Great idea.
Posted on 06/25/2002 3:42:21 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:
Subject: The Future of Our Free RepublicDear Fellow Free Republic Member,
Many of us at Free Republic are distressed by the extraordinary level of censorship that has been so obviously going on. It is very obvious that individual posts, entire threads, and the entire work of members who have been highly regarded are disappearing into a Memory Hole.
Scores of us have organized an e-mail network that is independent of the communication controls presently, and sadly, being used at our Free Republic. We have carefully documented the unmistakeable evidence that most of the posts, threads, and posters that are vaporized completely are overwhelmingly targeted for their political stance on the Right. These are not Leftwingers. These are not even Middle-of-the-Roaders. These are not disruptors. These are not foul-mouthed delinquents. These are fellow patriots on the Right who disagree with the controllers of FR on specific issues that are now hotly debated by the Right. We have documented that FR will parade before you, as if to hide all of the great posters whose work has been destroyed, a straw-man delinquent that has been banned. This is deceptive.
Treating these fellow patriots on the Right so shabbily is not right. As shabbily as those banned into the Memory Hole are being treated, the most shabbily treated of all are all of the good folks on Free Republic themselves. We came here for honest debate. Free Republic advertised itself as a Forum for honest debate. Without that honest debate...everything at Free Republic becomes shabby.
We can do much better. As a measure of how intense the simmering feelings have gotten among members on this unjustifiable use of deleting, censoring, and banning please link to the following thread. You will notice that one simple and sincere plea from one of our finest members has spontaneously touched off a prairie fire of approximately 500 posts in a mere 18 hours. If it isn't Memory Holed this thread may shoot into the thousands.
If you would like to receive anonymous updates of information concerning the hundreds of Freepers who have networked via e-mail to restore the wonderful honest debate to Free Republic, just drop an e-mail of just one or two words if you like for extreme brevity to:
StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
And, here's that link back to the snowballing thread at FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704701/posts
Thank you so much for giving your thought to this vital matter for our Internet home.
Sincerely, StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com
Yeah, sometimes we wonder what happens to posts and posters, but usually we only see the tip of the tip of the iceburg.
I certainly appreciate the work you and other do here. This place has seen changes and growing pains. Frustrations certainly run both ways. That won't stop. It is normal for there to be turn over in activists and normal for some to make it personal. Fortuantely, you don't seem to lose sleep over it.
Actually, if everyone here agreed on everything I'd be bored silly. It is one thing to splinter off; it's another thing to make it a personal crusade.
I would call it emotional, not rational. And my original point was that those views are strictly uncensored as far as I can tell. Call it rational or call it venting, it's there and the mgt seems to like it that way.
Do you think Bush is a conservative he is spending like a drunken sailor and it seems like the Saudis run his foreign policy?
May I suggest that you send it via Freepmail to everyone? You did that once or twice in the past and then it never happened again.
I believe this issue and your very enlightening, cogent response should be broadcast to all of Freeperdom.
Remember my "Why Bother?" post?
Your response here responds perfectly to that post!
It clears the air and explains the behind the scenes cleaning up that is being done on an ongoing, daily basis on FR.
I believe many Freepers, even some old timers like me, are not fully aware of this.
That's why I think you should send this via Freepmail to everyone as a sort of "Important Message from the Founder"
Ssshhhhhh...
Now that you've added on, can we come over and hang out?
Unless you have some kind of proof to the contrary, your feelings would be noble were it not for the fact THEY feel just the opposite about you and yours...
It's a totally different way of working, and I like FR's strictly chronological system better.
D
It starts off talking about scores of disgruntled Freepers and ends up referring to hundreds.
I was wondering if they are calculating all the various screen names or just applying Million Man Math rules!
Certainly. But what if the forum is a private one (meaning that there is no coercion)? You join voluntarily, and in joining agree that the purpose of that association is so-and-so.
In that case, it is not censorship to yank comments and boot people. And, though unsound ideas are easily rebutted, it may not be the original purpose of that forum to rebut the particular unsound ideas spread by your particular visitors. Just because you can rebut them doesn't mean you should spend your time doing it.
The forum may be political in its purpose, but if it is private, it is apolitical in structure, and therefore libertarian principles would allow as much control over speech as the owners deem appropriate to attain the purpose.
So perhaps you actually ceded the agenda of your forum to others, in a misapplication of libertarian political principles of free speech to a private, purpose-driven discussion.
Jim, the task is menial, but the rewards are great.
Good luck, Jim.
Hopefully their messages will self destruct in less than 5 seconds.
Great idea.
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