Posted on 06/02/2011 5:37:38 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
LAQUEY, Mo. (May 23, 2011) — Just one day after a tornado struck Joplin and destroyed thousands of homes, the 287 students of Laquey Elementary School began a fundraising project that they hope will help a fellow southwest Missouri community. The Laquey R-V School District is located to the west and southwest of Fort Leonard Wood, and the New Years Eve tornado which struck Fort Leonard Wood tore through the far southern end of the Laquey district on its way to the post. While nobody was hurt and the affected parts of the Laquey district were mostly unpopulated forested land, Elementary Principal Michael Mayle said he was glad students wanted to do something to help. “It was Pam Nelson; a kindergarten teacher. She came in this morning and asked if we could do something. Within 30 minutes, a fifth grade student, Mikayla Snyder, came in with the same idea so we kind of coordinated both efforts,” Mayle said. “We normally have a really good turnout of support for all kinds of different fundraisers. Not too long ago in February we did a ‘pennies for patients’ for leukemia and we set a $500 goal, and within a week we almost had $1,000.”
(Excerpt) Read more at pulaskicountydaily.com ...
I don't see this source on the excerpt list.
Some clarifications -- I own the Pulaski County Daily News. There are two local message boards in our county which have cited articles for years by copying the lead paragraphs with a link to the full article, and at this point I either post the articles on those message boards myself or have someone else do it for me.
I've been a registered member of Free Republic for about half a decade and I sometimes post the lead paragraphs of articles here, in the same format as the two local websites, if I think they would be of interest to a broader non-local readership, either due to military issues or due to major disasters such as what's happening with the Missouri National Guard mobilization to help Joplin.
Unlike many in the media, I'm a conservative. In fact, I'm a Reagan Republican and was campaigning for Reagan back in 1980 when he was considered unelectable by much of the Republican leadership. The last thing I want to do is tell conservative websites like Free Republic that they can't use the full text of news articles. In other words, using lead paragraphs with a link is a preference, not a requirement.
However, we have to deal with economic realities of a capitalist economy, and if we are going to document readership to advertisers, we need to back up readership claims with real statistics. I don't think it's too much to ask that people who are interested in the first few paragraphs of an article click a link to read the full article so we can report the number of readers to our advertisers.
(In that context, I'd better add that the web software we use doesn't even make it possible to identify individual readers. Since we're the most-read civilian newspaper outside Fort Leonard Wood, a large Army installation, a major percentage of our readers are active duty military or their families. I would never dream of reporting anything beyond aggregate numbers -- i.e., how many people have read each article, how many people visited the website on specific days and months, and how many of them had Missouri-based IP addresses versus non-local IPs.)
I trust that on a conservative website like Free Republic which values the military and values free enterprise, those reasons will be understandable.
Some clarifications -- I own the Pulaski County Daily News. There are two local message boards in our county which have cited articles for years by copying the lead paragraphs with a link to the full article, and at this point I either post the articles on those message boards myself or have someone else do it for me.
I've been a registered member of Free Republic for about half a decade and I sometimes post the lead paragraphs of articles here, in the same format as the two local websites, if I think they would be of interest to a broader non-local readership, either due to military issues or due to major disasters such as what's happening with the Missouri National Guard mobilization to help Joplin.
Unlike many in the media, I'm a conservative. In fact, I'm a Reagan Republican and was campaigning for Reagan back in 1980 when he was considered unelectable by much of the Republican leadership. The last thing I want to do is tell conservative websites like Free Republic that they can't use the full text of news articles. In other words, using lead paragraphs with a link is a preference, not a requirement.
However, we have to deal with economic realities of a capitalist economy, and if we are going to document readership to advertisers, we need to back up readership claims with real statistics. I don't think it's too much to ask that people who are interested in the first few paragraphs of an article click a link to read the full article so we can report the number of readers to our advertisers.
(In that context, I'd better add that the web software we use doesn't even make it possible to identify individual readers. Since we're the most-read civilian newspaper outside Fort Leonard Wood, a large Army installation, a major percentage of our readers are active duty military or their families. I would never dream of reporting anything beyond aggregate numbers -- i.e., how many people have read each article, how many people visited the website on specific days and months, and how many of them had Missouri-based IP addresses versus non-local IPs.)
I trust that on a conservative website like Free Republic which values the military and values free enterprise, those reasons will be understandable.
Classic blogpimp rationalization ping.
How many blog pimps have used this same good-cause, need-hits argument?
Then there exist no impediments to your posting of the full content here.
Unless you are only here in a commercial capacity.
Are you only here in a commercial capacity?
'Twould be far more noble if you'd post the article here in its entirety so as not to give the appearance of trolling for blog hits.
Just sayin'...
And where’s that shibumi guy with the great deal of the day?
I don’t know what to do with all the product I bought last night. Never drink and deal.
OMG! ROFL!!!!
The truth comes out!
Oh, wait ..... You ~NEVER~ comment on any threads other than you own, do you?
You only show up to pimp you blog and then skeedaddle.
If it wasn't for the chance to hawk you wares, we'd never know you existed, now would we?
Too many.
Guys, I have been here at Free Republic for years and I have never before seen anything like this type of negative response to something I’ve posted. Bottom line up front — I’m not going to post here if I’m not wanted, or if the Free Republic management (which to my knowledge isn’t even aware I exist) doesn’t want these posts.
I’ve been around the web long enough to know that a strongly negative response, especially if it has never happened before, may or may not reflect anywhere close to the majorty of readers.
For that reason, I’m copying this to some key people from the Missouri “ping” list, as well as others who have previously interacted with articles I’ve posted about Fort Leonard Wood, because I want to make sure what I’m writing here gets seen not only by the people who are upset right now but also those who are directly involved in Free Republic on Missouri issues on a regular basis, or who have a history of paying attention to what I’ve posted before.
While “squeaky wheels” often can and should get the grease, if I’m going to stop posting things here, that needs to be based on information from many people who read these articles, not just those who have commented on a few articles.
The question was asked whether I am posting Pulaski County Daily News articles here for commercial reasons. I’d be lying if I tried to say it wasn’t a consideration at all — it is a minor reason, but certainly not a major one.
I monitor where traffic is coming from. It’s almost entirely local readers, and that’s the way things should be with local media. Frankly, I would have a problem on my hands if I couldn’t say most readers are local. Free Republic sometimes makes the top 100 referring sites during a month, but when it does it’s usually near the bottom apart from occasional major stories about something important that our soldiers are doing. Up until this series of comments, I thought a fair number of people would be interested in how the Missouri National Guard and local communities in southwest Missouri are responding to the Joplin tornado.
In other words, posting things on Free Republic is of minimal help to me, and if Free Republic were generating a significant amount of traffic it would actually create a problem. Local media have to prove that their readers are local because our advertisers are local, not national.
What counts, however, is that I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted. If the site administrators, or even a significant minority of readers, don’t want things posted, they won’t be posted.
It doesn’t just take a majority to get me to go away. If a significant minority doesn’t want me here, I’ll go away, too. I have zero interest in creating a controversy on Free Republic. And obviously, if the site administrators don’t want me here, I’ll go away immediately. On the other hand, I don’t want to disappear and then have people wondering why I stopped posting on Free Republic merely because of a few complaints on a couple of articles by a few people.
Here’s some instructional material from the management -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2636843/posts?page=552#552
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2722423/posts
Further affiant sayeth not.
A significant minority on FR is about 10,000 people but I wouldn't hold my breath for that kind of response.
From the looks of this thread it doesn't appear that many folks care what you do. Except stop blog pimping.
Be sure to understand that I might read your stuff if you post in full but there is no way I am going to give your page a hit just to see if it is any good. You can bet on this. If you post in full and I like what I read I might visit your page or not, but at least there is a chance. As it is there is no chance.
I hate excerpting Blog Pimps and so do a great many FReepers.
If as others have posted you don't participate on other FReeper's threads then you are no more a FReeper than the Domino's Pizza delivery guy is a dinner guest.
However, on something of this nature, being about charity for a good cause and not just some type of local news, since it is coming from your own source, and not on the excerpt list, I think you should probably post the entire article, or as close to it as the software allows.
Other articles, basically local news, could be excerpted and try for the web hits.
Shibumi, you wrote this: “Oh, wait ..... You ~NEVER~ comment on any threads other than you own, do you? You only show up to pimp you blog and then skeedaddle.”
Click here, at item 23, for a fairly recent example of something else I’ve commented on Free Republic: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2723058/posts
That’s factual proof that the word “NEVER” is wrong.
On the other hand, it is true that I read much more than I comment, and it is true that I don’t post often on other people’s articles. However, when I think I have something to say that I don’t see being said by somebody else, I post a comment. That’s not just Free Republic — I think it would be a fair statement that I rarely post comments on articles on most news sites I read, with the exception of two local message boards in Pulaski County, though I read a large number of news sites.
You also wrote this: “Nobody asked you to stop posting. We asked you to stop Pimping. How does asking you for you to post more of your content constitute a negative response?”
Shibumi, as I’m sure you know, posting the lead paragraphs for articles with a link to the full article is the standard practice in the news media. That’s what most people want. Why post a thousand-word article when it’s easier to put up the key paragraphs for readers to decide whether to click to read the full text? I’m listening to what you and others are saying, and I’m willing to consider doing something different, but what you’re requesting isn’t something most “news aggregators” would even allow, let alone request.
However, I take an accusation of “pimping” as an accusation of bad motives. Certainly it’s not a positive statement. As I’ve said already, if people don’t want me here, I don’t want to be where I am not wanted, and that’s true even if a significant minority object. I have zero desire to create a controversy on Free Republic, and my primary concern is local readers, not traffic from Free Republic. It’s a minor source of readers, and if it became a major source of readers, I would have a problem. I run a local business, and I need to be able to honestly tell my local advertisers that most of my readers are from the local area around Fort Leonard Wood.
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