Conservative News Forum

( click here )

[EdReform]

If you've been over to DU lately...

Please make sure you wash your hands before you return to Free Republic.

;o)