Posted on 06/25/2002 3:42:21 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:
Subject: The Future of Our Free RepublicDear Fellow Free Republic Member,
Many of us at Free Republic are distressed by the extraordinary level of censorship that has been so obviously going on. It is very obvious that individual posts, entire threads, and the entire work of members who have been highly regarded are disappearing into a Memory Hole.
Scores of us have organized an e-mail network that is independent of the communication controls presently, and sadly, being used at our Free Republic. We have carefully documented the unmistakeable evidence that most of the posts, threads, and posters that are vaporized completely are overwhelmingly targeted for their political stance on the Right. These are not Leftwingers. These are not even Middle-of-the-Roaders. These are not disruptors. These are not foul-mouthed delinquents. These are fellow patriots on the Right who disagree with the controllers of FR on specific issues that are now hotly debated by the Right. We have documented that FR will parade before you, as if to hide all of the great posters whose work has been destroyed, a straw-man delinquent that has been banned. This is deceptive.
Treating these fellow patriots on the Right so shabbily is not right. As shabbily as those banned into the Memory Hole are being treated, the most shabbily treated of all are all of the good folks on Free Republic themselves. We came here for honest debate. Free Republic advertised itself as a Forum for honest debate. Without that honest debate...everything at Free Republic becomes shabby.
We can do much better. As a measure of how intense the simmering feelings have gotten among members on this unjustifiable use of deleting, censoring, and banning please link to the following thread. You will notice that one simple and sincere plea from one of our finest members has spontaneously touched off a prairie fire of approximately 500 posts in a mere 18 hours. If it isn't Memory Holed this thread may shoot into the thousands.
If you would like to receive anonymous updates of information concerning the hundreds of Freepers who have networked via e-mail to restore the wonderful honest debate to Free Republic, just drop an e-mail of just one or two words if you like for extreme brevity to:
StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
And, here's that link back to the snowballing thread at FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704701/posts
Thank you so much for giving your thought to this vital matter for our Internet home.
Sincerely, StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
Why wouldn't they? How long you've been here is completely relevant in evaluating your opinion that FR is falling apart since you've been here.
Eh? How long since you've been there? And how long did you stay?
There's no censorship on that site, and never has been. There's a number next to the "in reply to" of your post that indicates how the mob (if you like) rated what you said. Both ends of certain ideological arguments rate each other down fiercely. It affects nothing at all but that little number (and that person's ability to rate other posts, but they pretty much cancel each other out).
The difference? When the ignorant, whey-faced moronorators on FR disapprove of a post, it disappears. Vanishes. Becomes a non-post. Sometimes a non-thread. Nobody gets to read it.
Honestly, if the LF system is a bit silly, the current FR way is just creepy.
I have a number of acquaintances that have just quit posting here go there due to what they saw happening here, some who were banned, and there may be people from other forums who received the invite....I haven't a clue....but that doesn't bother me, either.
Just like here, I choose what I want to read and dismiss the junk or less important threads.
I was banned once. People used to know me as MarkWar. Over a year or two, I put up such threads like La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Prohibition a Good Thing?! (my title) and Constitution as a _Conceptual_ Maginot Line and Blue Nation has Turned America into "Junkie Girl".
I don't believe anything I ever posted was covered by the "explanation" that:
"Those who get booted are usually posters who post racist materials, posters who post anti-Semitic materials, posters who post Holocaust denial materials, those who spread the "Protocols" nonsense propaganda, those who post Marxist propaganda and attempt to pass it off as truth, those who deal in tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, those who condemn others based on race or religion..."
Not only do I believe such explanations which tar and feather me as a racist/marxist/anti-semite, etc. (those are the people you say who get banned) are unpleasant and simply untrue, but people like BlackJade and many others don't fall into any of those catagories either.
This was my home away from home. I loved it here. Anyone who looks at the threads I put up can see that I wasn't a trouble maker. I loved it here, and I worked my ass off to add value and conservative content that many people enjoyed, and many people felt was unique. Yet I got banned.
Please, Jim, do what you want to do. Run the site however you want to run it. I still love it here. I still love the people here. But why do you make a bad situation worse by saying your banning policies are one thing, when everyone can see (and, sadly, so many have experienced) that they are really something else entirely?
-- KotS
I've never used "that first line" before. You've got me confused with someone else.
You've got a score to settle it seems, with pet lovers.
BTW, what's with the name? THat name doesn't jive with your bleeding heart animal lover persona.
Ever tried to get a horse who sulls to move? You've got to sink some spur. It doesn't hurt the thick hide on a horse in the least, as long as the rowels aren't locked. The line comes from MCCLINTOCK, a John Wayne movie.
I agree. I lurked here for a long time before registering. At the same time, I'm sure you recognize why a complaint on a month old date could be suspect.
WOW!
I would have read them and blackmailed them!
You missed a great opertunity to be rich!
Are you by chance Bob Dole?
Did you by chance pay attention to the Congress with a Republican Majority in both houses and having a mere Perverted President (D)?
I suspect that you are right.
Hubris is so unattractive in a self-important, dictatorial, minor-league weasel in uniform.
Been through airport security lately?
Managing a forum of this size is a gargantuan job. I'd be overwhelmed. It's a testimony to the Robinsons' talent, hard work and good judgment that Free Republic is the best site on the internet.
And I'm sure it was just an honest mistake when that post of mine got pulled.
Now I have to picture a poor nag getting heel kicked by an impatient cowpoke. Thanks alot. ;-)
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