FR is currently seriously underfunded. This is something we FReepers can do something about.
Comments? Suggestions?
Donate:
I’m here to the bitter end, which I hope never comes. This is a very necessary outlet!
I am a daily contributor. That won’t change! :)
I couldn’t give much but if a Michigander who lives hand to mouth like myself could give $10, its pretty hard to deny that everyone couldn’t pitch in $5 or $10.
So anyhow did the recent fix purge a pre-existing bug from the system? At least that was progress.
I can’t see messing with Oracle or any commercial data base manager which would require bringing in “strangers” for support, for the same reason.
I can relate having programmed for about 35 years, always build from scratch, build it to last, not to throw away and start over every couple of years. My only suggestion is to stay the heck away from Oracle.
I’ll donate more when we start having banner ads. I live in a capitalist society. I have no problem with ads.
I’m with ya to the end, if I need to step up my monthly, let me know. I am, of course, going to get the FreeRepublicNews site up, and that will take currency and time, but in addition to that, I can assist here at Free Republic.
In short, I’d hit it.
What is ‘oracle’?
Actually, I really wish every user would give $1/month. Then we'd be flush!
Would it help to get rid of the superfluous forums? The Religion forum, for one, brings nothing but heartache and endless stabs in the face.
Oracle is not an option. It usually isn’t. Way overpriced for what it does, more hype than substance.
“...and no we’re not going to move on to some other database system. There are no guarantees that any other system can do a better job”
That’s very true in general in the software industry; changing X for Y without knowing first if it will do better is a bad idea.
bttt
There's a bunch of long term members who are IT professionals...it seems like one of the proven-trustworthy of them should be let in as a volunteer....if only as a second pair of eyes.
John's done a terrific job: I'd hate to see everything go up in smoke due to circumstances.
I’ll send in something today. I also happily contribute monthly. That said, I see no dishonor in accepting ad space revenue. None at all and it would have no affect on my regular contributions.
But it's inevitable, Jim. Change will come.
And if you refuse to change the way you manage the servers and software, it will crash and burn.
Now I respect your attitude, but the future of FreeRepublic is more important than any one of us.
I hope you have a change of heart, or find a wealthy “sugar momma”!
What is the problem? What are we trying to solve?
FR should require a paid subscription to post any article.
I believe DU runs on fornicated CForum+ Version 1.1 by dcscripts which is no longer in business as of 2009. They also leverage advertising, I saw a Verizon article there the other day while trolling articles about the AZ incident. (Know thy enemy)
My point is that I see the inevitability of both forums needing to be modernized. Not just upgraded, but a complete rewrite or rebranding.
I’m a fan of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” however that logic doesn’t apply to technology.
FR has proven its value many times from Buckhead’s forged Bush letter discovery to the recent AZ incident and rapid documenting of leftist hate speech.
The question is, we have a good thing going, how can we keep it going and in what form?
As to fixing the problem - the only thing that comes immediately to mind, assuming we want FR to continue to be the BBC to the liberals CNN, is for us the users of the site to introduce it to more of our friends/relatives/associates, with the idea of expanding the user base, and therefore the donator base.
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This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Or are you waiting for Somebody Else to do what Everybody should?
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I think each person who posts should get a star by their name for donation. And if they don’t have a star, then they can be in the hall of shame. I admit, I was on FR a long timne before i became a monthly donor. I am ashamed to say, there is no sense in that. I now donate monthly, if everyone contributed just a bit then it would be just fine.
Melissa Lewis