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
How so? I do not, nor have I ever, posted to any of these sites you're moaning about. I have also never been booted from FR, nor had a post I know of pulled. If you're happy with the FR censorship, more power to you.
You're still confusing dissenting with dissembling.
You better not let it happen again. I am watching you.
Oh, I look in now and again.
Now, you would have to have quite thick skin to be posting contary to the jihad gang on LF, and would be an endless firefight. Plus, as I said, from the conversations on the site it's obvious that people disagreeing with that particular set aren't meant to be invited in. So the site does tend to suppress views that aren't pro-palestinian, for example.
Then you have the fact that the "cadre", the folks forming the initial backbone of the site, are types who would be at home on VanguardNews - the "vanguard language manual" with its rich set of anti-Jewish epithets like "kikes" and "hymie" isn't yet fully implemented but posters like Madrussian are getting there.
The problem with all that stuff is of course that the general tone of the site will attract more of that kind, and it will keep others away. Normal people usually don't want to invade a lair of frothing jihadists to argue with them. The converse is true, however - frothing jihadists will invade a normal site at first opportunity.
Oh, nonsense. They're easy to ignore, and there aren't that many.
Grownups can handle living in a truly free society. In many ways, LF is an experiment remarkably akin to what a real-life libertarian society would be like. And I'm not a libertarian. Ultimately, I personally don't think libertarianism can fly (for long) - I much prefer the freedom of a Constitutional Republic. But one like the founders built, not like what we have today.
But that said, Liberty Forum, while not perfect, ain't half bad. Just tune out the ones you don't want to listen to - and stay off of threads where they hang out - and it's quite an enjoyable place to be.
You may have missed the subsequent posts where it was explained that "invitation only" was only during the beta testing. It will be a "free speach" site open to all in the future.
Might be a good idea to explain. Sending E Mails to registrants simply stating Please keep in mind that LibertyForum is currently an invitation only site. If you have not been specifically invited to LF, you will not be able to access the site. If you registered as the result of an invitation, you may have limited access until we verify and activate your account. doesn't explain LF's status very well.
Fortunately, I have skin like a rhinoceros and 'dead meat is my specialty'.
Possibly. Personally, I think the refer-a-buddy system is what does that. The bigger danger, IMO, is that an open group will attract more of that kind and the opposite kind, and devolve into a huge flame war. Which might not be so bad if it were an on-topic flame war. That's what the ratings system is supposed to circumvent, but we'll have to see.
Now that is a fabulous workaround!
As I am sure you remember, that was one of my "hot buttons" on that infamous "Why Bother?" thread. :)
I thought my position was pretty clear, at least JimRob thought so. You're the one speaking in tongues.
Have you counted them lately?
Anyway, many folks would be able to go in and tune them out, or ripping them a few new ones. But MOST people don't want to even go near them, far less argue with them. Most people on a board are lurkers, and most of them will go away rather than have to deal with people like The Skunk, who isn't only a nazi but certifiable.
The jihad group aren't there for the debate. They're there for the recruiting, sucking in the ones who like what they read.
Kind of like how I lurk on FR lately.
Almost! I do like it and other forums.
Idiot-savant.
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