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.