Your Attention Please [Breaking News and WoD Flamewars]

[Admin Moderator]

Since my last vanity announcement on keywords went so swimmingly (it ended up with something like 5000 keywords added to it) I thought a great idea would be to throw some propane on some other fires with a vanity.

Breaking news is being abused again, big time. This goes in cycles, with sometimes people being responsible, but other times people not being very responsible.

We are in one of the not-very time periods.

Please, do not post something in Breaking News because you think it is something you want people to see. Place something in Breaking News only if it is

1. Something the networks would interrupt their programming to say,
2. The networks would interrupt their programming to say if they weren't overwhelmingly liberal,
3. Something that honestly would (not should, would) be of interest to majority of self-described conservatives
4. Official chapter announcements

Or things along those lines. Don't consider that a list of rules, but of guidelines. But act as if the guidelines matter, please. And flame the heck out of people that don't. And provide appropriate feedback to people who don't.

Some things that are never breaking news: Stories that have been posted before, stories that are over a day old, opinion vanities, freep this poll, or anything from the op-ed section of any newspaper.

Now, on to the WoD [War on Drugs] flamewars. There are a few problems with them. The flaming on them is tremendous. It is wrong for several reasons, and it should stop and the first thing we are going to do to try to get them to stop is to make a request for them to stop. If you feel the need to flame someone for something they say on one of these threads, do this (and yes, it involves a lot more work than just hitting reply, but such is life):

1. Post a copy of the article to the Smokey Backroom
2. Ping your flamee to that copy.
3. Go to town over there and keep the crap off the main forum.

Instead of hitting abuse on someone on a WoD thread right away (unless it is extremely bad), please just advise them to do what I am saying here- take it to the backroom. Link them to this if need be. And if you don't want to get into a flamewar, leave it at that. If you do, then join them in the backroom and have at it. The WoD flamewars overwhelm the latest posts page with a neverending sequence of posts that are just mindless insults. Please, spare us, and don't try to put it on the moderators to determine who fired the first shot. There are rarely clean hands here, and no matter what we do one side or another is going to complain.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Freeping. I expect no fewer than 500 taunts at us in the keywords here before this is over. Thank you, and God Bless. ;-)

[harpseal]

No taunt just a thank you and bump

[Corin Stormhands]

And flame the heck out of people that don't.

OMG did you really just say that? This could be fun. ;-)

[Blood of Tyrants]

You could also argue your point in a civil manner using logic and persuasion instead of name calling and bitter responses.

[Peach]

So glad you posted this; thank you and keep up the good work. BTW, what is a WoD?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Worship of Democrats.

[Quilla]

Not to mention vanities out the gazoo....

[Hot Tabasco]

My birdfeeder is now empty but I think I shall refrain from posting it as breaking news, only because it has happened before and is now considered a common occurance....

[vin-one]

BTTT
The Flame wars and Flame Baiting is good entertainment(sometimes)
thanks for posting the rules on Breaking news.
I guess if people would just look at latest posts they would still see
the latest stuff. Personaly I almost never look at breaking but latest posts.
Anyway to all AM's keep up the good work.

[Psalm 73]

"WoD flamewars"

Sorry, I must have missed that class - what's "WoD"?
No, really - I'm always behind on the acronym stuff, I'm not trying to be a smart-alec.

[Indy Pendance]

What a concept.

[freedomcrusader]

WoD = War on Drugs

If you've never seen a WoD thread flame war, you haven't seen a fascinating aspect of Free Republic, IMHO.

[Peach]

WoD explanation - thank you.

[FoxGirl]

using logic and persuasion instead of name calling and bitter responses

Yeah, can't we all get along?

[sinclair]

"You could also argue your point in a civil manner using logic and persuasion instead of name calling and bitter responses."

And what fun would that be, pray tell?

[Chad Fairbanks]

We obliviate Democrats

[new cruelty]

Groovy.

[sausageseller]

AM. throw some propane on some other fires

How do you throw a "gas"? Is that anything like "letting one"?

LOL. I could just see the "keywords" for that!

[Constitution Day]

Thanks.

[robertpaulsen]

"what is a WoD?"

A noble effort, undertaken and supported by those of us who desire a safe, sane, and drug-free America.