But these two things give my life meaning, momentarily.
Posted on 08/26/2002 7:21:32 PM PDT by 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:
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
That allowed Freepers to vote if someone was getting out of hand. Not sure how it actually worked, but I always figured if someone got 100 abuse votes, then he/she was in big trouble!
But your point is well taken and absolutly understood.
JimRob has had a very difficult job over these years, and had done an outstanding job. New ideas are always welcome, but often may cause more problems than they are worth. That is WHY we discuss them.
Thai Iced Tea
Thai iced tea is one of the first things people fall in love with when dining at a typical Thai restaurant, I know because I did, and still do. It is a native-grown red-leafed tea which is spiced with star anise seed. It is usually brewed strong and then blended with a rich swirl of evaporated milk. Delicious!
Ingredients:
- 6 cups water
- 1 cup Thai tea (cha Thai)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 can evaporated milk
Directions:
Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the tea and remove the pan from heat. Stir to submerge all the tea leaves in the water. Steep for about 5 minutes. Pour the brew through a coffee filter or a fine-mesh strainer into a large pitcher. Add the sugar to the hot tea and stir to dissolve. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.To serve: Fill tall glasses with crushed ice. Add enough of the tea to fill the glasses to within 1 inch from the top. Then float 3 to 4 tablespoons of evaporated milk over the ice in each glass.
Whew! For a second I thought you said "banning". Ouch!
Yeah, that's a peeve of mine, too. A Nick Danger can do it in style, but the Sabertooth can't manage it. It makes him look all sedate and blustery. ;) Also the penchant for using huge or colored fonts only makes readers tend to skip over them, thereby negating their intended response.
But these two things give my life meaning, momentarily.
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