Nothing Free about Free Republic

I respect the right to run your forum the way you want to.  However I would advise every conservative to stay away from Free Republic.  As Sean Hannity stated..  "Everyone I knew basically left because of so much childish immature personal attacks, the propensity there to eat their own."

It's really a shame because 98% of the members seem to be great people.  However the 2% (including moderators) ruin it for everyone.

My own personal experience confirmed exactly what Sean Hannity stated.  I started off by linking stories to this blog.  I didn't engage in any conversations with anyone.  After about a week of this finally I took on the people screaming that I was a "blog pimp".  This is a term they love to use for anyone that links to ANY blog not just their own.  Sure enough  they just wanted to argue and could care less about the content I was posting.  The ultimate irony was they pose as a conservative site, but they are actually just whiny liberals.  The mods don't follow their own rules which makes them hypocritical.  In general don't waste your time, I wouldn't be surprised to find out if the site was funded by Soros.

There are many other people on the web warning to stay away from this forum.  I came across this blog post from conservativexpress.blogspot.com and couldn't agree more!

BLOG POST FROM CONSERVATIVEXPRESS:
Update: Not only banned, but censored by the dirty hypocrites!

Even Sean Hannity has written off Free Republic, saying "Everyone I knew basically left because of so much childish immature personal attacks, the propensity there to eat their own." [Listen to Sean Hannity’s Statement about Free Republic. ]

I was suspended from "conservative" site Free Republic for having an opinion. It's amazing that a so called site dedicated to "Free" would ban someone for having an opinion.

I encourage anyone to feel free to post my material on Free Republic or elsewhere as I will no longer be posting on that site. (If anyone knows of other open forums similar to Free Republic please let me know.)

There are many amazing people over there who support true conservatism and value the opinion of others in the name of advancing our cause.

However the site is too often dominated by a select few radical Right Wing nutjob bullies who are completely intolerant and hypocritical. They are no better than the Liberals they speak out against. Many simply nitpick and chastise others just to make themselves feel better.

The hypocrisy is astounding and intolerable at times.

My account was "Zotted" according to their lingo for being a "troll".

Many "FReepers" complained that I was "pimping my blog".

However, from their own "rules":

For all of you who have blogs or personal web sites that you would like to discuss or promote on Free Republic, here's the place to do it.

Our Bloggers & Personal forum is for:

Posting from your blog.

Posting from other peoples blogs.

Posting from your personal web site.

Posting from other peoples personal web sites.

Promoting your blog.

Promoting other peoples blogs.

Promoting your personal web site.

Promoting your favorite web sites.

Posting from your favorite outside forums.

Free Republic is the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!

Zot - verb, to get kicked off FR in an undignified manner
That's what most people think "Zot" means, but it's not correct.

The history of "Zot".

There are one or two individuals who, for whatever reason, enjoy signing up new accounts here every single day to post leftist drivel. Sometimes they are vanities from DemocraticUnderground. Sometimes they are articles from other far-left sources. Sometimes they are nothing but vile doctored images or profanity laced tirades. Sometimes they are from legitimate sources but happen to strike the eye of the poster as being something that would infuriate conservatives.

The posters in question always post the articles, and then don't reply. They then post other articles, again not replying. This was going on for months. Jim would confirm by looking at the IP addresses and other aspects of the user's 'footprint' that it was the returning troll, and we would nuke the accounts. This went on for months.

Then some of the opportunists who wanted to harm the forum started a whispering campaign, complaining about articles being deleted. They would play off of the fact that the trolls' articles were being pulled to complain that there was some sort of agenda of squelching legitimate conservative postings going on by the moderators.

One day I decided to try something new. I decided, instead of letting the trolls get what they want and have their posts up as flame bait, and instead of pulling the threads outright, I would move their post aside and replace it with something that hopefully others would find humorous. I would do this out in the forum for all to see. The original piece would be available through the history link for the curious, who could see if there was some sort of censorship campaign going on. And the freepers could have fun mocking the troll if they so liked.

It so happens that the way I did it the first time was using a screen shot from Caddyshack, where the pastor gets hit by a lightning bolt. Being a bit of a fan of the comic strip "B.C." I captioned the photo with the lightning bolt sound that Johnny Hart used in his strip- ZOT! That is where the term Zot originated.

Now, sometimes we "zot", and sometimes we simply pull it. It depends on a number of factors, including how busy we are at the time. But whenever you see a Zot, you can be sure that the user was a 'newbie' who was doing their hit-and-run posting, and that if you as a well-established freeper thought the article would have made an interesting discussion, then you could probably post the same piece yourself without incident (although the most vile of the stuff probably would get pulled, and Jim reserves the right to remove anyone who he feels is constantly trying to push leftist propaganda on the forum). Anyway, that is the history and background behind zotting.

***

I will continue to do my part to advance Conservative ideas and bring down the radical Left.

Free Republic sucks!

And here is another: 

Banned at “Free” Republic

by Justin Ptak

I posted the following perhaps intelligent, somewhat educational comment in response to a plethora of posts denouncing Chuck Hagel’s stand on the Israeli-Lebanese conflict and his call for a withdrawal of US troops in Iraq within 6 months:
Hagel is a real hero. Many of you seem to be lacking an education of what conservatism really is and have no knowledge of the old right. You might do well to read a history book. Funny how Bill Buckley and George Will are closer to Hagel’s point of view than your own. Read up on Albert Jay Nock, Henry Hazlitt, HL Mencken, Garet Garrett, Isabel Paterson, John T. Flynn, Rose Wilder Lane, and Frank Chodorov.
I then directed them to the Wikipedia page on the subject.
My posting privileges were revoked two seconds thereafter.
I guess if you are going to get banned for your first post, you better make it a good one. To maintain your posting privileges it seems argumentum ad hominem, libel, and slander work best.