Posted on 02/11/2005 7:19:23 AM PST by Lazamataz
Recently, two Freepers who have some measure of prominance outside the forum have been damaged by liberals and/or Democrats. Jeff Gannon has resigned as a White House reporter, and the individual who goes by the name NCPAC has left his position in Maryland.
J. Gannon wasn't necessarily damaged by anything he posted here, but NCPAC was damaged by the work of a Democrat mole or a Washington Post reporter who revealed his freepmails.
It should be possible to post on this forum with anonymity and to be able to really discuss what's on your mind without worrying about Democrats trying to ruin your professional life, so, in order to help prominent Republicans who may wish to be an active member of Free Republic, I'm formulating some suggestions that I would like to have new users see.
This is what I have so far, as far as guidelines to help our prominent freepers avoid damage in the future:
If You Are A High-Profile Individual In “Real Life”….
If your daily job is such that you are a high-profile individual – as example, an official in a Republican campaign, or a state official in a Republican administration, or a rightward-leaning reporter – please read this article and take these suggestions.
- Please don’t reveal your identity. Please don’t drop hints as to who you are. Please don’t succumb to the temptation to show off a little and thusly compromise your anonymity.
- Know that there are Democrat operatives (and now, it appears, Legacy Media reporters) who pretend to be loyal conservatives. They will attempt to get you to reveal damaging information about your candidate, your administration, or your media enterprise.
- This is for ALL Freepers: Never reveal any personal contact information. Please don’t post (or share in Freepmail) any email accounts, private phone numbers, addresses, or places of employment – unless you really know and trust the person to whom you are revealing these things.
- Know that Freepmail can be, and sometimes is, exposed publicly. Please, never say anything in Freepmail that you would not want posted on the public forum. Please, people, add whatever you think might be helpful, and I will post the result as a new article.
Of that I have no doubt.
Some time back, there was a thread where a dad was discussing some freebie journal board his daughter was on. I won't go into the details, but the info he provided was enough for me to find out who his daughter was, if I had been interested to look. I told the guy that in Freepmail, and he had the thread pulled.
I've done similar things other times here, when I felt that the poster was revealing too much personal information, even though the poster wasn't aware of it.
I have no illusions. If someone wants, they can find out who I am. It's not brain surgery. We all reveal information about ourselves in our posts. Most of us post elsewhere, too, and the dots are fairly easy to connect.
My point is that each poster has to consider all of this and post accordingly.
People have mentioned DUers monitoring FR. Well, duh... But who else is lurking this forum? I'm amazed at some of the stuff people post here about their own lives, sometimes revealing what might well be illegal activities.
It's a bad idea.
(grin)
You get Thursdays (Saturday and Sunday are still open :-)
Good advise and something about which I needed reminding.
Thanks,SheLion,for the ping.
Please see #443
great photo...
Interesting that this is on FR right now - she wants to solicit ideas.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1341212/posts
"This is my first post here. I wanted to say hello and introduce myself. As you can tell by my handle, I'm a huge Ann Coulter fan. :-)
I've actually been checking out the site for a while... ever since a friend mentioned for about the third time. I finally decided to get registered today (slow day at work...)."
Thanks for the pings. I saw this thread earlier and will ping all of my lists here in a few minutes. Very important thread!
The only thing I would add to your list is that making stuff up is important to anonymity as well. For example, not even JimRob has a functional e-mail address for me. Another example - when storytelling, only use fictional names and places.
I hate to publicly admit to this tactic (which I employ), because it will make other Freepers (with whom I have a mutual trust factor) think I am dishonest. I would prefer not to use this approach, but learned early on (back to the non-Internet BBS days) never to be forthcoming on public forums. So, am I prominent? Am I female - as the screenname and persona imply? Who knows.....
BTTT!!!!!
Heck, that's easy.
Stay true to conservative principles.
Always take the high road.
Don't stoop to using the same tactics that they use.
I like your policy, David -- open, honest, and unafraid (much like Brit Hume). Some folks here, however, probably are in high places, and a flippant comment on FR could come back to bite them. It's happened before. But if a Freeper is in a highly-placed political or governmental position, they should exercise care in what they post or how they say things.
In some circles of the media, simply posting to FreeRepublic is tantamount to "extremism." The left is not beyond using guilt by association. Damn the website, and they damn anyone who posts to it, regardless of content of a post.
I guess we should consider it a compliment that some on the left are trying to "out" and attack members of the FR family. It shows how effective the impact is of this site.
I made that point yesterday on the thread (that has since been removed) and received a threatening freepmail this am.
How did the little fascist get ahold of NCPAC's freepmail? I suspect the mods have access to freemail exchanges, but those aren't public.
Now that's a photo. Thank you for serving.
Heck, that's easy.
Stay true to conservative principles.
Always take the high road.
Don't stoop to using the same tactics that they use.
Always practice what you preach.
Thanks Laz for the reminder. After being here for awhile and seeing the different machinations of those who come here to steal, kill and destroy this site, I've learned many lessons.
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