FR is currently seriously underfunded. This is something we FReepers can do something about.
Comments? Suggestions?
Donate:
FR is currently seriously underfunded. This is something we FReepers can do something about.Donate what you can.Comments? Suggestions?
Mind your own business (If this was my site you would already be gone).
Go away
Build your own "FreeRepublic" if you don't like this one
All I can say is, if someone else can do it better and cheaper, then please step right on up and get ‘er done!!"
A bit of a contradiction, but I think that I can understand Mr. Robinson's frustration. In for $50.00 from California...
I just donated..
I’ve been unemployed for 8 months and uneligible for unemployment....
Currently do not even have a place to live...literally homeless...yet, I gave...it was only $5.00 b/c it’s all I have....but I gave....b/c FR is valuable to me....if I ever expect to get a decent job and live in a robust economy I have to keep up w/politics and head these goons in Washington off.... FR helps w/ that...
If I can give, you all can too...just a little...if we all did it would make a difference....
Be like Lazmatazz and “Hit it!” I did.
Stop insulting people when they put up a post would be a good start for some.
Been here since 1998. Just signed up for $15.00 per month.
God bless,J.R.
Maybe a different color to the font of their handle, maybe a gold star, or a mini American flag icon next to your name. Maybe different colors for different levels of monthly donation amounts. Platinum stars for those giving over a hundred?
I believe that if the monthlies were easily identified, more people would proudly participate that way.
I enjoy FR and have donated, but this site and tech thinking is ancient to be honest.
I love your attitude Jim
Does anyone have stats on number of users, bandwidth load et cetera?
A dollar a day is the absolute best bargain anyone who cares about the country will ever get and you can buy it right here on FR.I just did.
I’ve learned that if someone wants something bad enough, they’re going to find a way to get it. If folks who want FR to stay on the air, they’ll find a way.
There will always be FReeploaders. I’ve bounced back and forth between FReeploading, being a monthly donor, FReeploading, donating as available, etc. I do what I can. I’ve noted that there have been donations as low as $3, maybe less, don’t know for sure. But folks find a way to give what they can, when they can.
All that being said, is there a “silver bullet” available to solve the problem once and for all? IMO, I don’t think there’s just one, there’s probably a combination of things.
I like JR’s perspective so far on the various forums, it puts things (posts, threads, topics, etc.) in there respective place. He’s done a good job offering ways to avoid those areas for folks who don’t want to frequent those areas or topics.
I’ve read through about 500 posts and sense that some feel excluded because their feelings were hurt or were treated less than they expected and thus, don’t donate. I don’t believe any here should expect preferential treatment because they feel like they should be part of some protected class. That’s lib thinking.
Look, if you’re going to post your perspective or opinion, don’t expect that everyone thinks the same way. Grow some hide over that thin skin. Expect that there are going to be those who have no manners or interpersonal skills, that essentially behave like trolls. Dismiss them. It’s not like you have to face them everyday at school.
IOW, pony up what you can, when you can. Quit your bellyaching and childish behavior. If you don’t support FR, then why should you expect to have any weight given to what your opinion is in how it’s managed or operated?
bookmark
Thank you all very much, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the system other than the fact that it runs on computers and that we run on a shoestring budget with no employees. It’s just me and John, Amy and Chris. I’ve been involved with computers since 1972 starting with the Univac and the IBM/360 and Digital’s PDP and VAX generations. Amy got started a few years earlier. John started programming when he was 14 and was a commercial programmer by 16. He was our C+ guru when we were in the software business. He introduced us to the Internet in the early 90’s before the browser had even been developed. I’ve been a programmer/analyst from the 70’s and also in programming/project management and data processing management and also owned my own software company.
The one biggest thing we’ve learned in all these years is that computer systems have a tendency to crash. And when the inevitable happens, we don’t panic. We troubleshoot, find the problems, fix them and go on. Been doing it for nearly forty years. There is nothing wrong with FR. It’s perfectly normal for systems to fail occasionally.
Now there are ways to make a system more bullet proof and to build-in back ups and redundancy, etc, so there is almost zero downtime for users, but these are usually reserved for critical operations. And that’s because they cost money. Lots of it.
For example we only have one tech, one programmer, one hardware guy, one security guy, one operating system guru, one perl guru, one mysql guru, one all around computer guy and John is it. He’s also our chief procurement officer and liaison with all vendors and suppliers and in his spare time he fills in as our research and development department. Dear old dad with 40 years experience in programming and managing legacy computer systems tries to join in and help but usually just gets in the way. John is a one man shop, he’s on call, on duty 24/7/365 with no vacations or holidays unless he carries a cell phone and lap top and he likes it that way.
We could hire three or four guys to do what John does and we still couldn’t cover it 24/7/365 and provide uninterruptible service. We’d still suffer downtime.
We could also build redundant systems. But that just doubles the cost, doubles the maintenance and doubles or triples the capital requirements and ongoing expense. And unless they were located in different parts of the country on different providers, the redundant systems would not guarantee 100% uptime. Guess what? Even multi-million dollar fail-safe systems fail occasionally. Computers crash! It’s a fact of life and we deal with it every day.
FR was started on zero capital. It was a hobby that has grown terribly out of control. It was a one man shop when I set it up. Amy came in later to help me administer it, then John took over the programming a couple years later and redesigned and rewrote it all at least three times since. He built the servers it runs on. Now it may be that if we had the money we could order all new equipment and redesign and rewrite the software again with an eye for making it all bullet proof, but that would require lots of money and probably hiring some additional talent and it would require time. But we have no money and no access to money. And we are reluctant to take on any additional debt.
Now we could go commercial. We could sell ads. We could sell subscriptions or memberships, We could sell t-shirts and hats. But the moment we do, we invite scrutiny and copyright lawsuits. Before going commercial we would have to scrub our archives of any possible copyright violations. And we’d have to tighten up our current operations to make sure no one posts anything that could get us into trouble with any publisher of stories, photos, images, etc. And with sharks like Righthaven swimming around, there will always be room for trouble. And going commercial still wouldn’t guarantee enough income to build and maintain a paid staff, bullet proof software, redundant systems, etc.
I’m an old dog and I like to keep it simple. We have a nice little system here. We are comfortable with the hardware and our software and our providers and it works fairly well. Actually, very well. We have some occasional problems and have been down a few times but as I said, there are no guarantees that if we had double or triple the size of our hardware or our staff that we still would not suffer some downtime occasionally. It happens.
And we’re perfectly comfortable with donor funding at a shoestring level. I’d hate to complicate the thing by going commercial. We are grassroots and it makes sense to me to keep it all grassroots and uncomplicated if we possibly can.
I see no reason whatsoever to panic about our systems our staffing or our funding.
And I really wish to thank all of YOU who make it possible. Your donations provide the capital we need to keep it all going and your continued participation on our forums makes FR the premier God and Country CONSERVATIVE site on the Internet!!
Thank God for the FReepers!! God bless you all.
Just put the ads in because it is going to get worse. When primary season comes around and even more donatiing users get zotted because their candidate of choice doesn’t pass the current purity test.
I am an American capitalist. I belive in capitalism for American and for FreeRepublic.
I have been thinking about this all morning.
Jim is saying if we want it to continue we have to fund it.
If it is important we have to fund it.
If we want it to be more/different/better we have to fund it.
If we want it to continue to putt along we need to give more that we are giving.
If we want to build a better bigger system here, we had better be giving a lot more.
Food for thought.
I promise, later in the week I will raise my debt ceiling.
Times are tough right now, but I would not complain about the quality of FR.
I have few places to go to get insulted more than once a day.
Subscription required to login. That might help
It'll be Bushes fault.
It'll be because of Palin's hate speech.
It'll be GOOD for the country.
It'll be cause for rejoicing over at DU.
Yada...
Yada...
Yada...
My suggestion is that, while we like to have fun, it should still be decent and professional ESPECIALLY when we have guests the stature of an active Conservative leader like Duncan Hunter. Don't we want more access to actual players like him? I think we do.
We won't get them with rickety technology and shockingly poor behavior.
I love and support FR. But surely we must keep our house in order, too. Adults must take care that things are kept in shape around here so that we can continue to have fun, be informed and have a continuing powerful influence on this Republic of ours.
Capiche?
;-)