Get Yer Ya-Yas Out [FR Moderating Gripe Thread]

[I Am Not A Mod]

LM here.

It's been a while since we had a thread along these lines.

I can tell from comments I am seeing in threads, on abuse reports, and in Freepmail that some people are unhappy with various policies and their implementations by the staff here.

I've seen allegations that certain factions are picked on. I've seen allegations that the moderators have killed activism. I've heard rumors that we killed Kenny, and even that we killed the radio star. I see certain personality conflicts acting up, and know that one (or both) sides in it feel that we aren't doing what we should.

So let's open this can of worms.

This thread is for making your grievances heard. If you think something stinks or is wrong, make your case here. Back it up with facts. Let the audience at large weigh in on your evidence.

I'll read the thread. Jim will too in all likelihood. So will the other moderators. Depending upon how well you make your point, and depending on if you can convince Jim, me, the other moderators, and/or the world, maybe you can change things. And if you don't, then it might make you feel better to have vented, so it won't make this thread a total loss.

I'm not going to reply to this thread for quite a while. Rather, I am going to sit back and watch to try and get a feel for the general tenor. I encourage those who are both happy and unhappy with things to particpate in this thread.

Let's rock.

[Not A Snowbird]

Leftists can't last very long without resorting to profanity - pick any post on Duh as an example.

Shudder. It only takes clicking on one or two at random to get a thorough dose of profane hatred. I rarely can stand to do it.

[Rebelbase]

crickets......................

[js1138]

I don't know, but the Dow has been pretty skittish for the last week. I suppose bad news for the world is good news for the dems.

[Fierce Allegiance]

ok, maybe it's not a firewall, i am a construction guy, not a computer techie, but from my work computer, i cannot access the chat section of FR. I can at home, but i have dialup there and the captionarama threads take about 1/2 a day to load up.
That's why I think it wouldn't hurt for them to be in some kind of news swection, as they are all about news and current events.

[Dec31,1999]

bttt.

[johnb838]

Question: Why is there no way to find out what J F'n Ketchup got his medals for unless he wants to tell us? It must be written down somewhere, unless officers are allowed to give themselves medals. Why can't we get at them?

[DumpsterDiver]

What is the proper tact for reporting abusive freep mail?

If they are exceptionally vitriolic, I print 'em out, frame 'em and add 'em to my collection.

If they are just run of the mill, misspelled piles of "doo-doo feces" (to quote MJ), I delete them.

[Scenic Sounds]

I can tell from comments I am seeing in threads, on abuse reports, and in Freepmail that some people are unhappy with various policies and their implementations by the staff here.

I can TELL from comments also. Sometimes I think I know WHAT I want to say and then I think maybe if I SAY what I think I want to say totally there will SCREAMING and upset people who will say that they DID not really want to hear what I think I want TO say totally. Mostly I think ABOUT that at night when the light is off and everything is peaceful IN the house where I live.

I know THAT maybe sometimes you might think that I might not have said everything I WOULD probably want to say totally and if you THINK that I am sorry. I just really hate SCREAMING and upset a lot. Mostly, anyway.

[Barnacle]

No. I mean I haven't personally seen the evidence to support their claim of unfair bannings. It may exist, I just haven't seen it.

[Ichneumon]

Quick question: I often see articles with typos in the headlines. While typos inside posts aren't a big deal, having typos on the forum "front page" (i.e. in the headlines) can give visitors a poor impression (especially ones like "your" for "you're", "loose" for "lose", "missle" for "missile", etc.).

Do the moderators want to be alerted to headline typos so that they can be fixed? And if so, what's the proper channel for doing so (abuse button, freepmail, etc.)?

[SamAdams76]

I don't have any complaints about moderating and post-pulling but I would like to register the following miscellaneous comments since there are currently no actively running threads to accomodate them:

When you are in a Starbucks, don't you feel like a dork? Especially when you have to order something and they don't have sizes like small, regular and large. Instead, their sizes are named "tall", "grande" and "venti." With "tall" being the equivalent of small. What the heck? Why do they do that? I refuse to order my coffee by using those quaint and effeminate terms to describe sizes. But everytime I use the conventional terms to describe the size I want, the person working the counter looks at me in a quizzical kind of way as if he or she doesn't understand what I am saying. And the name they have for those people working the counter is just ridiculous...baristas. What the heck is a barista? I just call them coffee counter people.

I found this low-carb bakery near my hometown and they have muffins and cheesecake that tastes incredible. They make the muffins with almonds and things like that. Each muffin packs 9 grams of fiber and only 5 net carbs, so if you eat two of those a day, your plumbing becomes cleaner than a Home Depot showroom. The cheesecake is made with lots of Splenda and some weird combination of yogurt and cheese. But it tastes just like real cheesecake. It's incredible - just one carb per slice. But the "low-carb" pizza is awful. Something about the crust is nauseating. Still, not a bad bakery.

Many people think that toilets flush differently in the Southern hemisphere but this is not so. How a toilet flushes is predicated on which way the water is pumped into the toilet. Most toilets pump water in at an angle and so that angle determines whether the toilet flushes in a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. But even without the angle, there is no difference between how a toilet flushed in the northern or southern hemisphere. This is because the body of water in a toilet is too small to be influenced by the Coriolis effect.

[Bella_Bru]

By the way, I can read everyone's Freepmail. Hope no one minds, as I'm not complaining.

$9.99 for the first 5 minutes, 1.99 for each additional.

[Skooz]

I had to think really hard to think of something that would be somewhat of an improvement. Here goes:

Going through My Comments to find something I posted or that was posted to me months ago is tedious. Beyond tedious. It would be nice if we could search through My Comments quicker. Maybe being able to start at Post 1 and work our way forward; or maybe a keyword search.

Other than that, I really cannot find anything to gripe about.

[HairOfTheDog]

Can you see the other forums? Religion, smokey backroom, etc?

[optimistically_conservative]

'My Comments' is merely a summary of the comments or threads you have posted. It is not a separate file.

Actually, isn't it a summary of comments posted by and posted to? Whereas, 'In Forum' is only posted by.

Would the search function need a supporting field in the db allowing us to exclude certain posts from being returned?

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Just make sure you don't post a thread in chat specifically asking for trollmail, have your computer go out on you and come back two days later with five pieces of mail from people you've never heard of.

[HairOfTheDog]

The ability to search by text in threads would be great. I have often tried to find stuff where I just remember the conversation, and not the thread title.

[Admin Moderator]

Let us know via an abuse report, we see them faster. But, give us a few minutes before you report typos. We'll likely see them and correct them on our own.

Thanks

[Triple]

You having a tough time with #55?

-Or-

Just pretending it dosen't exist?

[OK]

I was always against the move to turn FR into a Republican cheerleading site. To me Statism is the problem and Republicans have us heading there in overdrive.

Moderators need to ask themselves if any given post would agree with what Ron Paul or George Washington would think before banning someone or removing posts, and don't worry so much if it might offend Denny Hastert or Bill Frist.