Vanity on Choosing Topics

[Admin Moderator]

Lately, we have been seeing more and more people who are posting articles to every topic, or to many topics which it is a stretch to see as applicable.

Please don't do this. You may be thinking that you are giving more visibility to articles that you find important, but in actuality you are making it so that people who read FR by topic have their interests spammed with things of no interest to them, making more work for the moderators (which may lead to more moderators, which may or may not be a good thing), and generally alienating the very readers you are trying to win over.

For example, philosophy should only be used for articles which are dealing with philosophy, not every article under the guise of "it raises philosophical questions".

What is appropriate for what topic? Let's have this thread be used for Freepers to hash out what belongs in what topic. All I will add to the discussion is that clearly posts are being made to way too many unrelated topics, so whatever the right balance is, we aren't there. It would be a shame to have people lose posting privileges over something like this, but that is preferrable to us losing Freepers due to others making FR unusable for them.

I will also use this thread to give guidelines for the "main" sidebar topics.

Breaking News is for articles of emerging, important news stories. Imagine a television station or a radio station being run by conservatives instead of liberals. Would regular programming be interrupted to go to this story? If so, then it may belong in breaking. If not, then it doesn't. The exception to this rule is activism. If one of our chapters is organizing an event, then Jim has given the OK for the breaking news sidebar to be used for that.

Frontpage is for stories that it would be reasonable to expect to find on the front page of a newspaper or news magazine.

Extended News is for stories that extend other important stories. For example, if there is a story in breaking news or on frontpage, and there are other articles which give background or are otherwise related to the main story, then Extended News is a good place for them. Also, stories which are not quite breaking or frontpage but are likely to be considered important, not by the poster but by conservatives in general, can be placed in Extended.

Editorial is for opinion pieces and editorials of note.

Anyway, please be more considerate when choosing the topics when posting articles. Thanks.

[floriduh voter]

If it is self written but it is definitely an an example of activism as it contains links to campaigns and conveys the candidate's message, then why can't that be news activism instead of vanity? Setting up a candidate thread is the most time consuming type of thread to do and is definitely not general interest when there's a major campaign going on.

Further, if there is a national holiday, then a news paper or news magazine, may indeed place a story on their front page regarding that holiday if it has historical connotations or relevance to the publication's mission statement. For that reason, I have received assurances that my Father's Day Tribute has permission to be on the front page when I post it.

What makes matters worse is when ONE'S STATE IS DELETED. That is very frustrating. AND KEYWORDS. Where do they disappear to? JEB BUSH - deleted, photos - deleted. I'll be campaigning for him again in July. It is activism on my part to create threads for Gov. Bush, not exactly general interest, more like in our national interest. Regards.

FV

[floriduh voter]

This appears to be incremental. You don't need to wear your pants until the pants vanity next month.

[floriduh voter]

I see that Jeb Bush's name isn't on the list of general interest topics. He's a governor running for re-election. Sounds like politics/elections to me and activism. I'll never learn.

[summer]

Is a major problem that people are posting to ALL the headings on the sidebar in just one post? So that an article is actually being posted to: Breaking, AND Extended, AND Front Page AND Editorial? Does that actually happen?

If so, and I did not even realize this, as I try hard to choose just ONE of the above, IF I think it is even applicable, then, is it possible to have a way where the article does not post if more than one of the above is chosen? (I am thinking of how the article will not post if, for example, there are too many words in the title.) Then, in a similiar way, maybe a red warning could come up: YOU HAVE TOO MANY SIDEBAR HEADINGS.

[callisto]

Those were the topic headings for the GENERAL INTERST forum. What you're talking about should be in the CAMPAIGN 2002 or NEWS/ACTIVISM forums. They have completely different topic headings, but all share the states.

[floriduh voter]

I have selected politics/elections and end up in general interest. I didn't realize there was a campaign 2002 button to click on. Are you saying there is such a heading to select? I'm not dense, just busy. Thanks for your clarification.

[callisto]

When you're reading this comment go to the bottom of this page to the row of links beginning with "LATEST POSTS," click on "LATEST POSTS" and look at the top right-hand side of the next page to find "CAMPAIGN 2002" as the first link under the heading "MY FORUMS." Clicking on the "CAMPAIGN 2002" link should automatically direct you to the forum. To return to the "NEWS/ACTIVISM" forum just hit its link under the "MY FORUM" heading.

[betty boop]

And for self written pieces, the topic "vanity" usually is the best bet.

I'm glad you posted this, Admin Moderator, for I'm working on a project to post and I don't know where to put it. The working title is "Is God Dead? (Do gods ever die?)." But it's not an essay on religion per se. It's is a self-written piece that quotes extensively from several world-class thinkers -- the poet Hesoid, and several classical (e.g., Plato, Parmenides), mediaeval (e.g., Thomas Aquinas), modern (e.g., Leibnitz), and contemporary (e.g., Voegelin) philosophers. So, where do I post it? Philosophy? Culture? Vanity?

Thanks for the advice! best, bb.

[DBtoo]

Why do so many threads get deleted these days? For instance, what if someone posts an article which points out atrocities carried out by those who are suppose to be our allies? Is there a bit of censorship going on, where we may only post or read articles that go along with the status quo? I hope just asking this doesn't get me in trouble. I just want to know what is acceptable and what is not, because in some of the pulled threads I honestly could not tell why they were pulled. Freedom of speech is very important, and the majority of people on FR tend to feel the same way on many issues anyway. It makes me wonder if the ADL and/or other such groups are "watching over" Free Republic, not that they should be concerned about this website as almost everyone on it is pro-Israel.

[Admin Moderator]

Many threads which are deleted are a result of a returning banned poster being nuked again. If someone is nuked from the system, all their threads and posts will be removed. If you wish to know why a thread was deleted, contact us via the abuse reports. If you would like a reply, leave your screen name because the abuse reports are anonymous to everyone but Jim. If the thread was deleted as a result of a nuke and is a thread that should remain posted, we will be able to restore it.

[DBtoo]

Oh. Thanks for the information. I have always been curious what happens if you click on the abuse button. I've had no reason to do so, but I've wondered exactly what that does. Maybe I should wait for a post I find very offensive and then click on the abuse button! I was reading a thread the other day which I felt was going to far with insults and death threats and stuff. I just left it though. That one was just too crazy and mean-spirited. I'm a bit surprised that one didn't get pulled!!

[let freedom sing]

Is it ok to come in afterwards and add a thread to relevant topics that the original poster missed?

I would like to see more articles link, somehow-- using key words sucks and I can't even remember some of my own.

[Free the USA]

At the moment the best we have is the Bump list or some freeper creating a direct link to an older thread. It would be nice if we could add keywords after a thread is created to make it easier to find related articles.

[MASShole fever]

Thanks for clearing this up. Being new to the site, I wasn't sure how to do this. I thought the topic selector helped me pick the topics I wanted to be e-mail about. I'm so dreadfully sorry!

[Mo1]

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