Email: The Future of Free Republic

Email | 06/25/02 | Jim Robinson

[cake_crumb]

"but instead, we benefited from the Whiggish system of happenstance, careful, evolving, organic growth of WHAT WORKS.....

Conservatism in action."

Yep.....go ahead, come out and say it...I will....it's FREEDOM. Only FREEDOM encourages and empowers us to use our native ingenuity.... which can only thrive in a FREE people. There is nothing like FREE THOUGHT, is there? LOL!

[Cachelot]

That truth being their equipment cannot handle a large influx at this time and they are working on the programming enhancements

More like their equipment can't handle anything not out of Mein Kampf, the Protocols or the Quoran. The site is a fever swamp, and believe me I've seen a few of them. Currently, they're giving Polinco a good run for their money and day by day getting more like a cross between the most unsavoury Islamic Jihad sites and Stormfront.

As for claiming that LF doesn't "stifle" anything, here's a couple of facts to chew on:

LF has (or used to, anyway) a "grading" system. Mob rule, which would allow the mob to render your posts invisible on normal read settings. Of course, that seemed to happen a lot to posts not seemingly hatched by some blood-drunk madrassa headmaster.

A while ago I was approached by some denizen of that forum who told me I shouldn't mention LibertyForum. Seemed it was semi-secret and they didn't like being talked about. You know, like roaches and light :). So not only do they carefully select their clientel (and I've seen what hysterical recriminations that were directed at someone who had invited a poster that didn't toe the party "kill the jooos" line), but they try to keep in the shadows too.

[Tymesup]

Jim,

I think Free Republic is terrific and that you are entitled to run it any way you see fit.

However, it does subjectively appear that more threads are being deleted, for reasons that elude me. For instance, the thread "
Senate's Shelby Blasts FBI on Flight School Memo ^
" has been deleted. The thread was started on May 20 and deleted on or about June 6. I don't understand what could have been OK for two weeks and then necessitated deletion of the entire thread.

Another instance concerned the banning of Black Jade. I used to follow her posts and noticed they had been deleted. Then, someone started a thread about her and ratcat being banned.

I understand they were banned because they were linking where they shouldn't have linked. I don't understand why the thread discussing the ban was deleted - the facts stood for themselves. By deleting the thread, it appeared there was more going on than there was.

Finally, I sent an email to the Sidebar Moderator on 2/22/02 asking about a deleted thread. There was no reply.

I hope we can resolve some of this stuff and get back to the regular business of this forum.

Freegards

[Ratatoskr]

Mob rule, which would allow the mob to render your posts invisible on normal read settings.

Peer review. The default read settings can be changed in an instant by anyone capable of eating with utensils. Jeez, don't any of you hang out at Slashdot?

As for the attitudes toward the Middle East——well, website attitudes often shift with time. Why, I remember when Free Republic was virulently anti George Bush.

Doesn't anyone else?

[Dales]

Yep.

And some old timers seem to be ready to buy into the idea that the problem is the old timers they don't agree with, and not the problem with those who keep popping in (and getting summarily taken out).

Strange.

[Jefferson Adams]

Amazing.

[VinnyTex]

Well my brother got booted off the forum for posting this article

Now I realize a few of the more militant Israeli firsters don't like Raimondo, but doesn't Free Republic link to Antiwar.com. I haven't checked the link page in awhile.

[jackliberty]

Those who get booted are usually posters who ... deal in tinfoil hat conspiracy theory,...

This is the only category I don't think should be in the bannable (?) list.

Many "tin foil hat" allegations have been documented to be true later. Discouraging discussion on what some people think is too far out there, would inhibit knowledge being shared. Let the members decide what is, or is not, a "tin foil hat" posting. FReepers are usually quick enough to demand "Cite your source".

Once upon a time, government mind control and Cointelpro were "tin foil hat" territory; then Congressional hearings exposed them to be real.

Saying Lee Harvey Oswald was not the (lone) killer of JFK would earn you a hat; where now even the History Channel runs a program "The Men Who Killed Kennedy".

And black helicopters, the be all and end all of "conspiracy nuts", were confirmed by named government sources in The New American magazine.

The Oklahoma City bombing, I think, will be the next to fall. And I'd like to think OKCSubmariner's (a top notch "tin foil hatter") efforts and research contributed to the outcome.

After my ramblings, tin foil hat postings should be the first place where "..., you decide" is the rule.

[CONSERVATIVE ALWAYS]

I have seen a lot of good conservative Freepers booted from FR lately! No question about it. I am very upset with all the censorship going on. It seems that if you are not 100% crazy about President Bush and all his policies you get labeled a democrat by the people who hang out at "a day in the life of pres bush." Yes, without a doubt, FR has changed. In my opinion it has not changed for the better. I must be honest - I am looking for a new conservative web site to hang out at. FR is going down the tubes. Gee - I wonder how badly I will be attacked for expressing my true feelings.

[carenot]

Not one "Comment removed by moderator". I might have to go back over all the replies again and see if that has changed, but as far as I know, not ONE dissenting view has been removed.

Go back.

[Cachelot]

Peer review. The default read settings can be changed in an instant by anyone capable of eating with utensils.

Rotfl. Yep, so they can. Are you actually saying that this is the important thing about a mechanism such as that, and that the peer pressure part of it plays no role? Are you actually tellimg me that you don't understand the very first basics of group behavious?

Or are you just trying to pull my leg with your utensils?

[MinuteGal]

Au contraire.....you'll NOT be attacked for expressing your true feelings about FR. You're to be commended for your honesty and expressing your disappointment with this forum. I sincerely hope you'll find a site more to your liking. Please ping me when you find one more interesting and better run than FR.

Thanks,

Leni

[Cachelot]

I seem to remember you crying about some thread my brother started on Free Republic

And your brother would be exactly who and what??

[mamelukesabre]

I think the quality of the discussions here is going downhill. I have to wonder if it is because TOO MANY people are being banned or having posts deleted. I personally have never been banned and as far as I know, none of my posts have ever been deleted. But I do detect a trend.

[Rowdee]

Exhibiting the width and depth of your intellectual level again, I see...

[Ratatoskr]

Are you actually saying that this is the important thing about a mechanism such as that, and that the peer pressure part of it plays no role?

Oh, no. Peer pressure is intended to play a role. That's the purpose of the ratings, in fact. I don't think it's all that effective, personally, but it's an interesting experiment. In a way, it's just codifying formally what FR does informally.

Or are you actually telling me you don't think peer pressure——backed up by the particular prejudices of the moderators——doesn't affect the dialogue here?

[Roscoe]

If the lunch were free, I wouldn't be dissenting (new word, learned it today).

You're confusing dissenting with dissembling.

[gcruse]

I wonder how badly I will be attacked for expressing my true feelings.

I think I see the problem here.  Change your screen name
to RepublicanAlways and you should fit in.  I have suggested
to several Freepers that RINO should be abandoned in
favor of CINO inasmuch as the Republicans are
deserting conservative principles and not vice versa.

[Admin Moderator]

I bet that would have worked better on another thread. Just a hunch.

Thanks, AM

[Cachelot]

Amazing.

Quite. It's an amazing place, as I'm sure you know if you're one of that crowd.

If you are, perhaps you can answer this: do you guys still have Tex-Oma hanging out here under the nick MarleysGhost?