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?
It is very frustrating because we do not know from where in Scotland they came, though we know a tiny bit of information about it, verified by a chance meeting with someone else with the same surname but not related this side of the pond. Our guess is they left during the Clearances, when whole Highland (and Island, all Gaelic-speaking) communities disappeared.
I should try again.
We know where the records are now, in a depository in Bath, England, but need to schedule something like a week's visit there.
Hi Sion.
Sounds like a yukky cough....I hope you feel better soon.
Oh. Ugh. In my "Russian period" I devoured everything by Solzhenitsyn, including the entire "Gulag Archipelago", "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" and "The First Circle."
Add to that "Cancer Ward" and... I am not sure I want to return.
For all that if I ever get to Moscow, I want to at least see the infamous Lubyanka prison (from the outside only, please).
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was much more uplifting, esp. in short stories.
How are you? Snow gone?
Did you ever get Mein Kampf?
You better! We’re not finished with you yet!
I’m good, thanks. Some of the snow is gone, and the rest should go tomorrow, when we get up to 6c.
No more trips for you before Christmas then?
What I’ve read so far is fascinating. It’s about a specific piece of ancient Greek pottery that was found in an Etruscan tomb in Italy, and all the carrying-on of museums, collectors, dealers, tomb robbers, and law enforcement that it generated.
Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov had an office in Lubyanka. Stuart M. Kaminsky (the writer) died this year. He also wrote a series about Toby Peters, a detective in WW2-era Hollywood who took cases for movie stars.
The Russian police novels could get pretty depressing, but the Peters ones were always fun.
And we will all get new company cars before the end of the year.
No more planned trips before mid-late January. But you never know -- week before last I was able to duck an almost last-minute mid-December invite back to D.C. I don't think I would have had much to contribute to that meeting anyway.
But one of these days the youngest sionnsareen and I need to put the Advent/Christmas lights up outside to fend off the darkening gloom.
Do tell. *\;-)
"The First Circle", on the other hand, was rather interesting to this proto-engineer reading about being an engineer employed as such in prison!
We are getting the same weather we had in the fall of ‘97, just before the “Ice Storm of ‘98”.
Novels about the Roman Empire are the same kind of depressing.
I’m sure the concept of being a prison-engineer is rather ... thought-provoking. I suppose if we get the internment camps here that the overwrought sometimes predict, I can be an inventory clerk or something ;-).
Sometimes it comes with interesting things (I have a few great photos and memories of famous places around the world), some of it becomes old hat, you learn to deal with most of the rest, and just struggle through the occasional bad. Endurance is the key -- this too shall end.
We are getting the same weather we had in the fall of ‘97, just before the “Ice Storm of ‘98”.
Aiiiie. I don't much remember the weather patterns of previous years, but I hope we're not being set up for the bad windstorms (LoM says they've had them while I was away) or the bad snowstorms. But... prepare, and hang on!
And good morning, Undead everywhere. It’s a very Zombie day here already.
It may sound unflattering, but Undead is better than the alternative.
I agree 100%. I think I’ll make more coffee. It’s freezing in here!
LDS.org has spent the last two years with a massive effort involving 100,000+ volunteers around the world to transcribe information from documents in many languages.
That, plus the regular genealogy that is available should help your search. There are also indexes available that may help.
You might also try EllisIsland.org.
So much more information is available than a few years ago, it’s amazing.
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