Posted on 10/26/2009 4:32:01 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
This is a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Admin Moderators (Sidebar gave us some attitude so we shoved him in the closet for a while. He never recovered from the Yacht incident) For a while, we have noticed some things happening that we need your help with. The Free Republic community is strong; we are almost a family, albeit very dysfunctional at times. Like any community, we have new members joining us daily. Unfortunately, the air of suspicion and the desire to keep things “the way they are” has fostered a feeling of distrust with new members. Almost every day, we see new members join, then, because of comments of suspicion, they often don’t return. For any community to thrive, it must grow. Because of this, we are asking for your help. Here are some important things you should know:
The Internet has changed greatly since Free Republic first started. When we formed, few people had their own websites, now, everyone has their own blog. With this, there is an attitude change where someone who doesn’t understand how our community works may be more interested in self-promotion than we have been used to in the past. We don’t want to change the overall feel of this site- it is about our shared values, not about self promotion, however, we don’t want to drive people away simply because they link to their own blog. There are blog “pimps” who want nothing more than to promote their own sites, but for most people, it is simply how they start out sharing their thoughts on a matter. Encourage these members to take part in existing discussions.
Many new members may not communicate well what they believe and it gives the appearance they are not 100% kosher in their Conservative beliefs. This may have nothing to do with their Conservative credentials but simply how they are communicating their beliefs or how the media/pop culture has told them what to think. Be an example and discuss what you think is wrong. A liberal troll’s true colors will reveal themselves while a new member who is honest, but may not communicate well, may learn from the conversation.
Remember, how you respond to a topic not only reflects your thoughts, but also is a reflection of the community and Conservative values. We need to be an example of positive conservative values when responding to members, especially new ones. As mods, we make a strong attempt to screen all new members. Every new sign-up goes through a period where their posts are reviewed. This helps us eliminate most trolls, porn and commercial spammers, and those who don’t fit in with our Conservative values. This isn’t a perfect system, but it does help us make sure that by the time a new member reaches the community, there is a greater chance this person is the type we want around. Some slip through, yes, and you can always help us by hitting the abuse button. (of course, we do let some world class morons through every once in a while as “Live Chow”- after all, the kitties have to have toys.)
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With all that said, we need to grow. We need to be far more welcoming to new members and guide them into how to use our community best. With this said, we are issuing a challenge to our long time Freeper family. We would like to start up a ‘welcome wagon’ type of ping list or group whose job it is to welcome new members, show them the ropes, and guide them through our community. This could be as simply as giving new members a kind welcome, guiding them to how to post topics or replies, or just making the experience pleasant.
As this is your community, we would like your thoughts, ideas, and most importantly, for some of you to step up and help us with this.
We are passing the ball to you. What do you think?
I use a BlackBerry Storm as my main phone and Freeping works great on that as well. On the other hand, I’m a member over on eGullet and it is almost impossible to post there. A lot of forums on news sites and Parcbench don’t work on the iPhone at all. Never had an issue with FR.
Something else I like about FR is that all the topics have XML feeds like blogs (most forums don’t have this). I built an Air tool that lives on my desktop that streams news for topics and keywords I like. Little things like that are what keep me here. It is like an erector set, very simple in its design but once you see how it works, you can do a lot with it.
It’s not just the newbies being slammed. I have been here since late 2001 and I had two Freepers snipe at me on a Doug Hoffman thread for supporting him today. One was the class of 98 and the other from 99. I lumped them in the Grumpy Old Men classification...
Sometimes the right FReepername (getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL) opens FReeper hearts and the wrong one (Obama2win) immediately alerts the Kitties.
[Your reply seems to indicate that you think I’m slamming FR. Geeeez, brother.]
First, I am a woman.
And - I wasn’t trying to be snarky, so your reply surprised me!
Please reread my comment, I even put a question mark at the end of it. I have been reading through the whole thread as it went and did see your comments.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2371466/posts?page=178#178
"held my nose" is a partisan utterance. It identifies partisans (Republicans) on this forum.
Had this forum succumbed to partisan persuasion it would be gone today. Were this forum to tolerate moderation or partisanship to achieve conviviality it will perish.
From my perspective newbies are on their own. If they don't due the homework, or don't pay their dues by lurking, they will perish when they publish, as they should.
That, I believe, is the answer to the heightened level of anger and profanity we've seen in the posting here. Just look at what that Marxist is attempting to do to our country.
The explosion of anger we're all seeing is entirely justified in my opinion. We'd all be less than sane if we reacted with anything less than anger and extreme indignation. It's entirely appropriate, given the circumstance.
That being said, there are ways to communicate one's anger without resorting to vulgarity and cursing on a public forum.
John's Focus forum software is extremely well done. The changes he's introduced over the years have been well thought out, carefully implemented and impress me to no end.
At least for me, part of FR addiction is how well everything works.
I agree. Some are too quick to fire first.
Excellent points, AM.
I think given the very real and present threats to our Republic, most of us who have been fighting the Patriot fight for a while have developed a hair-trigger.
Many of us (myself included) need to take a step back before we engage, take 10 deep breaths, and rather than shoot from the hip, ask in a kindly manner if we understand what they are saying before replying.
Also, if we’re all pretty much on the same side of the tug-of-war rope, let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt and be a bit more tolerant. It’s highly unlikely we’re all going to agree 100%. But if we’re in the 70th or 80th percentile, let’s live and let live and fight the good fight together.
Lmao!!
Sad, but true!
I agree with that whole heartedly. I do not like the meanness when it comes to vulgarity and crude comments about Obama’s children, and there has been some of that too.
As I posted early on, take out the hate on Obama and his cohorts, they are the ones betraying us.
I think I can be happy with all that! We need a bigger family and what better way to do that then to welcome like minded people, and help the more undecided learn? Awesome post!!
— no I am NOT suckin up to the mods.... Geez
I wasn’t trying to be snarky, so your reply surprised me!
Apologies, if I read something into your post that you didn't intend.
Really, I'm not even trying to start a sub-thread with my ideas about upgrades to the site. I'm actually surprised at all of the comments that I got about it.
Frankly, the lack of a Rich Text Editor is the only thing that I find even slightly annoying about the layout of FR. As some others have said, the bare bones simplicity actually promotes more (and better) intellectual expression, and I agree with that.
Adding too many slick features to the site would probably tend to encourage more play, and less real discussion, which is what we all love most about the place.
That being said, there are a few very basic upgrades that would actually enhance the site without degrading the quality of communication here. I think a Rich Text Editor is one of those things.
At the end of the day, this is JimRob's house, and it's going to be whatever he wants it to be. He's been an excellent steward, and I see no need to second guess him about what tools should, or should not be implemented here.
Whatever happened to him? Here one night, and gone the next
Oh, they let him back in a few times.
He promised to be good.
He really tried.
And then he’d get worked up, usually an Ann Coulter thread, and POP! he’d be back on some other forum griping about the Free Republic rules and how they were out to get him.
...
... and have taken to attacking small children...
...
... or each other.
OK, now be aware that I am trying to be very nice!! LOL
I had written earlier in the thread that I've seen hundreds of other forums and did not like their set up as well as here. So - I am confused that it is considered ‘bare bones’.
On other forums it is harder to post directly to someone or see replies to yourself. At least that's the way I ‘see’ them as I browse through. I just don't like all the little ‘quote’ boxes piled one inside each other on many forums. The ‘edit’ feature is the only thing I would consider an improvement.
Even Lucianne, I just don't like the way it's set up. Can you understand what I mean? This forum just seems so easy and convenient to me.
I like this idea, too. Sort of enforces the newbie in earning their lower level merit badges before being allowed higher responsibility. You learn a lot just be reading and posting to threads, so that after a few months you have a better feel for how it all works, the proper FR protocol, etc.
Yes. It may be hard to do, but we all should remember that FR is a house with walls of glass. We're not the only ones who see what's going on in here.
It's all too easy to get comfortable, and begin making comments that would cause a fist fight if they were uttered person-to-person.
I don't know how many times I've seen someone post excerpts of posts from DU where someone cherry-picked ugly, or even racist-sounding comments off FR, which were then published at DU and other left-wing sites, in order to injure us.
I would remind everyone of the warning in red type on the "Posting Comment" screen, which says, "Loose lips sink ships." I'm sure that warning is there to remind all of us that nothing we say here is private, and can easily be used against us by our enemies.
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