free-association.net EmbASSy's topics - tribe.net

I Seem To Be A Verb: 18 Years of Godwin's Law

jon_near_seattle — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:29:40 GMT

Mike's reflections ... a few excerpts:

I can't say I anticipated that Godwin's Law, which states that, "As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches 1," would last this long or that it would propagate into popular culture to the extent that it has. But I'm mostly gratified that it has done so. Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust.

....

It was difficult, after attempting a greater psychological understanding of why the Holocaust happened and how it was conducted, to tolerate the glib comparisons I encountered on the Internet (Usenet in those days). My sense of moral outrage at this phenomenon found an outlet after I read an article in in the Whole Earth Review about memes—viral ideas—that inspired me to create a kind of counter-measure. And so I created Godwin's Law and began to repeat it in online forums whenever I encountered a silly comparison of someone or something to Hitler or to the Nazis. As the handy Wikipedia entry on Godwin's Law (crafted by someone else long before I ever came to work for the Wikimedia Foundation) points out, this was a deliberate experiment in memetics. In other words, I was trying to jumpstart Godwin's Law into becoming a self-propagating idea. By all accounts, I succeeded.

....

Overall, though, I'm content that the Law has as much popcult traction as it does. My feeling is that "Never Again" loses its meaning if we don't regularly remind ourselves of the terrible inflection point marked in human culture by the Holocaust. Sure, there has been genocide before that point and genocide after it, but to see an advanced, highly civilized nation warp itself into something capable of creating such a horror—well, I think Nazi Germany does count as a first in that regard.

And to a great extent, our challenge as human beings who live in the period after that inflection point is that we no longer can be passive about history—we have a moral obligation to do what we can to prevent such events from ever happening again. Key to that obligation is remembering, which is what Godwin's Law is all about.

More at http://www.jewcy.com/post/i_seem_be_verb_18_years_godwins_law?page=0

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

They had community support. They had a chance.

Mike_C — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:21:12 GMT

http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/recommendation/free-associationnet/san-francisco-ca/cb40edb5-fe1d-4b80-823a-db7caffdf39d

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

Adios, au revior, auf weidersehen.....

rockstar77 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:06:34 GMT

... goodnight!

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&catid=55&id=104312#104312
http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&id=102244&catid=697

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 3 replies

gah!

Mike_C — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:47:55 GMT

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&id=98371&catid=56

Dude . . . . . . . .

• Need strategies to retain/revive people already here

• Keep post levels up to keep appearance of life

• Put most vigorous conversation thread of the day onto home page

• Highlight comparative uptime vs. Tribe on Tribe

no dude . . . . . . . . . .

• More videos, Flash & other "dancing baloney" to try to "go viral"...

no dude . . . . . . . . totally not cool dude.

• Maybe broader recruitment toward free speech activists...?

OMG! You killed Kenny!

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 6 replies

The new smileys are here!

Mike_C — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:59:14 GMT

http://www.pointsincase.com/downloads/free_smileys.htm

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 19 replies

Take it how you will

Mike_C — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:02:07 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-OzPYra_o&mode=related&search=

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

One of DSB's requests -- should it be 'respected'

Mike_C — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:16:38 GMT

DSB did bring up an interesting point in regard to a site controlling the links presented on tribe, or any forum, to the content on Free-association.

http://tribes.tribe.net/freeassociationdualcitizens/thread/40bbab10-1f4e-4597-a7bd-60358f37fe00#656fe0fc-d1a0-4b3e-82a6-4d9f06b04343

What DSB is implying is that Free-association.net owns any links to it's site.

I'm of the position that DSB has made a valid point and possibly a legal headache for the internet in general. Linking content on a social network may actually have different rules, one that goes beyond the assumed privilege of citing source material in an essay.

There are plenty of topics to consider here. One I can think of is if a group discussion on Free-association mentions another person by name, does that make the topic owned by the members/association owners or is the topic actually owned by the person discussed.

Another consideration would be whether FA as a site 'does' own the threads and have authority over the presentation of their content on other sites.

Also, is there a hierarchy of content ownership on FA, with association owners having more say over links than members of the association itself?

All are ideas that might need to be thought about if we want to figure out the boundaries of artistic rights within a social forum and addendums to basic constitutional rights of

a. the internet at large.
b. The social forum -- as a microcosm of the internet -- regarding who owns collaborative works.
c. who owns 'links'. The person who posts the link? One of the servers on both sides of the link?

Any thoughts?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 2 replies

Bootiegate

RPMcMurphy — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:12:19 GMT

Recently a user of FA became dismayed and left FA after enduring insults regarding a friend of hers.
She had previously allowed FA to use an image ( a quite attractive one) of her ass in their logo.
It is now a matter of contention... whether they have the right to maintain the picture of her ass on their logo... while she left after a falling out... or whether the individual has the right to control the content of their experience.

Have the Admin @ FA learned from previous failures in people skills ?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 44 replies

If free-ass is going to die within a few months

Mike_C — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:35:49 GMT

Staring at the activity levels, it seems like this may happen pretty soon. If it does happen, have you guys in the SC talked about releasing your updated template on the Joombla board as an open source program?

Doing so might have more impact on the freedom of speech and forum posting than one might imagine, especially if distributed through a number of programmers and placed on an expanding number of servers. In a way, this might preserve the legacy you intended from the beginning -- the haven for free speech coupled with the tools to propigate it.

You are privy to an entire cycle of creation and destruction. There is some value in that.

Rather than solicit members now, why not look over the history of the free-ass site and decipher what went wrong with it in these last months. Create a written history of the social and psychological problems inheriant in maintaining a message board from it's initial seed to active development as a book and sell that . . .

either to (a) maintain the free-ass site as a sociological study and invite Clay Shirky and others to use it as a course study for students or (b) completely lock the threads on the old site and create an entirely new message board with a different domain, using a second joomla board.

Either way, you should have enough money to maintain the server costs through donation and/or book sales.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 100 replies

Moving On

deborahp — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:59:59 GMT

I only heard about these latest issues last night after I got back from a vacation with limited Internet access. From what I see, Simidae felt badly about the hurtful comment he posted on Kat's photo, either did apologize or tried to, and tried to remove the comment, but Kat had already gone. See what he posted here: http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&catid=986&id=86360.

Sometimes people say dumb things that they later regret. As Simidae did. As I've done. As I'm sure most of you have done in the past. I don't mean to be insensitive, but has no one here had random people make comments on their photos? You delete them and move on. I've had to delete many comments from my photos.

About the FA Promotions photo.... Sonya thought she had permission to use the photos, and you can see from Sonya's post in the 'bootiegate' thread that it really does look like she had permission. As a matter of respect though, the photo came down as soon as Sonya knew that was what Kat wanted. As far as I can tell, her photo was deleted from the association within about a day of her unsubscribing. That's quick by anybody's standards.

I'm not sure why everyone here was so quick to jump to conclusions and attribute bad intent to the SC, and to immediately start in with name calling. I thought that the embassy was supposed to be a place to discuss, a place where we could "get to the heart of the matter". That's certainly not what happened in this case. I'll always spend time with people to work things out (as you can see from my previous posts in other threads), but, in my opinion, that is not what happened here. It appears to me that people here would rather engage in name calling and other destructive behavior, rather than to actually get at the heart of the matter.

My wish for FA has always been for it to be a place where we can go when we can't go anywhere else. It's no secret that I believe that the 2257 regs are going to be expanded, and used to crush as many social networks as possible. Anyone who has talked to me for even a minute knows how I feel about 2257.

Even though the SC has made mistakes along the way, we've tried to learn from those mistakes and keep moving in a forward direction. I'm not interested in playing games like attributing bad intent based on things that happened over a year ago. I am going to continue to move in a positive forward direction. I've never been good at living in the past, and I'm not about to start now.

So with that, I'm leaving this tribe. I'm also dissassociating myself from some of you. It's nothing personal -- I just prefer to act in constructive ways rather than destructive ones. If I've defriended you and you really want to be my friend, just refriend me.

If not, good luck, I wish all of you the best. Over the last year or so, many of you have given me a lot to think about and I've learned a lot from you. But now -- it's time to move on.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 18 replies

Whatever happened to the constitutional convention junk ?

RPMcMurphy — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:37:53 GMT

Is it endlessly being talked about ?
Some conclusion reached ?

Maybe Forest Gump could help ?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 7 replies

Maybe we ... need some good ol' fashioned

RPMcMurphy — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:36:13 GMT

Alts to stir- enliven the atmosphere at FA ?
(Different than haters)
Why is it that Tribe's fierce intervention seems to generate more controversy and therefore activity ?...

I'm getting the image of Larry Flynt here...
BDSM people all in agreement. Does not provide the same effect.

I tried some argument tribes, and they were boring as shit !
Everybody just arbitrarily disagreed.
So I see the situation as that, in order to escape the backpatting virus that kills tribes... there arbitrarily has to be a nemesis.
To provide a polarizing effect.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 4 replies

LunarPages woes?

Kara — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:12:49 GMT

FA has had a lot of server glitches lately ... but this is the only time I have seen it generating an error 500 (internal server error). A ping shows the machine is there, so it looks like someone made an oops to a server config change.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

Ummmmmm . . .

Mike_C — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:32:23 GMT

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&id=55986&catid=773

Sonya,

Is this flaming or baiting? Or are we finally scraping the bottom of the barrel here in our search for content?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 43 replies

ToU system

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:00:11 GMT

FA has taken care of a problem I had for 3 months (somebody was following me around... would not leave me alone... making inappropriate comments)... almost immediately.... Tribe is doing things like deleting my threads in Brainstorm... and more...
The situation seems to have been solved.... SEEMS that is... with regards to transparency... and the ability to in some way offer an argument to your defense.

I'm not sure about the actuality of that.
Can someone fill me in ?
I saw DSB talking about it.

I am happy

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 4 replies

Checking in at the door.

Rettirc — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:46:06 GMT

I don't want anyone to think I am lurking. I am starting reading from the bottom up. I don't have a lot of time so it might take a while. When I am caught up (or if I see need along the way) I will chime in again.

And in case the wording and the style and the type-os (and the profile of course) don't give it away... CRiTTER is in the house.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 23 replies

FA functions tribe is lacking

Simidae — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 06:53:53 GMT

& vise versa. For me right now the big ones are edit & the URL button.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 8 replies

Memories are faulty

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:22:16 GMT

Memories are reconstructions of past events modified by current beliefs.

There is talk of generating an "official" version of history of FA.
There are many versions of "The unpleasantness"
I think it was Faulkner who said-
The past is never dead... it's not even past.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 255 replies

just to be Perfectly clear

susanholmes418 — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:41:53 GMT

jon,

you do NOT have my permission to use my name, my likeness or any of my writings in any form at any time

this is NOT up for debate

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 93 replies

Continue locked threads without the permission of the moderator.

RPMcMurphy — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:27:59 GMT

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_associations&task=displayAssociation&id=837

My new association.
EXERCISE YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH !

Moderators can no longer silence you.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 13 replies

Healing Is a Painfull Process

DSB — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:34:51 GMT

I've many wounds real life upon my person some out of stupidly of my own or no action of my own other then being in the world. Some have physically hurt real deep and some I’ll never overcome but I did heal and I do function. Was the process painless nope is my most recent flair up painless nope. I guess for me it is a approach that works for me if my parts hurt here or there I can sit and complain this or that hurts or I can say it is going to hurt even if I do nothing.

So like the challenges I face in my real world I place here also I am willing to work with anyone as not being apart of so many events to work it out. Suffering from a cut finger is a process not always painless so I’ll remain my last thought healing is a process not pain free. I’ve been rolled beating up left for dead and well run over to boot. Recovery and healing was hard and long in each case but well worth the life I have now on and off line but it is not painless go figure.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

Why was FA created?

deborahp — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 07:09:23 GMT

True asked for a new thread on the subject, so here are my reasons for helping to create it, and why I got involved in the first place.

For me, the story begins with joining Tribe. In my day job, I'm a lawyer/privacy advocate and I work in the greater civil liberties community. Privacy advocates in general don't do social networks. This is because of the sheer amount of personal information that is archived about a person, it's just anathema to us. But I saw Tribe as a way to do activism on privacy and civil liberties issues. I remember when I told one of my colleagues that I was joining a social network. Her response? "Oh Deborah, you're so brave". This is how strongly we feel about privacy. I don't even have a Tivo because of privacy concerns. I don't use loyalty cards, I don't buy stuff online, and I use cash whenever I can because I don't want to leave a trail. And yet, I saw the value, the potential value of a social network for activism. I decided to just jump in and see what happened. Turns out, there's a lot of value. There are a lot of places on Tribe where activism works -- I'm still here on Tribe for activism purposes.

Then the 2257 regs went into effect. I knew it was going to be a nightmare. Around that time Sonya started up her "tribe alternatives" tribe and I joined and volunteered to donate time to setting up a "tribe alternative", and that was how I came to be on FA.

An embryonic steering committee was formed (we had the first meeting at our apt.), and we started discussing what Free-Association would look like -- although FA didn't have a name yet. ;) We hammered out what we thought the principles should be, the guiding light, so to speak, and then set about building it. And this is how I came to be on the steering committee.

My agenda was to create a place where we could safely discuss issues relating to sexuality and anything else that tickled our fancy. I was worried, and am still worried, that the government will effectively shut down the social networks (child porn is rampant on these networks, didn't you know?), and again, the promise of the early days of the Net will be lost. I. do. not. want. that. to. happen. That is my agenda.

I was so certain that people shared my vision, that once things on FA were in a workable condition, I basically ignored the posts, and set about writing the privacy policy, and doing the research things that I do best. Imagine my surprise when I realized that people were attacking each other, flaming each other, and basically just behaving badly. I had not expected this -- at all. I was even more surprised when one member of the SC felt it was his god given right to flame his "enemies" into the ground and using an alt to do it. I'll admit that I'm pretty bitter about this person to this day, and probably even actively hostile towards him -- and that's about as far into it as I care to go. If I had to do it all over again, I would have paid more attention earlier on, and I would have put my foot down with regards to the SC member. But, what is done is done, I can't change it, but I've learned a valuable lesson.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 8 replies

Susan... Rockstar... Sonyalynn... Jon... Mike C. ... MYOB... and others too numerous to list...

RPMcMurphy — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:18:27 GMT

How do you envision reconciliation ?
what needs to happen ?
I'm not sure it can happen...

but I would like to know if there are any ideas about what could possibly be required...
Everybody's welcome to throw in on this one...
(even non-FA members).

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 21 replies

didn't i Just start a thread in here last night?

susanholmes418 — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:33:12 GMT

or am i just crazy?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

A question, and a suggestion

spank-me-plz — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:35:25 GMT

BB hasn't joined the tribe, and has stayed out of a lot of the more angry discussions on FA, as well. He keeps asking me why people can't have this discussion on FA. This type of thing would do fine in site governance, for example. What should I tell him?

I would like to suggest that we DO bring some of this good discussion back there, so that we can include others who may share their point of view.

I know that the flame wars have been an issue over there, but they're no longer tolerated in the official associations. I would also be willing to start a new association in which the flaming would not be tolerated, but open discussion would be welcomed and encouraged, including the issues we all see on free-association.

Switzerland would be a good place again, but some people seem to have a hard time with that due to past issues. Starting fresh might be helpful for some. Thoughts?

--Wendy

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 38 replies

From My Start

DSB — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 04:20:04 GMT

No doubt people look at my friends not a long list could be longer as I work through things here. Know a couple things about me I do not back friends because they are friends I support positions and how they relate to me only, not you them. In short I think and hold my friends highly they have there own positions on matters that may or may not align with mine, they allow me my position and I theirs we are grown up all of us have our own voice cannot deal with it make no charges.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

A possible origin of free-ass problems

Mike_C — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:54:11 GMT

From Jon,

"I believe that most of this latent potential base is still there. Of course there's plenty of reason for skepticism; if lessons haven't been learned and behavior hasn't changed (or if the aftermath continues to ripple) then things will die -- and even in the best case, there's a risk that things have fallen below critical mass at the same time that momentum has been lost. We shall see. So let's separate that out."

An observation:
I think most of the potential base was squeezed out by the rip off of intellectual property that happened early on in the free-ass revolution. This was done by taking the names of well known tribes and putting them on free-ass without notifying the tribe's moderator of the move. Many of these were original creations that moderators 'were' going to move onto free-ass at the start of the insurrection. These moderators (site builders) were thwarted by people who took the brand name as their own. There were even some cases where moderators on free-ass actually set out to take the tribe name to squeeze out a moderator they had a grudge against.

'Extreme Honesty' and 'Bad Advice on any Subject' were two of the big ones, representing a combined tribe membership of over two thousand. Both tribes were extremely active in the heyday of Tribe, with averages of a hundred posts daily, sometimes spiking to as high as three hundred posts.

In many cases (and as much as some of us would like to find fault), it was the moderator that was responsible for nursing that tribe up from nothing and shaping it into the place it turned out to be. Stealing the franchise and placing it here did a huge amount of damage just as the initial surge of membership was taking place at the 600 -- 1,100 member window. That was probably the source of the initial downturn of the free-ass membership drive; the lack of respect for creative endevor and on occasion -- the active and spiteful theft.

The only way this should've worked was to persuade the moderator on tribe to defect to free-ass. J-sin was able to do this with 'Pleasure in Restraint' and the core membership he brought over did a lot to sustain free-ass for a long time. If the SC had personally sent out invitations to the moderators of these large tribes, they might have created franchises and posted invite links on their tribes to bring people to free-ass --

This could be something to learn from and it was an advantage free-ass had one shot at taking. That window of opportunity is probably done now that the Tribe of JANuary 2006 is through kicking itself in the ass.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 37 replies

i want to tell you all a True Story

susanholmes418 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:50:36 GMT

but i don't want to do it here where it'll show up on google and what not.

the most recent thread here has brought up an Issue for me. i've invited the parties that i think Should be interested into a private association on FA. if you want to hear the story and you didn't get an invite, just ask me for one

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_associations&task=displayAssociation&id=811

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

content is skyrocketing

susanholmes418 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:51:16 GMT

1023 posts in public associations in the last seven days

this doesn't count blogs, private asses or private messages

it would seem that we are Back

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 14 replies

LYRICS TELL YOUR STORY (Tribe Remix)

rockstar77 — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 21:35:03 GMT

(There's certainly an FA MTV video in THIS one, esp. as both are more than one of us on FA... ;p)

Dr. Heckyll works late at the laboratory
Where things are not as they seem
Dr. Heckyll wishes nothing more desperately
Than to fulfill all his dreams
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night
As he's breaking new ground
Trying his best to unlock all the secrets
But he's not sure what he's found

Dr. Heckyll is his own little guinea pig
'Cos they all think he's mad
Sets his sights on the search of a lifetime
And he's never, never sad

Whoa oh, its off to work he goes
In the name of science and all its wonders

This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
They are a person who feels good to be alive
This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
Believes the underdog will eventually survive

Not long now till the ultimate experiment
He's breaking all the rules
He wants to cure all matter of imbalance
In this world of fools

He locks the door and looks around nervously
He knows there's no one there
He drinks it down and waits for some reaction
To all his work and care

Hey, hey he fumbles for what to say
He loves the world except for all the people

This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
They are a person who feels good to be alive
This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
Believes the underdog will eventually survive

Whoa, oh, its out at night he goes
He sips easily into conversation
Hey hey, he's cool in every way
Sometimes he likes to sing "That Old Black Magic."

This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
They are a person who feels good to be alive
This is the story of Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive
Believes the underdog will eventually survive

-Colin Hay

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 17 replies

Response to Sonya Lynn

rockstar77 — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:51:58 GMT

I separate this from the unwieldly strand in the other thread (which we should ideally be having on free-ass, but...) because what you say is important-

"Calling someone a name simply isn't a "human rights violation."

SL, if that's you attitude, then your mind is made up already. It was the female, submissive and trans bashing that caused me to write and intermittently push the Human Rights TOU. Again, your attitude throughout was to push the truly bizarre Orwellian meme that "human rights = oppression."

I'll bring up the HA TOU again at the convention and I hope you have some better arguments than those this time!

"the solution to that is education"

Which is yet another variant of the "buck-pass boogaloo" that is FASC's favorite getdown. Aside from the difficulties involved in educating alt-morons and misogynists, after all that's happened, FA's slackness and callousness in this regard looks like, well, slackness and callousness. A HR TOU would've stopped the Flame War in its tracks, which is why you and others howled it out of existance. You took my proposing it as fear and weakness, and piled on. Yet another miscalculation! Well, I've convinced you of the folly of THAT, at any rate! :-) Certainly Tatt would still own a SC seat had I been what you thought...

Lemme ask you a question: Does it REALLY take NINE people to vacillate, back-scratch and watch people bleed? Can't THREE do just as well?

"and not a rule potentially open to misinterpretation. One of the problems with making rules, as any actual lawyer will tell you, is that it's the laws and rules which look the simplest that are actually the most prone to misinterpretation".

This is the bureaucrat's oldest excuse for failure to do his job, right on up there with "if I gave YOU a raise, I'd have to give everybody one!" Could ANY CONCEIVABLE MISINTERPRETATION hurt the site as badly as the Flame War has? Will NOTHING teach you the errors of moral equivalencies and responsibility-dodging?

"As far as Critter's concerned"

I will not talk about him for I gave my word. Suffice to say the current problems have little to do with that user.

"Further, you'll notice that the woman- and weight-bashers have been booted for TOU violations, unsubbed of their own accord, or ae still there but just unheard-from in quite some time. Why? Because we started cracking down on ad hom attack-speech, whatever form it took."

Then why is Jon allowed to (inadvertently?) troll and insult people? Did FASC hand him a "Secret Squirrel Troll License" in the dead of night or something?

"Never a spoonful of sugar to try to help the medicine go down, but always an attack right off the bat, justified or no. You bring a point of view to any debate that can best be described as Manichean."

Where was the "spoonful of sugar" for Dangerleigh? For Suzy? For Emily? All gentle ladies of worth, dignity and sweetness who were insulted and spat on simply for disagreeing with the way your site treats women or getting in the way of personal feuds INSTIGATED AND KEPT GOING BY THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE. Your job was to MAKE LIBERTARIAN-SOUNDING EXCUSES FOR OFFICIAL INACTION & MALFEASANCE during all this! As it turned out, the FASC was in on trolling, defamation and harrassment UP TO ITS NINE-HEADED NECK and YOU KNEW IT.

People saw this and began leaving. In droves. That you persist in blaming me for this is mind-blowing. Are there no mirrors where you live?

The "Manichean" remark is pure flummery and misdirection. One of the many reasons I sent you an invite to my "apocalypse" tribe is to school you away from that BS. There's no trolling or bashing there and all feel welcome. The people are VERY contentious and onery and brawl like longshoremen elsewhere. Not there. The difference is actual DEBATE, rather than a paranoid hate-campaign directed by some trashy maniac who pumped you all full of his own fear and resentment and moral puniness.

Until FA has some sort of "truth & reconciliation" movement to PUT AWAY SCAPEGOATING, FINALLY TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH and to REACH OUT to those it wronged, I can't see the site lasting much longer. We need that WAY more than Jon's blinded-by-junk-science groping around in other people's feelings. Or more revanchist bullshit from site throw-outs like TMF and Tattfiend.

> And [FA name deleted] never received an apology for having her painful divorce smeared all
> over the site by an attack mutt the FASC eventually had to chloroform.

Actually, she did. From me, over PM. I was also the one to remove that infringing content as soon as I found it, as you'll recall. We didn't hesitate with Roadie when he pulled the "disclosing privileged info" crap on Brandy, nor did I hesitate when TMF did the same in the instance to which you refer."

"Hello, History? Where's the EDIT function?" Roadie was gone in a SPLIT FUCKING SECOND. TMF was allowed to run all over the site spewing his shitmouth hatred of her every place that would allow him to do so. He ACCUSED HER (among many other lies) OF KIDNAPPING HER OWN KIDS and people get the death penalty for kidnapping here in the US. Had [FA name deleted] been on the FASC, that silly little creep would've been vaporized off the site pronto.

Indeed, the poor sick doggie had to start ATTACKING THE FASC before you even considered trying to slap a muzzle on him! Which, to tell the truith, was why I stopped engaging with him. I KNEW he'd attack his benefactors next and SO HE DID. If you still have scars from that period, it's because I quit sucking up his attacks for you. Thereafter, you GOT WHAT YOU EARNED.

Like it?

"Jon may have miscalculated in unearthing the hatchet to try to perform some forensics on it when there are still people engaged in the discussion whose fingerprints are still on it (like both you and me), but his intentions are good, just as yours are, even if you don't want to see that."

Jon's forensic approach needs work. All he seems to have uncovered is 1) pain hurts and 2) he personally doesn't give a fuck as long as the person hurt ISN'T HIM.

"You're under no obligation to participate. "

If my name is gonna come up, then I certainly am. I see my forced exitus from Jon's association is giving him scope for all kinds of creative re-writes of asso history...

"There are other volume levels beside "Gangbusters", though, OK?"

Show me some sign you're paying attention. Engage with WHAT I SAY instead of blowing it off. Stop justifying and start listening.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 42 replies

"Rockstar has been suspended"

rockstar77 — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:01:24 GMT

You know, Free-Ass is a strange place. I get thrown out of the punk rock group for being an O.P., banished from the Extreme Honesty knockoff to better facilitate lying and now the moderator of Civil Discourse bans me because he refuses to answer my questions! How else to explain:

"I told the other moderators that in my opinion, Rockstar's latest attacks on Sonya and Simidae were too far over the line, and that the right approach was to suspend him, but that I wanted moderator feedback.

A majority of the moderators (counting myself) have agreed, so I am now suspending Rockstar. Note that this is not a ban; we haven't yet had time to discuss the length of the suspension.

jon

PS: edited to clarify that the majority includes me -- in other words, at least three others have agreed"

Hm. A lot of ass-covering, fo' sheezy! As far as your charge against me goes, it's pure bullshit. There was no "latest" attack on anyone,since I attacked no one and indeed, treated everyone there (including you) with markedly more courtesy than you've collectively shown me.

Jon, I'll ask my questions here and I hope you feel safe enough to answer them, even in a place where you don't get to make up spurious and biased definitions of "civil discourse."

What is the point of re-starting the Flame War?

How did I "attack" either Sonya or Simidae?

Why do you insist on labeling hate-alts as "dissidents" only to ban an actual longtime dissident from your association?

Why won't you answer Wendy's questions either? Or address Sonya's concerns? You thowing me out looks like a clumsy effort to change the subject and blame me for your own ill-conceived behavior

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 152 replies

Why????????????

Mike_C — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:24:49 GMT

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=28&func=view&id=52899&catid=55&limit=20&limitstart=20

good thread :)

http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/a2f2a0af-9c69-42c4-8d97-4cb3052c3849

baaaad thread :(

Questions:

Why does the information in the good thread not apply to the bad thread? And why is this taking away from good discussions and useful topics over on Tribe.net Brainstorm.

Who is trolling this thread in brainstorm? Is it Sonya or Mystic Moods?

How is this not helping recruitment on free-ass 'or' is this actually a membership drive in action . . .

Who will join free-ass after seeing this discussion?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 13 replies

Concise and, um...Conciser. :-P

sonyalynn — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:56:38 GMT

Go try your hand at the 6-word short story, if you dare! ;-)

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=28&func=view&id=54219&catid=174

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 0 replies

Associations to check out

RPMcMurphy — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:59:48 GMT

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_associations&task=displayAssociation&id=302

Some may say it's cheese...
but it exemplifies what you cannot do on tribe.

(post yourself nekkid)

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 10 replies

The Happy Love Sunshine Unicorn Palace! thread!!

rockstar77 — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 05:37:40 GMT

I brought the playroom here! Let's play and have fun!

Yay!

*blows bubbles*

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 30 replies

Self deleted Topic

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:37:32 GMT

Hey everybody ...
I had this new example of hate speech up...
But then thought better of it...If anybody would like to see the hate rant....
Let me know and I'll send you a copy.
I self deleted my post.
No need to infect this place with that bullshit.

More ignorance.

Is FA really going to continue to tolerate this ?

When I state that the issue of boundaries needs to be addressed... I mean...
1.You need users to make the site function.

2. They have to feel comfortable in the use of the site.

3.They need to use.

I refer to Masloows Hierarchy of needs...
Safety is at the base.

Without safety there are no users.
Without users there is no site.

The funny thing is... If I had brought this up on FA comments complaints and suggestions....
I would have faced a firestorm of combativeness and conflict.

Here... the culprits... can't do that shit to me.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 23 replies

Yay Sonya Lynn!

rockstar77 — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:52:04 GMT

In which some large economies with the truth are taken and our own SL plays Truth Squad--

http://moderators.tribe.net/thread/5f69b5d3-bb39-4748-8499-e9d1bbaec67d

Well done! My kudos to you for even bothering with Tribe Moderators as well. It's one of Tribe's worst snakepits.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 8 replies

Another convenient feature.... the ability to edit your posts

RPMcMurphy — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:15:05 GMT

The ability to edit posts has come in handy numerous times on free ass...

with the computer... at times ... I re-think my response or statement...
and want to put it a different way.

Unh... unh... not on Tribe... it's a one shot deal here.
Yer basically screwed.
It's set in stone.

On free-association you have a greater opportunity to arrive at the conclusion ...
an evolving idea makes possible.

Tribe is like watercolor process...forethought and
well considered precision are required.

Free-ass is more like Acrylic painting...
you can screw up as much as you like...
and still re-work it.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 22 replies

Another related topic... the ability to quote

RPMcMurphy — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:46:48 GMT

In posting...at times
you want it to be a direct response...
sooo you spend time organizing and clicking etc.

On free-association.net... you can just hit the quote button...
saves time and effort.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

Struggle of ideas ?... or Abuse ?

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:27:06 GMT

Sites that maintain you can say ...
no matter what you want when you want...

claim to emulate the most pure form of free speech.
1. Is this really true ? Why or why not

are they just a place for germination of animosity that then spreads ?
2. How is that germane to the outside world ?

What if that outlet were taken away would people just stop ? I doubt it.

3. What is the advantage in having a place where people can abuse the shit out of each other ?

I do not like limiting freedom of speech... but I can't stand abusers.
It is a dilemna that has come up in the past.

Please do not use direct examples...
lets speak to the concept.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 30 replies

I'm going to be absent for a couple of days...

deborahp — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:56:28 GMT

... please don't take it wrong.

I've got a couple of projects at work that have a hard deadline of "end of business day" tomorrow, so I'm going to be mighty scarce here and on FA till the weekend.

But as somebody famous once said - "I'll be back". :)

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

sonya tells me we got a plug!

susanholmes418 — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:57:55 GMT

so what Do you all think of making this the embassy? seriously, if they're talking about us - where should we send them?

i always vote for post yourself nekkid but that's just me

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_associations&task=displayAssociation&id=302

a free-ass ass pointer? heh...

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

Howdy !

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:29:44 GMT

Hi Sonyalynn
glad to have you here !

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 19 replies

Just curious...

RPMcMurphy — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:39:51 GMT

Why doesn't free-ass...

Go to all the networking sites to reach more users ?

I personally do not want a huge inundation of MySpace kids...
(it's impossible to have a coherent, intelligent conversation on there)

but other social networking sites?

Is growth potential... the birth of mainstream confinements ?

I really do not understand why there is not more effort spent on recruitment.
(perhaps I am unaware of it ?)

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 2 replies

Name change

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:34:10 GMT

I would like to change the name...

To a meaning that does not infer a judgement...
but a condition.

"free-association dual citizens"

Thanks,
Mike

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 8 replies

An interesting turn . . .

Mike_C — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:05:47 GMT

Might be a cause for hope.

http://free-association.net/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=1&func=view&id=50224&catid=247

Skip might! The personal revelation is hope enough.

But on free-ass, does it also mean the light is switching off . . .

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 9 replies

well! isn't this so very much better!

susanholmes418 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:36:32 GMT

no more trying to figure out what's going on here! hooray!

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

www.free-association.net

RPMcMurphy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:52:41 GMT

This is the alternative networking site this tribe is about.

Although there are problems with it...
The Tou is much more relaxed...

and you can help shape it...
because it is at it's beginnings.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 1 reply

Welcome

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:27:18 GMT

FA was a good idea, but it went no place fast. SInce they are still just barely surviving lets start by guessing when FA will totally shut down. My guess is they will fold by next Spring.

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 28 replies

The mod election thread

rockstar77 — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:14:24 GMT

Hm. Our mod has quit the place...

Suzy, I think you might've changed your mind from yesterday... do you want this? Mike?

posted in free-association.net EmbASSy - 7 replies