BadJoe/JimRob Dispute Ended - Free Republic Train Wreck Derailed

Free Republic | August 26, 2002 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Most of you know that a battle has been raging over the last several weeks between me and BadJoe regarding some of our moderating policies. Looked pretty bad there for awhile. Joe was going to resign from Free Republic and there was even a dust up regarding the monthly donors and how the records would be turned over to a new credit card service.

I am happy to report that today that battle has officially ended and Free Republic may have avoided being fatally damaged in a disastrous train wreck. As it is, the only losses suffered were a few black eyes and a lost ear or two. Fractures and abrasions were suffered, but no major bones broken or organs punctured. Hurt feelings, bruised egos, dampened spirits, damaged bodies are now all on the mend. A satisfactory agreement has been reached between all warring parties as to how we will continue forward in our fight for Freedom.

Summary of today's agreement between BadJoe and JimRob:

1. Jim to reinstate the observer program with between 2-4 members of his choosing. Joe may suggest nominees.

2. Jim to put up a post to this effect, including his boilerplate guideline to the mods.

3. Jim will work with John on writing a subroutine or program that lists the banned comments, banned threads and names of banishees, that Joe will have access to.

4. Joe will process the Sept fundraiser cc's, and work with Jim and whomever is taking over the program to effect a smooth transition. Joe will continue to work on the fundraisers as a volunteer but will not run the program.

We will be working on a moderator policy manual (the boilerplate guidelines) and will post it as soon as completed. For now, I will say that we do not want racist material, anti-Semitism, religion bashing, tin-foil hat material, leftist propaganda (used to smear or bash conservatives), profanity, vulgarity, pornography, excessive flaming, insults or feuds, liberals, leftists, marxists, etc., are generally not welcome as are multiple screen names, disruptors, anti-FReepers or returning bannees.

Said material may be deleted as discovered or reported and posters may be warned, suspended or banned depending on severity.

But the standing moderator policy is to go as easy as possible on the posters. Many flame wars and insults and even some minor violations of other rules may sometimes be ignored. It depends entirely on the situation and the posters involved. Posters with unclean hands might as well avoid using the abuse button. We do not want to wade through hundreds of posts looking for who is at fault. We do not have time for it and do not want to act as nannies anyway. The general rule of thumb for a moderator is to always give the poster the benefit of the doubt. If there is any doubt, then we do not delete and do not ban. I'd rather bend the rules than stifle the debate. And now that we have a smokeybackroom forum, we'll suggest that people take their feuds and flame wars there and unless it gets too nasty the moderators will look the other way.

Believe it or not we do not like deleting or banning. We want to attract as many new people as we possibly can, but we also want to run a clean board. And we want to advance our conservative causes while not assisting the leftists propaganda artists in their dirty work.

I know this does not cover everything, but we'll be posting more as we can.

Also, we are in the process of contracting with one of the major nationwide credit card processing companies. Joe has been processing these for us for the last several years, but the job has gotten to be a huge task and a burden on him. Joe will assist us in making as smooth a transition as possible to the new service.

As always, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart and we are all very appreciative of your support and understanding. I'm sorry for this recent turmoil and hope it is all behind us and we can get on with our FReeping!

God bless you all and God bless America!

Jim

[cmsgop]

Badjoe sells a chair called a "Freeper Creeper"

[Saundra Duffy]

God bless FreeRepublic.com!

[Jim Robinson]

As long as you do not fear that the government is pulsing your brain or otherwise tapping, reading or controlling your thought waves while you discuss those subjects, I do not see a problem with it. If you feel the need for tin-foil hat protection, or a lead padded room, or that the FBI/CIA/NSA/FEMA/BATF, etc, might be tapping your phone line or infiltrating your group to gain access to the sensitive super-secret global world busting information that you and only you possess, but are about to enlighten the rest of us with, then I'd advise you not to post it. I do not want to be held responsible for what the government might do to you once they sniff your IP address from our incoming packet stream.

[Gabz]

I guess, I'm lucky I've never had a run in with a Mod - but I do understand the need for a little bit of oversight.

JaJ, I know that you are interested in ohter things, just like me - but you and I are both very well known for tobacco issues and little else. I'd like to keep it that way and not draw attention from the mods to ourselves - if you get my drift!!!!!!!

I'm just very thankful that this situation has been resolved.

[VA Advogado]

BUMP you guys should be sent to the middle east. Way to go Jim/Joe!

[COB1]

AWWWW, HECK!!

And here I was all set to see a good old fashioned knock down and drag out free-for-all with y'all battling it out as the moderators tore each other to shreds!!

SHUCKS!!

I guess I'll have to get one started the old fashioned way:

"Hey, hon, is your butt getting bigger or is that just my imagination?"

[Helix]

It's one of the reasons why no one here has the cajones to hit the abuse button on me

l "leadeth me not into temptation.." ;D

[dixie sass]

Like the government, every business needs checks and balances. The business at hand is more important than anyone person or idea and instead of fighting amongst ourselves we need to work together to preserve that which we all hold dear - freedom - the Constitution - the Bill of Rights - those things which make our country what it is.

We are the watch-dogs of government, we are the people and our job is make sure that everyone in government from the President on down to the guy on city council behaves in a way that is for the benefit of all and not just one.

We inherited a great legacy and we need to safeguard that legacy and ensure that it is handed down intact to the next generations.

Backbiting and in-fighting are not doing the job. Let' roll folks, roll your sleeves up we have work to do and we need to do it together as one - Eagles Up!!!

[lexington minuteman 1775]

I like some of the "tinfoil hat" stuff.So hope some slips through.We need a little humor now and then.BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Did you hear the one about how aliens invaded the Free Republic dressed as elephants?Tee hee.I hear you say, hey I don't see any elephants.See, the disguise worked.

[usconservative]

But the standing moderator policy is to go as easy as possible on the posters. Many flame wars and insults and even some minor violations of other rules may sometimes be ignored. It depends entirely on the situation and the posters involved. Posters with unclean hands might as well avoid using the abuse button. We do not want to wade through hundreds of posts looking for who is at fault. We do not have time for it and do not want to act as nannies anyway. The general rule of thumb for a moderator is to always give the poster the benefit of the doubt. If there is any doubt, then we do not delete and do not ban. I'd rather bend the rules than stifle the debate.

I'd like to know how this type of policy is going to elevate the level of debate on FR and stop the namecalling/insults/flamewars.

[Revolting cat!]

Train wreck you say? As an unengaged observer and a dilettante par excellence, I must, uhm, observe that visually and emotionally speaking that would be quite interrrresting, dare we say more interesting that the kissy kissy, hug hug woodstockian love-in we are having this evening!

[vetvetdoug]

I am glad you all worked it out. I consider most of the Freepers here good friends and I hate to lose any of you because of a dispute. I have seen several good ones leave and not come back and I miss their comments and presence.

[lsee]

What does a Freeper Creeper look like? Not this, I hope! Office innovations we hate to see

[Joe Hadenuf]

You bet dennis......Yahoooooo

[Jim Robinson]

It won't. Only the posters can do that.

[unsycophant]

You didn't have to do this, because it IS your forum. The compromise sounds fair. Thanks for listening. Congrats.

[Amerigomag]

What is a Freeper Creeper

An orthopedic chair which has a horizontal seat that tilts slightly forward and goes like hell across a picnic area.

[dixie sass]

Maybe, USC, if we don't give in to the disruptors and allow them to take over the threads we can do it. Sometimes it is extremely hard to walk away from something that involves an issue that we are interested in, but maybe thats what we will have to do?

[RightOnline]

No, it's because you're a guitar player.........and it's well known that nobody f**ks with guitar players. :)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Me too Joe. Thanks Jim.....