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

[Publius6961]

You miss the point entirely.
I would love this feature because.

When somebody is running off at the mouth with his brain on idle, he wouldn't take up valuable monitor space on an otherwise interesting thread.

[blackie]

"Pony up folks...."

Right-on Tom ~ donate $$$, Now!

[Saundra Duffy]

Yesterday when it was learned that WILLIE BROWN has been appointed by Schwarzenegger to the transition team - and there was not a collective OUTCRY OF DISGUST by FReepers - that's when I knew something has gone terribly wrong on FreeRepublic.com.

I guess you can't ban someone because they're a liberal spy but seems to me my beloved FreeRepublic.com has been taken over by a bunch of traitors or something.

Can anyone relate?

[Baseballguy]

Yes this is good. Like a new posts since last time on for a specific thread you have read.

[smith288]

How do we get that info ourselves?

[shhrubbery!]

I've always scorned smilies, but my daughter loves them. She naively convinced me to download a program called Hotbar onto my computer so I could access all those cute little thingies too. So, naively, I did it.

Soon I noticed that not only had my computer had gotten very s l o w, but that my pop-up blocker seemed unable to block many new pop-up ads.

I discovered that the slowness and the unblockable ads were due to Hotbar. Checking around on google, I then discovered that HOTBAR is a very insidious SPYWARE.

Hotbar allows strangers to see which sites you visit, what searches you do, and even in some cases your site log-in names and passwords.

Trying to delete Hotbar from the drive proved nearly impossible. The dang program kept coming back no matter what I did! I finally killed the wretched thing after my son sent me a link to to a powerful anti-spyware tool called SpyBot.

Moral of the story: BEWARE OF PROGRAMS OFFERING SMILIES. They may be Trojan horses.

[smith288]

What people dont know is smilies are allowed as long as the IMG tag is allowed. 

[made with my WYSIWYG editor]

[Skooz]

Heh heh. I tried that for my screen name and found this little jewel I had forgotten I had posted (a birthday message of thanks to Clinton):

To: hilaryrhymeswithrich

Thanks for teaching the first graders on our bus, thanks to the 5th graders, what oral sex is.

Yep. Thanks to the repulsive StainMaker in Chief, I had the pleasure of hearing my then 7 year-old daughter ask "Daddy, what's oral sex?"

We monitored and screened everything she read and saw on TV. If she watched anything on TV or in the movies, we were there with her. But, somehow, the actions of the StainMaker made their way to my precious angel's little ears.

Thanks to you, you vomit-inducing piece of repulsive filth, I had to sit down and explain oral freaking sex to my baby as she held her Winnie the Pooh plush toy in her little arms.

You sicken me, Bildo. You sicken every decent human on this planet.

22 posted on 08/13/2003 3:31 PM CDT by Skooz (Tagline removed by moderator)

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[Sandy]

I'd be happy if John would just fix the "New Posts to You" quirk. That's so annoying.

[xzins]

Which one? There were a number mentioned. (If you mean the "smilies" idea, you're in big trouble.... LOL :>)

[Calpernia]

Were the freepers familiar with Willie Brown? Did you give them background or just assume 'everyone knew'? I am not familiar with Willie Brown. I welcome the info.

[new cruelty]

Great Editor!!!

 

• But I noticed I was unable to cancel the action and had no alternative but to find a thread number and post number in order to close the initial dialog box.

 

 

[smith288]

That why its a prototype. ;)

[Saundra Duffy]

Willie Brown is the most hated liberal democrat in the universe IMHO.

[Reagan is King]

You have a good eye for journalistic talent RF:

[GretchenEE]

How did you pull up RightFighter's "My Comments" page?

[new cruelty]

Still, it is very cool and would be very useful. Please keep me posted on any further enhancements. Thanks!

[GretchenEE]

What are tabs?

[Calpernia]

I'm not doubting you. I just never heard of him and I am only suggesting maybe the others on the thread you reference may be unfamiliar.

[Calpernia]

Mayor of San Francisco? I'm seeing lots of articles now. This doesn't look good at all.