I like the idea of an "imaginary" target for abuse. A dedicated thread too. Needs a better name then Nincompoop. How about a contest? (you started it!)
JimRob and many of us other oldtimers are concerned that the viciousness of the personal attacks are getting out of hand. The continued hyperbole could ultimately destroy our site.
This is what the left wants to do, Destroy this site (and others like it). Keep that in the back of your mind as you respond to leftists.
Let's adapt ridicule, poking fun at our adversaries as the method of choice to blow off steam. I just handled a disruptor on the Freepathon thread this way by asking him if he was bucking for Jim's $1.23 per hour job ( Jim's draw divided by 24/7/365 = $1.23 per hour). And yes , I told him Jim gets that much while sleeping too. The Moderators ultimately banned this poster, but we all had a few good laughs in the process. Ridicule really is the fastest, most effective way to shoot down a jerk. You have to think about how to do it, but if you will, we all will have a lot more fun.
I agree that ridicule and humor are a good way to shoot them down, but with certain hot topics, it is very difficult. The topics of the Middle East (and the Islamic Revisionist History) is a very difficult topic to inject ridicule and/or humor, due to past tragedies. Facts are needed as well, and if the leftists can handle the facts, the moderators know what to do.
A year or so ago I recommened we post all attacks to an imaginary Freeper, "Nincompoop" We could even get this guy his own Home Page, where we could go to look for the best put down of the day, and get many, many chuckles from all the shots this poor turkey will take.
I have a better idea, start a category called "Disruptor Droppings" (or something like that). Let the world see what postings the left brings to us and show how idiotic (or worse) they really are. Make it a category where Freepers know that these people have been banned, so the comment can be discussed but not necessarily toward the disruptor.
This kind of ridicule?
sarcasm off
Hmm... and I haven't even hardly posted here lately :). But there's vicious, all right. There's even a site where you can watch both the banned and unbanned critters in free and unfettered (and unmoderated) action. Guaranteed to curl your toes and make your hair stand on end.
The continued hyperbole could ultimately destroy our site.
It already very nearly has.
What say you? Can we make this happen?
Doubtful. Some of the worst propagandists on the site ARE obviously oldtimers, and just as obviously not leaving. Left in place, they will carry the site in the same direction as they have carried other sites.
What I think FR needs is a moderation system similar to slashdot's, but for official moderators only. Only 3 ratings: -1, 0, 1. The -1 would be assigned automatically to any post with English profanity. The reason why I think it would have to be official moderators is that I don't think the average joe on FR can be trusted with moderation powers. It would turn into a system of censorship very quickly. What would most likely happen would be a core of hardline rightists would moderate down any comment from someone with an anti-drug war, pro-pornography, etc comment. It would then get nastier when those people start retaliating and moderating down. Before you know it, we'd all have to be surfing at -1 to read anything....
All I'll say is that it's as if the conservative cause has been ripped exactly in half, and it's not the fault of any FReepers.
*** ASH ALERT! ***
I don't quite understand your post. Possibly since I missed these disruptor posts.
When you, say this?
"Let's adapt ridicule, poking fun at our adversaries as the method of choice to blow off steam."
You mean Hillary Bill etc... and no more cat fighting about how great (OR NOT) Bush is?
There are those of us who voted for him but don't live every day to post day in the life photos of him and we rightfully question him outloud at times and his policies and we feel stuck in the middle of a flame war, to no avail of discussion.
IMO:There are die hard Bush groupies and die hard Bush haters. Weeding out who is disrupting/attacking and who is debating seems to be the problem. (This applies to the diehard Bush folks -and- the Bush haters.)
You should really amend your strategy lest the disruptor turn around and ridicule your mathematical abilities.
Regardless of whatever JimRob's "draw" may be, the conversion factor for this calculation should either be 24/7/52 or simply 24/365.
Frankly, I am rather burned out. I rarely post on threads other than the Canteen threads where I feel I can still make a difference. As i said in Post #80, "I fully understand that if we devoted 10% of the time and energy we spend here out there doing something we can restore our Republic.". I still feel that way. However I no longer think that FReepers feel the same way. This is an election year, I do not see the committment needed to clean out the corruption in Congress. We can't even clean out the disrupters on FR.
Sad.