Posted on 08/10/2002 1:29:46 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The anti-FReepers are on the prowl. As most of you know, there is a group of ex-FReepers who have been dogging us for the last several years. The anti-FReeper community was started several years ago by a group of disgruntled individuals who were banned from FR and then wanted to get back at us by damaging our reputation. This started out as petty name calling and rumor mongering, but they now appear determined to cause us as much harm as possible. Even to the point of attempting to get FR and FRN shut down and the owners and managers of the organizations bankrupted or jailed.
Some of the early members of the group include ex-FReepers Mojo, Aligyrl, Landshark, Z2, Headhunter, LindaM, and others who have come and gone over the years. The most recent additions to active anti-FReeping appear to be ex-FReepers Clarity, Clinton's a Liar and JoeEveryman.
There appears to be a certain love/hate relationship involved here. Some of these people hate FR and its PTB (that's "Powers That Be" in their lingo) with such passion that they cannot stay away. Some of the original members of the AF community have given up and drifted off, some have come back to FR, and some are as determined as ever to kill FR and have me and whomever else they can thrown into prison for whatever crimes they imagine us guilty. Their motivation is pure revenge. Their driving force is hatred.
Their current attack is centered around an attempt to break up the Free Republic Network and, through that angle, to cause as much damage to FR as possible. Unfortunately for all of us, there is a genuine problem with the ex-leader of the South Carolina Chapter. Apparently, there was some money collected for events that was never paid over to the vendors and the chapter leader is accused of taking off with the money. I am not going into all of the gory details here, but I understand that there is an official police investigation ongoing and the SC Chapter and the FRN are cooperating fully with the authorities. The anti-FReepers, led by JoeEveryman, are trying to gain maximum leverage from any fallout from this case and are attempting to use it to bring down FRN.
JoeEveryman ran an FR thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/728856/posts) last week on this subject. I eventually deleted it because it was turning into an anti-FReeper haven and I do not want that on FR. The anti-FReepers have plenty of their own websites to conduct their hate campaign. Those who are interested may find JoeEveryman (posting as "Panjandrum") on the LibertyPost.org forum, now appearing to be the latest home of the anti-FReeper community. I have undeleted the JoeEveryman thread for those who are interested in reading it, but have left it locked. I do not want any more anti-FReeping activity on FR.
JoeEveryman is now banned from Free Republic. It is clear on the thead that he ran here on FR and on this (http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readarticle.cgi?114+1485+0+1) thread on LibertyPost.org that his intent is to bring FR down and to cause us as many legal problems as he can. I cannot see allowing him to do this on my own website.
It appears to me that they are either preparing some sort of lawsuit and or are trying to entangle me, Bob J, FR and FRN into the SC case. None of us had anything to do with whatever wrongdoing may have taken place in SC. The South Carolina Chapter is an independent entity, as are all of the FR chapters, and neither FR nor FRN have any ownership or control over their activities. It appears that the anti-FReepers are trying to break that down. We'll see. FRN is cooperating fully with the authorities and I will too if they ask.
In the meantime, I do not want them scheming on FR so they are banned and will remain banned. I will also ban any other FR members who get actively engaged in this attempt to bring down FR.
A request to all. Please do not drag any of the anti-FReeper stuff to FR. I do not want it here.
Free Republic has withstood many attacks over the years, from both the left and the right and I am confident that we will survive this attack from this Free Republic Haters Association as well.
Thanks for your continued support.
Jim
I've been here almost four years, and I don't understand them either...
I think you might be describing my point.
Why would it make you "cringe" to come here and see an opinion different from your own? One of the things I liked about Free Republic that is becoming rarer, is debate. I may be alone in this, but I find it boring to read 100 messages all in agreement.
Might you consider that our differences might be what allows for growth and creativity? If we all agree, all the time, what is the point of discussion?
Bump
Yes. Part the agreement to participate on the FAB is that we not disclose comments or issues discussed there outside the FAB board. The original members insisted on that so everyone would feel comfortable in being open and frank in their comments to Jim.
Even though FAB is not active at the moment, I still personally feel it is important to observe the privacy and confidentiality I promised to the members who took part. Hence, my reluctance to reply to your comment. I could have made this statement in my original reply but didn't want to embarass you, but, since you pressured me and implied some duplicity, I was compelled to.
BTW - One of the reasons the FAB is not active is because some members felt it would be okay to not only discuss and forward comments made by others, but to send them to the antifreepers for posting on their board.
I remember meeting jolly at the MfJ in Oct 98. Really liked her.
Dirtboy has it right. Some people have an agenda, they join an organization to further their goals. When the organization doesn't allow or they see they are getting nowhere, they move on. Some of them feel so strongly that they were wronged, they try to bring down the organization.
I was banned from a site a few months ago. It was a site having nothing to do with politics. A poster had to blast repubs and conservatives in a post. I couldn't let it slide by. I let him have both barrels right back. Got me banned ( and probably him also) for 30 days. I haven't gone back, but I have no intention of disrupting the site.
Have a nice evening there in Fresno and the very best to you and yours.
Semper Fi
Tommie
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