Announcing The Constitutional Vanguard Facebook Group
The fourth Constitutional Vanguard newsletter went out on Tuesday to an even 500 subscribers — a base of constitutionalists assembled in less than two weeks. (And it keeps growing!) One of the members of the list asked for ways for members to talk to each other, and another suggested a closed Facebook Group. (“Closed” means I have to approve each member, and anything you say is viewable only by the members of the group.)
I have decided to accept this suggestion, and create a closed Facebook Group called The Constitutional Vanguard. It is open only to people who have signed up for the email list, and who wish to discuss our core principles: the Constitution, liberty, and the free market. I run an open blog with open comments, and I am proud of the mix of viewpoints it produces, and the opportunity it presents to challenge viewpoints — even if that sometimes causes dissension and unrest. The Facebook Group serves a different purpose. It will be a closed community of like-minded individuals dedicated to discussing our core issues and how to promote them. There will be no trolls. Only members of the list are allowed to join, and the first hint of a trollish comment will earn a block.
I’ve already had someone join the Facebook group who told me he no longer reads the comments section at this blog because of a particular commenter. It is not important who the commenter is. What is important is that people are not going to be driven away from the Facebook group by trolls.
I plan to announce it in an email soon — but having created the group, I wanted to let the world know about it now. The price of admission is signing up for the Constitutional Vanguard newsletter. The price of staying is not disrupting constructive conversation regarding the Constitution, liberty, and the free market.
Think of it as a troll-free comments section, with a theme.
Sign up for the Constitutional Vanguard here. And once you’ve signed up, if you’re interested in the Facebook group, go here and request to join.
P.S. If you’re anti-newsletter for some reason, you can keep up with the emails I send out, by accessing the archive here. Maybe the high quality will persuade you to sign up! And I have created a forum of sorts for list members on this blog, at this page — which is intended to be used only by members of the list. Unlike the Facebook group, I can’t prevent the public from commenting at this page — but I will delete off-topic, trollish, or non-list-member comments as I find them.
UPDATE: We had about 30 members sign up this morning. Not bad, since I have not sent out an email about it.
I have a few requests from people whose names I can’t find on the signup list. If you don’t get added, I am sending a Facebook message asking what email you used to sign up for the list, so I can look it up.
Wait, this sounds like a Conservative thing. Facebook will not allow it to trend.
😉
mer (fe4339) — 5/19/2016 @ 4:54 amYeah, mer is correct. Heh, but you’ll have made it on their must watch list. Cynic, thy name is felipe.
felipe (b5e0f4) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:02 amNo Trolls? “the first hint of a trollish comment will earn a block”??
Ah, “community standards”. Like the Guardian. Or North Korea. Or the Journolist.
Happyfeet, you’re for the high jump.
Fred Z (9ed538) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:07 amFred Z,
My, how overwrought and dramatic!
Patterico (5e9fda) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:33 amQuod erat demonstrandum.
nk (dbc370) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:34 amThat was for Fred Z.
nk (dbc370) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:34 amP – I want to thank you and the other involved for the effort in putting together the Constitutional Vanguard newsletter and sending it out to myself and others. I’ll have to do some thinking about the FB group – I’ve never been a fan of FB or other social media (I had a LinkedIn account at one point, but I started getting spammed their and dropped it after six months).
Cee Kay (9cd6a5) — 5/19/2016 @ 7:13 amso you are firmly in favor of superdelegates, I take it?
Some truths show in the muck.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 5/19/2016 @ 9:20 amNo offense, but I never joined FakeBook but will follow along with the newsletter and stopping by here.
bitterclinger (a6482e) — 5/19/2016 @ 10:37 amI find your choice of Facebook curious, considering the anti-conservative stance they have taken.
ber (2c7852) — 5/19/2016 @ 12:26 pmYah, pretty much the only reason I joined Faceplant was to keep up with goings on in the Citroen world. I don’t message much there at all, unless someone directly contacts me. I wanna have a look in and see how this works, though.
We’ll see how far this goes before some SJW snowflake complains about the overt racism and hate speech.
Bill H (971e5f) — 5/19/2016 @ 1:01 pmJust signed up. I guess it’s now pending.
Bill H (971e5f) — 5/19/2016 @ 1:05 pmI hate to tell you this, as a loyal subscriber and use only your URL to purchase on Amazon, but I’ll never be on Facebook nor Twitter.
Wyguy (5e063c) — 5/19/2016 @ 1:31 pmDoes your group accept funny looking foreigners?
scrubone (c3104f) — 5/19/2016 @ 2:17 pmI’m in the same boat as Wyguy. I took myself off Facebook years ago for privacy reasons, not political ones, but now I absolutely REFUSE to join Facebook, even for the Constitutional Vanguard group.
If you made a Google Plus group instead, I’d be willing to join. I know Google isn’t much better than Facebook in their political leanings (just look at how few pro-American doodles they’ve ever put on their front page!), but at least there’s been no evidence so far that they censor based on political leaning.
But I will NEVER join Facebook, so a Facebook group is useless to me.
Robin Munn (d9749d) — 5/19/2016 @ 5:37 pm“…a closed Facebook Group.”
Ahhhhh, keep the windows closed, Alice, the stink of democracy is too overpowering.
DCSCA (a343d5) — 5/19/2016 @ 6:51 pmPatterico!
Did you found a Democracy and didn’t tell me?
nk (dbc370) — 5/19/2016 @ 7:36 pmIf you’re on the list.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 5/19/2016 @ 8:04 pmApproved.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 5/19/2016 @ 8:04 pmIf you’re not a Facebook person, there’s the forum page.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 5/19/2016 @ 8:42 pm