Okay, so I was trolling freeperville last evening

[Midlodemocrat]

...for a little post dinner entertainment and I have to say that the site itself, excluding the idiot rants of those who post there, is very dull, boring and not that easy to navigate. I think the reason the freepers come here is for the stunning repartee as well as the beauty of the site. Anyone agree?

[northzax]

1. unclean! unclean!

I symbolically pour a drum of rubbing alcohol on your head. unlcean. unclean.!

[skypilot]

2. It's so difficult to determine...

...who is responding to who over there. And it's just an ugly site aesthetically.

[Q3JR4]

8. Of course it is.

All of the decorators and interior designers are here.

All freepers can do is grab themselves and upload stolen, ugly code all day long.

[seimmud]

3. I dont...

I think people just grow accustomed to their favorite forums regardless what side of the isle they are.

From an web developer's viewpoint and politics aside, freeperville is definately not flashy or pretty.

Its the same reason people are brought here, the choir they can sing to and organize.

[qnr]

5. Flashy and pretty aren't particularly necessary, but

Free Republic is just plain hard to understand, as far as the layout goes.

[Midlodemocrat]

14. That is exactly how I felt

...I do professional research on the internet and some of the sites I frequent daily are not necessarily flashy or pretty, but they are easy to navigate and make much more sense than that site does. Even Drudge's site is better looking and easier to use. (I confess to looking once in a while, I like to see what the competition is up to)

[HuskerDem]

30. It's Ugly, plain and boring

the original point, no? It is. Ugly. Plain. Boring.

Why do freeps like it so much? They are ugly, plain and boring.

[Goldmund]

4. Anybody know how many members they have?

[seimmud]

12. 158,469

(ok, i had to wash myself with chlorine after going there but...)

I found when you look at a person's posts, it gives a number, which in my database experience, is most likely an incremental identy field (means it starts at 1 and just automatically increases by one for each new record).

Now I just made it 200000 and it said no recs, then changed it to 150000 and it gave me some user, so I upped it to 158,000 and it still gave me one so I just kept doing that until it maxed out at 158,469

This doesnt mean its 158469 ACTIVE users. Just users who have signed up, got booted, dont post, trolls you know the drill.

But thats most likely their TOTAL count.

[Midlodemocrat]

13. I find Clorox less damaging to the skin....n/t

[krkaufman]

6. No opinion on the diffs between Freeperville and DU...

... but I *was* just thinking how much nicer it is to be on our side, after hearing Kent Jones do the 'Unfiltered News', this morning, on AAR. Our comedians and personalities are so much more entertaining -- and actually funny.

http://home.comcast.net/~karl.kaufman/banana_in_a_smoothie.mp3
(MP3 audio, 0.5MB, 1m11s)

[seimmud]

9. so?

"Our comedians and personalities are so much more entertaining"

No offense but I dont understand what that has to do with anything A lot of good that did us this election.

[krkaufman]

16. Chill, Fred

> No offense but I dont understand what that has to
> do with anything

Ummm... it has to do with responding to the original thread post. My response was well within the context/scope of the original thread post -- which had nothing to do with "what do we do next?"

You *do* realize this thread is sitting fatly within the "DU Lounge" forum, right?

[seimmud]

29. Im just sick of the celebs

You *do* realize this thread is sitting fatly within the "DU Lounge" forum, right?

Im just sick of the celebs because it feels like they helps pug turnout rather than progressive turnout. I just wish all celebs would just shut their pie holes...

[krkaufman]

31. If someone like Bruce Springsteen helps bring citizens...

... to a rally, then I'm all for it. Ya gotta get 'em in the door, somehow. We've just gotta learn how to convert 'em once they're there.

[SiouxJ]

7. It is sort of like comparing things under Clinton

to things under Shrub. It's just so damn obvious - we simply now how to do things better. Too bad they'll never appreciate that.

[Flaxbee]

10. DU really is a terrific interface...

I've checked out freeperville once or twice but leave immediately not only b/c of fear of cooties but also because it's just boring, dull, and horribly structured.

DU is beautiful in both substance and style!

[krkaufman]

17. My main hang-up with the DU format...

... is the inability to easily identify new posts within threads-of-interest. I wish it had a more 'newsreader'-like interface for the discussions.

Ideally, someone would come up with an IMAP-like interface for the old 'news' system, enabling transparent access to discussions from either standalone clients or web browsers.

[sir_captain]

18. You know about the 'mark' button, right?

Essentially enables you to do what you want...

[krkaufman]

20. Yes, absolutely. Ummm... What mark button?

Seriously. What 'mark' button?

[Maestro]

11. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Compared to DU, freeperville looks like a bad high school HTML project.

[qnr]

15. High School? Generous, aren't you :) -- FR gives Perl a bad name n/t

[Maestro]

19. Okay

it is a holy freakin' nightmare of shoddy code, pop-up advertising, and corrupt frames. ;)

[AngryAmish]

21. Who has more members, FR or DU?

[qnr]

22. FR n/t

[AngryAmish]

23. You have to be kidding me

Why????

[qnr]

24. because they're dittoheads and were told to go? no idea

I'm going to start running a script that counts new users on both boards, I think.

[Skittles]

25. they have been around longer

and it is much easier to pander to hatred and ignorance than sanity

[warrens]

26. Actually, with their many purges

I doubt they have nearly as many active members as they claim.

[dean_dem]

27. The best explanation for FR's crappy website...

...is that its awfully hard to learn web-design in between beating your wife and polishing the IROC parked on your front lawn.
That or the fat, stubby fingers typical of Neanderthal man make it awfully hard to work most modern keyboards.

[Midlodemocrat]

28. LOL