Way Too Many Vanities (Updated)

March 29, 2003 | Admin Moderator

[Admin Moderator]

There have been way too many vanities lately. The news forum is being overrun with them. We have been spending a lot of time moving them to the General Interest ("Chat") forum. With the increased volume we have seen with the war starting, we have been missing mail and other moderator duties, such as zots. So, here's some guidelines for vanities. Of course, there are exceptions to these guidelines. We have seen some great vanities.

Vanities are never posted in breaking news. Exceptions will be from valid news sources where breaking news is happening immediately. Such as 'CNN just reported Baghdad has been overrun by coalition forces'. Or, 'Fox reports that WMD have been discovered in Saddam's palace by embedded reporter'.

Your one line vanites, for the most part can be posted as a comment on an existing thread. If you want to post a one line vanity, post it in the chat forum. One line vanities consist of but are not limited to, 'Did you just hear that guy on KASD?'. Or, 'Does anyone know where that thread is about that women who said something about chemical weapons'. They will be deleted unless they are posted in the chat forum.

Most emails are not valid sources of news. Who knows where they originated from. They will be deleted unless they are posted in the chat forum.

Most humor threads should go to the chat forum, unless they are relevent to current events and news. Jokes and 'caption this' are also included. They will be deleted unless they are posted in the chat forum.

Freep this polls will be moved to chat depending on their revelance to current events.

Thanks for helping. Free Republic is growing faster than ever right now!

---

WHERE IS CHAT?

At the upper right hand side of the latest posts or latest thread, you will see a menu which looks something like this:

Campaign Central
General Interest (also known as 'chat')
News/Activism
Religion
RLC Liberty Caucus
The Smokey Backroom
VetsCoR

To post an article in any of these forums, just click on that forum, and post your article. They all work the same way.

---

Reference threads:

On War Images
Announcement Regarding the Breaking News Posting Category
New Numbers for the Curious (or FR Traffic Stats)
Loose Lips Sinks Ships
Welcome, and Thanks [Newbies Especially, Please Read]
Help us out, please search before posting an article.
Regarding Graphics During Heavy Free Republic Traffic
Topic Abuse, Particularly Activism
Traffic Rank for freerepublic.com (alexa)
a colorful comparison of daily site statistics
The Ultimate Sidebar Management Thread

[GOPJ]

What's a ZOT? What's zotting? I don't know how I missed this new Freeperism, but I did...

"What is the sound of one admin zotting?"

[Nita Nupress]

Is this problem of yours a blond thing?

Absolutely knot.

[Nita Nupress]

The only one that I can think of better than me is John.

You were the first one who came to my mind, of course.
Nice to see you, too. :-)

[jigsaw]

Wow! I'd forgotten about the stats page. This place is really cooking!

[ChemistCat]

:GRIN:

[WKB]

Is this the post renamed from "Ignore This Post"?

[Admin Moderator]

Check our profile page, there's a good summary there.

[Nita Nupress]

You are wicked and evil. May a thousand sand fleas find their way to your bed tonight.

Just so the newbies can get to know you better, I'm posting a list of the educational and scholarly threads you started in the year 2000.  And this just covers the first 3 months.

• German toilet seat sprayers told to sit

• Ketchup Plasma and Crust Problem Solved! Stop the Presses!

• Missing Breast No Cause for Annulment

• Hard [as in "erection"] at Work

• Swearing In The Office

• German men have condom problems

• Fat Home-Brewer Evades Jail

• Undies Okay to Toss, City council comes out as pro panties

• Vivus jumps on premature ejaculation treatment patent
  

[Blue Screen of Death]

Ever consider not allowing posting for some period (30 days) after signing up? Or, a posting ban (again say 30 days) for posters who continue to post vanities and/or duplicates?

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

I don't think I've ever told you this, but I think you have one of the best screen names here

Well, Golly! I'm blushing here. LOL! That's funny. I don't even like my name very much, but every time I think of changing it, I decide that I don't want to lose my identity, so I keep it. There was a thread once about "favorite screennames" and I saw that someone mentioned mine. That was kind of cool!

Actually, I've always liked *your* name. It's very clever!

That was back when I cussed a lot.

I'm glad to hear you've given up cussing, lol. You're funny!

[Constitution Day]

Do you have a ping anyone when you ZOT? I know it's probably weird but I kind of enjoy the Zots!

I could tell you about the Nasty Little Clique™, but it's on a "need to know" basis. :)

[Dog Gone]

HEY, that "pro-panties" thread raised serious constitutional questions to the conservative scholars here, the very heart and soul of this forum. By the way, didn't I post an article during that time period about the fake nipple fashion craze?

[Spunky]

"You guys REALLY need to rename the General Interest forum the Chat forum................ Many people, especially new members, have NO idea where to find the illusory Chat forum."

I agree. I am far from being a newbie and everytime they would refer to the chat room I would go looking and never found it.

Geeez! who would have known General Interest= Chat.
Not me for sure:-)

[yooper]

To The Moderator:

Here's a suggestion: Wrap your itching fingers around a cold beer and leave the keyboard alone. I'm tired of having a thread I'm interested in relegated to "Lock" or "Moved to Chat", for a very simple reason. By the time that I get on board here, I don't want to have to search for a "Previous Thread" which may very well be 500 or so lines down the ladder.

I have limited time available, and I don't wish to use it scrolling, and scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling, ....etc.

Get the picture?

Respectfully submitted,

Yooper

[Dog Gone]

Well, far be it from me to defend the moderators, but when they lock or move a thread, it almost always has a link to either the original thread or the "chat" forum.

No searching is necessary. Just click on the link they provide.

[sweetliberty]

Something that concerns me is that these are particularly stressful times and we are being bombarded with information on the war. This is important. I don't think there will be any disagreemant about that. But because the tension is so high, so is the need for humor to release some of it...kinda like letting off steam from a pressure cooker. If humor threads are all relocated to chat, they are never even seen by most FReepers, myself included and what makes some of those threads so great is the boundless wit of FReepers. I hope you will allow some leeway on this.

[Admin Moderator]

We try to link a duplicate thread to the original. I think the problem is, if you post to a deleted thread, you will see it in your self search. But, if you haven't posted to a deleted thread, you don't know it was posted. In general, we don't delete duplicates if it's more than 5-6 hours apart. Sometimes, a topic is so hot, we see 10-15 posts of the same article within a short peroid of time.

So, what you're suggesting is, instead of deleting a thread, we should lock it so you can find the original faster. Locking a thread will allow you to see it in the 'threads' page, and allow you to follow it to the original thread. Maybe this is something we can impliment immediately. I'll post it to the moderator area for discussion. I will also let you know what we decide. Thanks for your input.

[Dog Gone]

Actually, if Freepers would simply learn to check out the chat forum on a regular basis, instead of deeming it a banishment to Siberia, it would work fine. The chat forum is no harder to get to than checking for new posts.

[Admin Moderator]

AM's can't ban AM's, trust me, I tried. LOL!

AHEM!

I guess I shouldn't complain. I tried to ban Jim. That doesn't work either! LOL

[Admin Moderator]

General Interest or 'chat' was designed specifically light hearted type threads.