Suggestions for a better Free Republic

Vanity | October 10, 2003 | RightFighter

[RightFighter]

I was just wondering if any of you have any suggestions for how to make Free Republic easier to use and a better place in general. This is NOT a criticism of Jim Robinson and I am most appreciative of all his hard work. This site is great and I enjoy coming here to learn about and discuss the conservative issues of the day. This is just my desire to see this site become more "viewer-friendly" than it is in its present iteration. I've had thoughts over the years about this and these are the ones that I keep coming back to:

1. Different background colors for alternating posts within a thread, for readability

2. Ability to set up chat rooms for certain events, rather than using the "Live Thread" concept. The entire idea of a "Live Thread" is somewhat of an oxymoron and EXTREMELY difficult to follow.

3. Smilies and other icons available when posting messages

4. Keeping track of numbers of posts by each user. Many forum sites do this, and some even give titles to users who reach certain posting milestones.

5. The ability to mark a thread for later reading, rather than having to "bump" the thread

[Calpernia]

FreeRepublic Yahoo Groups has a chat room. Thank can be used.

[knuthom]

Also the search feature needs to have an option to search the body of articles and responses...not just the title.

This is the only change I think we need.

[Flyer]

This is the best forum software I have used (I wish the Chapters could use it (hint)).

I would only go for an edit function if it was time limited to say within 3 minutes - just to correct spelling or links, etc. Once we say something stupid we should be stuck with it.

http://www.iespell.com/

[justshe]

On a practical level, I would like the ability in FRmail....to clean out my "SENT" folder without having to physically check each and every FRmail. A "DELETE ALL" function would be my hope.

[The Other Harry]

That's already in the rules, isn't it?

It's in the rules, but people don't always observe those rules.

I think anyone who does not should be summarily booted off. Why they tolerate these type of infractions is beyond me.

[Skooz]

How about having our picture to the right of our screen name at the bottom of a post? Kewl, huh?

[tang-soo]

I would like the ability to type in a time stamp and rebrowse forward and in reverse relative to that time. Sort of like reliving history. I remember a post a few months after the Columbia shuttle breakup that pointed to a thread starting about an hour prior to touchdown. You could relive the whole sequence of anticipation to horror. I think FR could be a historical reference in the future and this ability would enhance that.

Also, the ability to add your own comments to pages that are bookmarked to remind yourself why this was important enough to save.

[WKB]

We kneed a spel cheker wores thne aynthun elsse

[TheBigB]

Needs to be formalized, I sez.

[smadurski]

yes please can we be able to edit our posts many times I respond to a thread only to realize later that I either mispelled a werd or said something that wasnt as clear as I would like it to have been. I would also like to see maybe a vanity section where we can bring up original thoughts and ideas without certain folks complaining about vanity threads. Another thing I would like to see is you can only start a thread after so many posts that would cut down on DUers coming over and starting threads just to disrupt us.

[Calpernia]

>>>>THERE FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE IS SOME REALLY DUMB SPELLING of a simple word.

i woodnt hold it aginst u

[secretagent]

It's always bother me that you get 'New Posts to You' after you posted something yourself. I'm disappointed when I click on the link and find only what I just said myself.

No disappointment here, I expect it.

I frequently click on "New Posts to You" after I post something, just to get it out of the way. Then "New Posts" changes to "My Comments".

Nice to fix this flaw, though - I agree with you on that.

[sonsofliberty2000]

If you put your mouse over the flag, wait a few seconds, you will see what the state is.

New on Patriot Paradox: Interview with Renfield

[Calpernia]

>>>However, I could see how that would get overused.

Think about this too, if you are in a debate with someone...then the have the ability to change their words.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Interesting. I don't know how it would be implemented, but it is a good idea.

[finnman69]

1. different colors migh sound nice, but I cant imagine anything being mroe legible than black on white. You can always increase text size on your brower.

2. A live chat room is a great idea.

3. People have not problems posting images and graphics now.

4. Ther is too much vanity as it is, and the date the user signed up is easily viewed as well as the user's recent posts.

5. Use bookmark

[new cruelty]

Perhaps this is not what you are referring to, but regarding your 2nd item: The source of this article has asked FR to not post articles of their copyrighted materials.

When posting articles from certain sources, the following message will be displayed:

Confirm Auto-Excerpt

Washington Post articles must be excerpted.

You may choose to Auto-Excerpt, which will attempt to excerpt the first paragraphs upto about 100 words. Or, you may choose to return to Edit the article yourself. Be sure to check "This is an excerpt." on the edit form to confirm your article is excerpted and to prevent this message from showing again.

[ZGuy]

You read my mind. Being able to search by authors names is an excellent idea and would also be my #1 request.

[is_is]

I've got a suggestion - I've started using Mozilla Firebird, and have multiple tabs open - I'd like the option to have a thread open in a new tab instead of a new window.

I use Firebird and I have it setup to open threads in a new tab.

[1rudeboy]

I'd like to see the 'Excerpted' notice moved closer to the top so that one can decide whether to read the post or go to the original right away.