The Censored Republic

Free Republic | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Ok, this is a free for all thread. Come in and take your best shots. I promise I won't delete it or get upset. Get it out of your systems and then we will see if we can solve the problems. There always several sides to any story and several possible solutions to any problem. I'd like to hear them all and I'd like to solve as many problems as we can and get this forum kicking socialist butt again instead of kicking each other. So, please anyone with a complaint or a problem or a possible solution, (moderators, posters, FAB, everyone) please chime in. Thanks, Jim

[Uni-Poster]

Jim,

I keep hitting the abuse button, but no one seems to be getting abused. Can you fix that?

Thanks
Uni

[cdwright]

I love TX and PA. I'm cool.

[Unalienable]

On one hand, I oppose censorship of any kind. However, I appreciate that this forum cannot survive if intentional disrupters, trolls, con-artists, and spammers could have a free-for-all.

I have some complaints with the Free Republic's apparent policy on posting. I'll keep them to myself for now. More importantly, I have a suggestion for improving the way that the censorship is implemented, which I think could offer several advantages.

First, it's important for me to cite what I consider to be the weakest points of the current system. Specifically:

1. The actual posting policy is vague, and while most Freepers have a general idea of what's inappropriate, many sincere posters cross into a "grey-area."
2. When a user has a post removed, he rarely receives an explanation of why it was removed. This can create confusion in the mind of the poster. Did he miscategorize it? Did it contain military information? Was it deemed racist? He doesn't know, and if he tries to correct the article to repost, he may easily make the same mistake again.
3. I'm not an admin, and frankly I would never volunteer for that. I would bet dollars to donuts that it's a difficult and thankless job.

With these ideas in mind, I have a suggestion for handling censorship on Free Republic. It comes with a price--it requires a change to the programming.

The idea is this: when people click on the "Abuse" button, they will get a list of checkboxes (click all that apply). E.g., "Spam/Commercial," "Racist/Violent," "Obscene/Offensive," "Military Information," "Duplicate Post/Wrong Category," etc.

Now, the system could be set-up so that the administrators are not alerted until n different complaints have been registered on the same post for the same reason(s). I suggest n might be set to three, although this should be adjusted according to the system usage.

A handy enhancement of this, would be a method to ban a certain user from reporting abuse, if they abuse that privilege.

The advantages of this system:

1. It allows people who have messages removed know why they were removed, without requiring the admins to do any extra work.
2. It saves the administrator's time, for now they need not review every single complaint. I suggest that under this system they would rarely be flagged to a post that's not truly inapppropriate.
3. It allows the users to see a concise list of what's not allowable, so that they can make an earnest effort to post appropriate messages.
4. It employs a democratic method behind the posts, and removes a certain element of administrator prejudice. If you can't find n users who are offended by a message, then it obviously isn't offensive enough to worry about. Admins, as a rule, should not bother with messages that don't trigger the threshold number of complaints.

I make these suggestions as something to keep in mind the next time you have the sourcecode on the operating table.

[BabylonXXX]

Take this example, Jim...

I wrote:

Look at the posts of mine that have been pulled, Jim. (If you have them saved.) There was nothing in there that violated the rules. They were critical of Bush, Israel, Big Oil, etc

Within minutes, some bozo wrote:

We are at war......adjust your petty efforts to something more productive.

In the old days, the bozo's remarks would be ridiculed or ignored.

Nowadays, the bozo hits his abuse button and the entire Thread is yanked. Merely because of -- gasp -- a criticism of Bush.

[funnyasacrutch]

Basic question: Who gains most from the WTC+Anthrax attacks?

Possible answer: Forces behind global dictatorship disguised as world democracy.

Sorry.

[Jim Robinson]

No way. He's damn near as caustic as Arator. I don't need the ulcers.

[Jim Robinson]

TFB. Figure it out.

[Commonsense]

That's a good idea.

[cdwright]

Thanks. Ragnar, I'm sure?

[RussP]

Congratulations on a great site. I just have a couple of minor technical quibbles.

I'd like to be able to go directly to "self search" from the home page.

I'd also like to have the articles automatically reload when I go to a post via the "self search" page. As it is, the links on the "self search" page are often invalid until the page is manually reloaded.

Oh, one more thing. I think a blank line should serve as a paragraph break. As far as I am concerned, the requirement for explicit paragraph breaks is a fundamental mistake in the design of HTML.

[FITZ]

I miss the underscore under the "To:" that let us jump back to the post we made to which someone is responding.

[185JHP]

You're running a 4.0 op. Thank you.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Good ideas!

[Jim Robinson]

You can say that again.

[rwfromkansas]

Okay...look....first, I want to say I love FR and Jim, you have done a wonderful job. But, now comes the but...I have been very concerned with just how much the moderators have grabbed control like nuts lately. They are deleting threads right and left. Some have been deleted with twisted logic about how it might apply to "loose lips sink ships," and others have been for other reasons. Loose lips sinks ships certainly is something I am glad FR is doing, but sometimes it goes too far. The moderators aren't even man enough to allow a thread that criticizes them to stay up. I know of a person who has had postig rights removed for a week just because he posted an article of what he was seeing as an eyewitness....in a major event! This is abuse of power. Moderators should not just go around deleting everything. I would like to see some new moderators. Jim, again....FR is a great place. I just would like to keep our distinctiveness and not have it become more and more like Lucianne.com, with all sorts of restrictions etc. God bless FR and you, JR for all your work. I hope you realize I am saying what I am saying out of a desire to make FR better and out of genuine concern.

[AgThorn]

Hey Jim - great service ... I am addicted and now I can't go to work since I Freep all day ... My wife wants you to fix ME! ;-)

Seriously, how does one take advantage of all the new features ... I heard there's backgrounds, and stuff ... (on FR radio) but can't for the life of me figure out how to access the new features .. or ARE there new features? (maybe just new formats?)

[Jim Robinson]

That is a problem. We lose a lot of pefectly good spouses.

[oldvike]

Why did you delete the "nudist colony" thread? It was very informative. I particularly liked the pictures. Alot can be learned from an a$$ crack.

[AgThorn]

howabout a shorthand for BLOCKQUOTE? And what happened to the easy way to emphasize with yellow? that was cool!

[BabylonXXX]

I find it rather telling that you can quote the 'no profanity' rule and then litter your post with profanity.

The use of one word -- "bullshit" -- constitutes "littering" my post with profanity?

Good grief...

Here are some asteriks for you: ***********************

You can use them to cover up the "i" in words like bullsh*t as needed.

Let me know when you run out, and I'll give you some more.