Posted on 08/10/2002 1:29:46 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The anti-FReepers are on the prowl. As most of you know, there is a group of ex-FReepers who have been dogging us for the last several years. The anti-FReeper community was started several years ago by a group of disgruntled individuals who were banned from FR and then wanted to get back at us by damaging our reputation. This started out as petty name calling and rumor mongering, but they now appear determined to cause us as much harm as possible. Even to the point of attempting to get FR and FRN shut down and the owners and managers of the organizations bankrupted or jailed.
Some of the early members of the group include ex-FReepers Mojo, Aligyrl, Landshark, Z2, Headhunter, LindaM, and others who have come and gone over the years. The most recent additions to active anti-FReeping appear to be ex-FReepers Clarity, Clinton's a Liar and JoeEveryman.
There appears to be a certain love/hate relationship involved here. Some of these people hate FR and its PTB (that's "Powers That Be" in their lingo) with such passion that they cannot stay away. Some of the original members of the AF community have given up and drifted off, some have come back to FR, and some are as determined as ever to kill FR and have me and whomever else they can thrown into prison for whatever crimes they imagine us guilty. Their motivation is pure revenge. Their driving force is hatred.
Their current attack is centered around an attempt to break up the Free Republic Network and, through that angle, to cause as much damage to FR as possible. Unfortunately for all of us, there is a genuine problem with the ex-leader of the South Carolina Chapter. Apparently, there was some money collected for events that was never paid over to the vendors and the chapter leader is accused of taking off with the money. I am not going into all of the gory details here, but I understand that there is an official police investigation ongoing and the SC Chapter and the FRN are cooperating fully with the authorities. The anti-FReepers, led by JoeEveryman, are trying to gain maximum leverage from any fallout from this case and are attempting to use it to bring down FRN.
JoeEveryman ran an FR thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/728856/posts) last week on this subject. I eventually deleted it because it was turning into an anti-FReeper haven and I do not want that on FR. The anti-FReepers have plenty of their own websites to conduct their hate campaign. Those who are interested may find JoeEveryman (posting as "Panjandrum") on the LibertyPost.org forum, now appearing to be the latest home of the anti-FReeper community. I have undeleted the JoeEveryman thread for those who are interested in reading it, but have left it locked. I do not want any more anti-FReeping activity on FR.
JoeEveryman is now banned from Free Republic. It is clear on the thead that he ran here on FR and on this (http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readarticle.cgi?114+1485+0+1) thread on LibertyPost.org that his intent is to bring FR down and to cause us as many legal problems as he can. I cannot see allowing him to do this on my own website.
It appears to me that they are either preparing some sort of lawsuit and or are trying to entangle me, Bob J, FR and FRN into the SC case. None of us had anything to do with whatever wrongdoing may have taken place in SC. The South Carolina Chapter is an independent entity, as are all of the FR chapters, and neither FR nor FRN have any ownership or control over their activities. It appears that the anti-FReepers are trying to break that down. We'll see. FRN is cooperating fully with the authorities and I will too if they ask.
In the meantime, I do not want them scheming on FR so they are banned and will remain banned. I will also ban any other FR members who get actively engaged in this attempt to bring down FR.
A request to all. Please do not drag any of the anti-FReeper stuff to FR. I do not want it here.
Free Republic has withstood many attacks over the years, from both the left and the right and I am confident that we will survive this attack from this Free Republic Haters Association as well.
Thanks for your continued support.
Jim
This started out as petty name calling and rumor mongering, but they now appear determined to cause us as much harm as possible.
This behavior is cowardly destructive in nature, the converse of conservative responsibility evinced by you and the preponderence of posters.
Free Republic is the open discussion of ideas in a civilized fashion, where there's no substitute for truth.
Let the accusers identify themselves and state their case clearly, or slink off out of sight and sound.
I think you are right in saying that the attitude you discribe will eventually hurt Free Republic. If this site is indeed solely for the glorification of our President, then I think it should be stated as such.
I was reading the other day about quotes by Sean Hannity about Free Republic, and I couldnt believe the way that Conservatives were attacking a fellow Conservative like Hannity in a way that can only hurt the reputation of members here.
I must say that I have never seen Liberals attack each other so openly and publically for daring to disagree in the way that I have seen here. I come here for news that I might not find elsewhere, and it would be a shame if this web site were discredited as a place for like-minds only.
I could be incorrect, but I think she is tolerated because she is a clear example of the average liberal and their thought processes.
I guess it is for the same reason that The Osbournes is such a hit. People know that Ozzy has fried his brains on drugs, but they cannot help but watch and laugh.
Then would you guys please explain to me why I, a Bush supporter, seem to spend a lot of my time feeling like I have to defend him here? Why I cringe when I log in, because thread after thread seems to be critical of him, and few threads seem to give him credit for ANY of the good he's done?
On second thought, don't explain it to me here. Please tell me elsewhere - because I don't want to contribute any more to this thread going off-topic...but please see the obvious - that people who dislike Bush are every bit as "allowed" here as those who support him.
Right now my agenda is shootin' my new .45 at the range. Rock Island 1911.
Great.
Last time I asked, "Where ya been?", you said, "lurking".
That was about 2 years ago.
You've got this lurking thing down pretty good, LOL!
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