Since the subject has come up on a few of these Hannity threads, could those of us who haven't been on FR since the beginning possibly get a bit of a primer on these horrible armageddon-like flamewars that used to occur?
There are certain names that get mentioned all the time in reference to this, but if you ask someone to explain, you'll generally not get an answer. Or is it taboo just to ask about it?
What can I say...I'm a curious gal.
"What can I say...I'm a curious gal."
Trust me, you don't want to know. A lot of us just don't bother to know -- we just step over piles of S*** when we see them.
Fact is, Sean Hannity's popular around here but I do also think he reads the threads and this isn't the first time that he's been a little sensitive when criticized by the sort of posters that, well, all the rest of just ignore anyway!
Sean Hannity came to DC to sign books and greeted the local Freepers very warmly. I think he knows we love 'em. It's hard being Sean and always getting fired at from the left, and just on those grounds alone, I think he feels, and I feel, we should all generally try to support his work.
And ignore the trolls.
In short, you don't want to know. You want to ignore them. You'll know 'em when you see 'em.
Welcome!
A highly noncurious gal, when it comes to this stuff
Since no one has answered you, I have a lot of the old flame war threads. My husband was one of the worst until I married him.
I was reading threads in here for about three months before I even had the nerve to register. It was frightening.
There was an older "gentleman" named A+Bert. He was always getting thrown off for using profanity -- not just regular profanity -- the stuff that makes the hair on the back of your neck stick up. JimRob used to lock him in his basement for a few days at a time. Bert hasn't been back in a long time, and I don't think it's because of JimRob. I think he flamed himself into a plutonium bomb or something.
Another old one was Deep in the Hertgen Forest. He apparently said he was in the war there. Well, some FReepers checked, and he was not telling the truth. But his stories were good.
I'll leave some other ones out because I know the people personally and it might make me want to flame them or say I'm sorry they're not here any longer.
I have noticed an unusual virulence toward Sean Hannity among some Freepers here. Insults, sneering, jeers, that I have seen directed at no one else except maybe Hillary.
I can't figure it.
It's like there is a group here whose one job it is to form a jeering mob to attack Hannity.
He's an an excellent host.
He doesn't advertise his book any more than Medved does, he doesn't interrupt people any more than any other talk show host does, doesn't advertise Ruth Chris' any more than any other talk-show host advertises certain clients ---he has great people, chooses first-rate topics.
What's the big deal? I find the concentrated virulence directed at Hannity over the past year passing strange.
If there is a group interrested in driving Hannity away from FR they've done a good job.
And now for the porno-vultures that come flapping in every time there's a porno thread...
The first war occurred in 99. In 99 there were a number of media connected posters like Ann Coulter, Rush, Drudge, etc. The level of dialog was very good. Made one think twice before jumping in. Anyway, a rumor had it that Clinton was connected to coke dealers in Ar. And some said Bush 1 was too. Well, accusing Bush 1 of being a drug dealer or turning a blind eye towards it started one hell of a fight.
Now mind you there was allot of noise on the net about it and there had been noise for many years in Usenet news groups, so the story had legs, at least on the net.
In the ensuing debate hard feeling developed, one group (the pro Bush group) was lead by Trixy (Luceanna Goldberg) she got so mad that she left and started her own site (maybe that was the plan all along?) nd with her left allot of other excellent posters. Every day was opus day for weeks and weeks. It got so bad we started rating the opuses, Some were great fun to read, some were tear jerkers, others were just a quick FU I'm outta here. That was Freeper war 1. I was a newbe at FR and wisely stand out of that war, since I really did not know the politics involved. Anyway Drudge pulled his link to FR, stopped posting, trixy and her friend moved over to her new site.
Just as things started to settle down we had Freeper war 2. Freeper war 2 was an all out take no prisoners food fight. The fight was over who should be supported in the upcoming presidential election. We used to have a large number of Pat Buchanan supporters, Allen Keys supporters, a few John McCain supporters and of course lots of Bush supporters. Well it was an ugly your man can't win, your man is an empty suit, your man is a traitor, your man is a coward, etc.
Then it got personal, you are an idiot, you are a RINO, you a liar. Posters were being banned for personal attacks en mass. Mainly the Pat B supporters, and to a lessor extent the Allan Keyes supporters. The question of the day was "who got booted today?". Eventually the Pat B supporters left to start their own site (now defunct). And I guess Connie Hair (Clinton Is A Liar) got pissed, left and took the Keyes supporters with her. I have heard that she is now very much anti free republic but I have no first hand info on that.
After Freeper war 2 , management came up with the idea of admin monitors to try and keep the wars under control.
Hope that helps, that is my recollection but I am sure other will remember things differently.
What happened? Generally the inability of some to understand the policy below.....one that the owners are almost always willing to cut somebody some slack. :-)
Please enjoy our forum, but also
*please remember to use common courtesy when posting and *refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience.
Thems as knows are either dead, or still in burn wards, m'boyo.:)
Besides, the Great Flame War went from Nov. 1998 to May, 1999. There was a much lesser flame war a couple of years ago. These things happen in the best of families, and most of the threads have gone down the famous Memory Hole. It was another time, and having watched it all, I can truthfully say that FR has turned out greatly for the better afterwards
Since the subject has come up on a few of these Hannity threads, could those of us who haven't been on FR since the beginning possibly get a bit of a primer on these horrible armageddon-like flamewars that used to occur?
Well let me just whip this out!
History of FreeRepublic
Posted on 10/30/2003 2:14:39 PM CST by dakine
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1011545/posts
I might also suggest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=freerepublichistory