[LUconn]

We're not very nice to new people. There's a thread about it in the 101 forum. It's a mystery as to why it happens. I hope Mr. Freelance is not run off. He obviously has some things to learn if he's going to keep an accurate blog. He doesn't seem to be trying to be overly critical, just ignorant of all the information. (Ignorant has turned into an insult in the last 10 years but I mean it in the literal sense here).

[olldflame]

We're not very nice to new people. There's a thread about it in the 101 forum. It's a mystery as to why it happens. I hope Mr. Freelance is not run off. He obviously has some things to learn if he's going to keep an accurate blog. He doesn't seem to be trying to be overly critical, just ignorant of all the information. (Ignorant has turned into an insult in the last 10 years but I mean it in the literal sense here).

"Newbie bashing" is not unique to FF. It's there in one form or another on every message board I have participated in. It usually takes the form of a lack of patience with people asking questions that have been answered a hundred times, and the phrase "use the search function" generally gets in there somewhere.

[BUSIMAN23]

We're not very nice to new people. There's a thread about it in the 101 forum. It's a mystery as to why it happens. I hope Mr. Freelance is not run off. He obviously has some things to learn if he's going to keep an accurate blog. He doesn't seem to be trying to be overly critical, just ignorant of all the information. (Ignorant has turned into an insult in the last 10 years but I mean it in the literal sense here).

"Newbie bashing" is not unique to FF. It's there in one form or another on every message board I have participated in. It usually takes the form of a lack of patience with people asking questions that have been answered a hundred times, and the phrase "use the search function" generally gets in there somewhere.

I have definitely seen it, a lot of replies are held with sarcasm and arrogance. It doesn't necessarily bother me just wanted to point it out.

[Ed Dantes]

People wonder how the members of FlameFans know so much. The biggest thing: we read the newspaper.

And we read FlameFans.

[Ed Dantes]

I was going to put my .02 cents in.

that's not a lot of money. Do you mean .02 dollars? $.02? 2 cents?

(sorry... I know I'm a jerk for pointing that out. I couldn't resist... Forgive me?)

[Ed Dantes]

We're not very nice to new people. There's a thread about it in the 101 forum. It's a mystery as to why it happens. I hope Mr. Freelance is not run off. He obviously has some things to learn if he's going to keep an accurate blog. He doesn't seem to be trying to be overly critical, just ignorant of all the information. (Ignorant has turned into an insult in the last 10 years but I mean it in the literal sense here).

Agreed, but...
...(and I'm not saying this is the case with the freelancer, his blog looks like it's a fair representation of Liberty's newsworthiness) some people come on here and the first thing they do is trash Liberty or make some ignorant comment. It's like they see a gathering of Liberty fans and the first thing they want to scream is "hey! you suck!"

[SuperJon]

It usually takes the form of a lack of patience with people asking questions that have been answered a hundred times, and the phrase "use the search function" generally gets in there somewhere.

That's my biggest thing.

Criticism is great... when there is a basis for it. I've criticized plenty of things around here. It's perfectly ok to dislike things. At the same time, there's a process that goes on from "disliking" to "criticizing." You have to find out the information on why the thing you dislike is happening before you can criticize it. Criticizing something without knowing the background is just whining.

Example: We (The LUnatics) were told we could get tickets to away basketball games from the basketball team. Awesome. Thanks. For two years, we used that perk to our advantage. This year, those tickets started disappearing and we couldn't get them. I didn't like that at all, so I looked into it. What was happening was our AD was giving them to boosters and potential boosters. I still didn't like what was going on, but I had to basis to criticize them for running our athletic department like a legit athletic department.

If you don't like the idea of a ski slope, that's perfectly fine. Personally, I'm iffy on it. However, before you start saying, "That money could've been used on academics" go see if that was even possible. In this case, it wasn't.

[phoenix]

Looks to me like the only thing "hard hitting" is the report on the ski slope, and that sounded like a post written by someone with an axe to grind -- "If you've stopped laughing long enough to raise your moist eyes back to your computer screen, yes, you read that right: a no-snow ski slope. Could that money have gone to something more, we don't know, educational?" sounds like a definite bias in reporting to me. I don't like the condescension in replying to comments, either, but I can't say much because I've done it before on my own blog.

A lot of the posts seem to be simply linking to articles about Liberty, though. If I wanted that, I could set up a Google Alert for Liberty University and have the results dumped to my Google Reader (which I do for Rashad Jennings and the Palm Pre). If the folks responsible for the blog want it to take off, they need to do some improving -- more personal articles, and a bit more investigation before complaining about things would be a good place to start. It's also a bit disconcerting that an article with a headline referring to the new bookstore doesn't actually talk about the bookstore, but turns into a rant against the ski slope.

[Liberty Freelance]

I'm happy to see my blog has inspired a discussion here. Of course, I'm not "run off." This kind of debate is what our blog was created to encourage. We don't wilt in the face of hard-hitting ideas. It'd be nice if you all would produce some. We're not in a competition with anyone. If you can articulate a well-argued essay about your point of view, regardless of how controversial, please send it to us. We will gladly post it. We're a free-speech zone. Hard hats required.

If you think we're wrong, argue why you think so and put up a comment or send us an essay. If you think we could get better or more well-rounded news sources, send them to us. We're not trying to misrepresent anything.

I plan to post later today more clearly articulating our purpose. Check it out and email us news and essays.

[SuperJon]

Why would we send something there to a place that gets barely any traffic when we could just post it here where we get 1200-1500 views a day? This thread alone has gotten 55 views in less than two and a half hours. Have you guys gotten that much in a day yet? If you want to start a blog, by all means, do it, but we've got our outlet and I'm willing to bet 99.9% of us are staying here.

[RubberMallet]

i keep seeing "we" "our"

hilarious

[Liberty Freelance]

SuperJon,

We seem to have unintentionally touched a nerve with you. I don't know why. But this is a message board. Our blog plans to be a forum for well-argued essays. That's why influential intellectuals have blogs, not message boards. Our blog's purpose is to be something like an editorial page. I don't have much luck scouring message boards. You apparently do. Good luck with that.

If you want to get into a visitor-counting competition, you're challenging the wrong people. We don't have scorecards. And we're uninterested. As I said before, we're not in a competition with Flames Fans or anyone else. (In fact, we plan to become regular participants at Flames Fans.) We just decided to do some research on Liberty recently, and we were disappointed that nothing like our blog exists. So we are trying to fill that void.

If you want to a forum to call people "stupid" and "negative," etc., then you're not going to fit in at our blog. Argument there will be met with counterargument. Non-argument will be identified as such or ignored. We would love for you to participate, but if you're comfortable where you're at, don't expand your horizons. Far be it from us to stand in your way . . .

[RubberMallet]

he gets mad when you talk about misappropriation of funds or when you post pictures of his chunky girlfriend. (now ex girlfriend)

just an fyi liberty freelance "TEAM" or "STAFF"

[Liberty Freelance]

Thanks for the tip, Ice T. (Or is it Lovebug Starski?) That someone gets upset is not a legitimate reason to not talk about something. We're not going to be talking about anyone's girlfriends. So no one has to worry about that. But we will talk about misappropriation of funds if we sense there has been a misappropriation.

For the record, we're just the Freelance. We're plural because there's more than one of us. Is there something comical about plural pronouns that has tickled your fancy?

[SuperJon]

he gets mad when you talk about misappropriation of funds or when you post pictures of his chunky girlfriend. (now ex girlfriend)

Haha. Didn't get mad about that. Just didn't wanna have to deal with it.

[SuperJon]

Thanks for the tip, Ice T. (Or is it Lovebug Starski?) That someone gets upset is not a legitimate reason to not talk about something. We're not going to be talking about anyone's girlfriends. So no one has to worry about that. But we will talk about misappropriation of funds if we sense there has been a misappropriation.

For the record, we're just the Freelance. We're plural because there's more than one of us. Is there something comical about plural pronouns that has tickled your fancy?

If you read what I have written on here, I'm ok with you guys writing about stuff as long as you do the research behind it. The stuff you wrote about the ski slope is the typical Liberty crap that some kid whining says. That was the only "editorial" on there so it was the only content I could judge you on.

Like I said, if you dislike something, that's fine. However, if you want to criticize it, find out the facts that are public knowledge and then, after that, if there is a legitimate reason to be critical, have at it.

[RubberMallet]

he gets mad when you talk about misappropriation of funds or when you post pictures of his chunky girlfriend. (now ex girlfriend)

Haha. Didn't get mad about that. Just didn't wanna have to deal with it.

you know i know.

[RubberMallet]

We're plural because there's more than one of us.

ok *thumbs up*

[Hold My Own]

SuperJon,

We seem to have unintentionally touched a nerve with you. I don't know why. But this is a message board. Our blog plans to be a forum for well-argued essays. That's why influential intellectuals have blogs, not message boards. Our blog's purpose is to be something like an editorial page. I don't have much luck scouring message boards. You apparently do. Good luck with that.

If you want to get into a visitor-counting competition, you're challenging the wrong people. We don't have scorecards. And we're uninterested. As I said before, we're not in a competition with Flames Fans or anyone else. (In fact, we plan to become regular participants at Flames Fans.) We just decided to do some research on Liberty recently, and we were disappointed that nothing like our blog exists. So we are trying to fill that void.

If you want to a forum to call people "stupid" and "negative," etc., then you're not going to fit in at our blog. Argument there will be met with counterargument. Non-argument will be identified as such or ignored. We would love for you to participate, but if you're comfortable where you're at, don't expand your horizons. Far be it from us to stand in your way . . .

That was actually a really well written post

[matshark]

That would be to Liberty's everlasting embarrassment if they ban websites for being even semi-critical.

You haven't been around here long have you? For a place called Liberty, there certainly is a long list of banned critical websites...lol They were doing it way back in the day when i was in undergrad...

http://www.geocities.com/libertyunivers ... icle41.htm

[jcmanson]

That's why influential intellectuals have blogs, not message boards.

Dem thar's fightin wurds

[LUconn]

Yeah I thought that was funny. That's not why they have blogs. Bloggers think they're important or interesting enough that you want to go there and read what they have to say. Not discuss it. And sometimes they are.

[Sly Fox]

There is not one thing on that entire blog which hadn't already been discussed ad nauseum on here. Blogs of this sort are beginning to lose some of their relevancy.

[RubberMallet]

"THEY" will not be happy with that post sly

[Liberty Freelance]

Your last few comments should highlight my point that a more intellectual conversation about Liberty University is wanting. Hence, the need for a blog like ours.