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

[ArneFufkin]

Spel Chekk.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

How 'bout them Chiefs !

[Calpernia]

[So Cal Rocket]

Changing the "Search" feature so that the default is "Search by Post Time". This change alone will avoid many of the duplicate threads!

[new cruelty]

Regarding 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.

Live Threads are just as easy to follow as going into a chat room and trying to read all the posts coming in at the same time. One advantage of a thread is that the post is documented. And as noted in post 12 there already is a FR chat room.

[ASA Vet]

We still need an ability to block posts by specific kookburgers.
The only problem with that idea is that I'd never see my own posts. ;>)

[RightFighter]

But why do we need a permanent archive of random thoughts about a Yankees game? That would be much better suited to a chat room.

[stainlessbanner]

your suggestion belongs here

[Skooz]

No smilies! Please!

I agree. I dislike those cheesy forums that use emoticons and the number of posts by the user's name, along with their posting status (Senior Member, Rookie, Junior Senior Wannabe, etc).

They are lame.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Changing the "Search" feature so that the default is "Search by Post Time".

Now there is a change that I wholeheartedly support.

[js1138]

No. Subscribing to a thread could have any number of meanings. On forums with less traffic than FR you might get emailed every time someone posts to a thread.

;^)

OK, that would destroy the internet considering the rate of posting here.

Actually what I want is a convenent page where we can view the activity on threads we are interested in. Bookmarks are not convenient. I want a page that works like news/activism, but only displays threads we choose to monitor, for as long as we choose to monitor them.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

umm....that turned out longer than I thought it might. Maybe you want to edit (delete) it?

[RightFighter]

#46 - longest post ever! hehe

[new cruelty]

I don't really want everyone else to see what articles I'm interested in.

LOL... because you just know everyone is curious as to what you are interested in reading. : )

[RedBloodedAmerican]

:)

[Calpernia]

I'm bad with proof reading my posts. It is a message board. But for those that worry about spelling errors can use a free online one like http://www.spellcheck.net

[new cruelty]

BUMP for the sports forum

[stainlessbanner]

Right click, open in new tab. it's the only way to FReep.

mozilla

[PaulJ]

Then bookmark it into your browser.