Been that way for 10 years. The funny thing, some of the most vocal and biggest bandwidth swillers on the site never give a dime. Some people considered FR “leaders” never pony up at FAT time.
It is no secret here, that the folks that REALLY turn my crank are the blog-pimps. They treat this place like their own personal AOL chat room. They post one-sentence excerpts, in an effort to drive hits to their blogs.
When you arrive, in most cases, the first thing you see is their “tip jar”, begging for donations to keep their site in business.
Over 90% of the time, these blogs have NO links to FreeRepublic.
Sorry, no thanks.