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

[JavaTheHutt]

Bump!!!!

[bloodmeridian]

Has anyone noticed how much like government Free Republic has become? What's next, a reinstatement committee?

[dixie sass]

We,conservatives, have to realize that if we want to succeed we really need to listen to what the others are saying. You know that is the policy I use as a "hat" at Paltalk. I firmly believe in this "know your enemies".

Sometimes those that we perceive as enemies, without listening to them, are really our friends. There is much wrong with the administration mainly because we are facing situations that are unknown to us. We have not been attacked within our own borders in how long? A century or more? (Hawaii was not a state at the time of Pearl Harbour.)

Our government, the administration is not perfect and that is where we come in. Not to spend hours behind the keyboard, but to get out and do something to make the changes necessary. We have elections coming up in many states this year and there is also the first stirrings of the 2004 Presidential elections and working to make sure that the correct people, the honest people are placed in Washington and in state governments is going to take up a lot of time. But if we want to see our rights protected and/or returned to what they should be, then we need to work together.

We do have to take "lessons learned" and utilize them. We do have to look at the mistakes being made and instead of turning a blind eye, we need to speak up. We have a legacy, an inheritance that we must, as a nation turn over intact to the next generation or lose it all.

Someone told me once that all great empires last approximately 300 to 400 years before they start falling apart due to the apathy of people of its citizenry.

[3D-JOY]

Just got here to read your reply #292.

That is very good. I saw many lines that fit perfectly!

Thanks for the enjoyable read!

[Donald Stone]

Kudos to you and everyone that operate FR, no small feat !!!!

[Brian Allen]

Thank you Gentlemen.

May God continue to bless you both -- and may He also continue to heap His blessings upon Our Beloved FRaternal Republic!

[Argh]

First the crack about my "bottom" being big

uhhh....

errr....

crack? bottom? Sheesh!

:^)

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

crack? bottom? Sheesh!

Oh, I see your point......bad choice of words on my part.........

[Gargantua]

Ill be happy to give you an Advanced Flaming Seminar, just as soon as you get your face dislodged from JR's crease. :-)

[AFreeBird]

you are outstanding in your field.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you all for this fine establishment and political weapon extraordinaire. Do I have to give up my tinfoil hat cold turkey (or tomorrow's ham)? O.k., who put you up to this and what did you do with Snow Bunny? Over 300 posts and she hasn't shown up for a group hug???

(((Hugs!)))

BADJOE, did you get a scotty dog?

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Glad things worked out. I was worried about the Freeper Museum and kristinn's jacket (re: the Freeper Ball Tape).

[BADJOE]

Not yet. : (

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

God bless y'all and thank you so much for sharing yourselves with us.

We agree again! (At least one of us must be going around the bend!)

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Nothing stops a minor family squabble like a dog on his back, tail wagging, groveling for peace...and a tummy rub.
Dog Pet Peeves (^:

[carenot]

Someone told me once that all great empires last approximately 300 to 400 years before they start falling apart due to the apathy of people of its citizenry.

LOL, apathy is one thing I have never been accused of.

[altair]

But I will say that having the policy he's stated (ie: moderators go as easy as possible) is only going to increase the SNR exponentially and increase -not decrease- the number of flamewars here.

There is no substitute for personal responsibility. I first started reading Usenet in 1987. I've seen many different things tried to reduce or stop flame wars. None of them had any lasting effect. Too much moderation will kill the forum. I've seen that happen too. I think the approach Jim described is the right one. "Moderation in all things, including moderation." :-)

[dixie sass]

Neither have I. lol.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I don't understand then, why not just have an anonymous panel of "moderator a", "moderator b", etc. and do a periodic freeper poll of confidence on them (one vote per screen name). Perhaps only "land owning" freepers (i.e. those who have donated something, even if it's only $1, in the last year).

[Valin]

OH THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Mere words cannot express how grateful I am.
How's that? :-)