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.

[Rightly Biased]

Ditto

[Amelia]

I'm in the book. ;)

If the phone doesn't ring, it's me. ;-)

[writer33]

"Okay. I don't think a diet pill is ever worth $153 a bottle."

When is it worth 153 dollars a bottle? When it works. :) HA!

My two cents worth: Exercise is the king of the hill.

[Texas2step]

Set your breaking news items at some small number

Yeah, I probably should do that, but it just blows the symmetry of my page. ;-)

[writer33]

How does all this banning/suspension stuff work? Since I'm coming up on my two month anniversary, I was just wondering, in case I find myself in that predicament. Not that I'm going to.

[Trinity_Tx]

Me too... Please, please, please restore it?

Like he said - we'll understand if you want to lock it, but gosh there's a lot of good questions and answers there that I hate to see us have to rehash.

Over 1300 posts of - Pure Brilliance! (OK, I know, lol... But still...)

Delete the little round of little minds at the end, but please don't punish us all for it.

We tried so hard and were really well behaved.

(Cept for UB's viagra thing - I *only* played along because - well, it was fun and just the tiniest bit naughty, and it helped us all stay friends. lol)

[Texasforever]

Man you guys sure have a lot of trouble with one woman. Butch up guys.

[writer33]

I'd agree. I can see how the misinterpretation led to banishment. I don't know understand this banishing thing completely. I just wonder why it happens.

[gcruse]

I thought it was you. I tried to call back, but couldn't get a dial tone, even with brand new cellphone batteries.

[Jim Robinson]

The "fairness" and "bad business" questions.

First of all, I don't know that I ever claimed to be all that fair. Or, if I did, it must've been during a period of extreme weakness or naivete. Free Republic was never intended as a liberal "debating" society. It is intended as a place for like-minded conservatives to gather to discuss the news and issues important to us and also to plan and carryout conservative activism projects. And so by definition, I'm probably very unfair in my treatment of lots of people.

For instance, you might say I'm unfair to anyone who tries to rob me of my God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and or of my rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, right to keep and bear arms, etc, etc, etc. These people are domestic enemies of the constitution and I don't want them around.

I'm probably also unfair to anyone whose ideas are repugnant to me. Examples: (not meant to be an exclusive list) communists, nazis, fascists, skin-heads, white supremacists, white separatists, white nationalists, anti-semites, religious bigots, racists, etc, etc. I simply do not want to be associated with these types.

And to varying degrees, I'm probably also unfair to those who are tying to erode away our traditional American freedoms and way of life to advance their own political agendas. Examples: socialists, liberals, progressives, democrats, RHINOs, abortionists, feminists, homosexualists, atheists, environmentalists, one-worlders, anti-war peaceniks, pacifists, gun-grabbers, UN lovers, America haters, God haters, etc, etc, etc. Again, I don't want to be associated with them and I do not wish to provide them with resources or a platform from which to spew their leftist rhetoric.

And you might say I'm probably unfair to DUh trolls, anti-FReeper trolls, Euro-trolls, obscenity trolls, cyber vandals, stalkers, disruptors, etc, etc, etc.

And you might possibly say that I favor people who have been with FR for a long, long time, even though we may no longer see eye to eye on certain issues, but because we've been through the wars together there is a kinship bond and a certain camaraderie, etc, so, yeah, they're probably gonna get some leeway and may not receive a ban or a suspension quite as quickly as an errant newbie.

And finally, yeah, I admit it. I'm probably more inclined to sympathize with those who are trying to help me in the advancement my own political goals and the goals and objectives I've established for this website than those who are working 24/7 to thwart our efforts. It's a human weakness.

Such is life. Politics and war are messy businesses and are not always fair. Or like I've said before, "fairness" is for Democrats (not that they are, they just claim exclusive ownership).

And lastly, it IS a free market. As stated in our guidelines, Free Republic is not for everyone. If a person finds FR not to be his perfect cup of tea, he shouldn't whine about it. There are other sites. FR is here today to defend America and to block the advancement of the socialists/communists/marxists, et al, and to keep as many of them from office as we possibly can.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ROTFL. Priceless! :)

[Quix]

AMEN!

Tooooooooooooooooooooooooo much vagueness can contribute to unintended offenses.

And a list of such would add clarity as well as soberness about such, I think.

[Texas2step]

Well stated, Jim! Thanks for all you do.

FR is here today to defend America and to block the advancement of the socialists/communists/marxists, et al, and to keep as many of them from office as we possibly can.

What some people don't seem to get is the "getting in office" and "keeping in office bit". Kerry in the WH does us not one bit of good. To think otherwise, as some here might, is pure foolishness.

If someone here's trying to advance the Presidential ticket for the Red-White-Blue party, and they don't have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting elected, then there should be no tolerance of posters who would siphon off voters of President Bush resulting in a greater likelihood of seeing JfnKerry in the WH.

I learned my lesson in '92, and that's not a lesson we should ever forget.

[Rightly Biased]

She's relentless like FR's own attack dog.

[Amelia]

Probably because I'm such a long way from a cell tower out here....

[Quix]

too much truth in too much Christian bashing going too far too often some days, weeks.

But I think over all, it's better than it has been in years past.

[dsc]

Fair enough.

[Texasforever]

She's relentless like FR's own attack dog.

Heat kitchen out.

[Jim Robinson]

Hey, I'd rather not have any rules at all. The way I see it, common courtesy and the Golden Rule should be sufficient. I do offer a few guidelines and a warning about a few things that will not be tolerated. But those were originally intended for liberals. I thought conservatives would naturally know how to behave in polite family setting.

[Quix]

A lot of the posts hostile to THE PASSION have been very, VERY, VERY

off the wall, imho. And deserve to be responded to very forcefully. Are begging for it, in fact, imho.

Still, I have tried to use restraint and keep it logical at least and as much as possible quite civil and speak to the issues and arguments vs the personalities.

I do confess, that occasionally, the personalities seemed to beg for a comment and I have stooped to offer such. But I still tried to keep it within the frame set by the person I was responding to.