Seriesly, folks, we need to be working on completing this FReepathon very soon. [Thread LVIII]

It's almost the end of the second month and we still have a ways to go. We need to be wrapping this baby up soon.

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Make it a monthly if you can. We have some very generous FReeper sponsors kicking in an extra ten bucks for every new monthly signed up. And we have 56 new monthlies so far this quarter.

Or send in a hundred dollars or more per quarter and join I_be_tc's growing list of 300 Club patriots. I_be_tc sends in $100 per quarter and challenges 300 others to do the same. If we could get 300 FReepers to send in $100 per quarter, these FReepathons would complete much faster. And we now have 146 donations this quarter of $100 or more!!

If we could get our monthly figure over $15,000 then they would represent $45,000 total for the quarter. That’s over half of our goal.

If my math is correct, with $15,000 in monthlies, we could possibly be ending our fundraisers in under 30-40 days every quarter.

If we have a new fundraiser starting with a goal of $88,000 and it gets to about $30,000 (in three weeks or so) we could accrue the $45,000 in monthlies and our new total would be $75,000 and there’d be only about $13,000 left to go.

With a big push we could probably raise that in a week to ten days and we’re done.

In other words, at $15,000 per month in monthlies, our fundraisers would complete in half the time they take now.

If we could get to $20,000 per month in monthlies they’d probably take less than three weeks to complete.

If we could get to $30,000 per month in reliable monthlies, we wouldn’t need fundraisers at all.

Currently, we have about 630 monthlies totaling approx $11,000 per month or about $17.50 per monthly donation.

To get to $15,000 in monthlies we’d need to keep those we have and add about 225 New Monthly Donors at about the same average.

But it's also important to note that if you are donating quarterly, or annually or otherwise, whatever is best for you works great for us.

By the way, we've added about 20 new monthlies in the last few days since that was written. Go, monthlies, GO!!

***What’s lofty. Giving up a freaking trip to Wendy’s once a month. Skipping a movie. Renting a few less videos.

I’ll throw another 10 and except for those on a fixed income every breathing person on this Board should be donating ANYTHING monthly to the most important conservative website in the country. Maybe the world.

How much is freedom worth to all of you?

Not much, apparently, if it takes 80 ####ing days to pay off a lousy 88k.

You’ll pay 10s of thousands more under Hillary.

I’ll check back later to see if I can still log on!***

I will start out by saying that you did say “ except for those on a fixed income,” which I happen to be. Maybe you can afford to go Wendy’s once a month or rent movies, or go out to the movies, but these are luxuries my family cannot afford. The ONLY thing I have that is “extra” is my pre paid cell phone, and I have to have that in case my defibrillator has to shock me, hopefully I’ll wake up and need a way to call an ambulance. Sometimes I can’t even pay that, and I have a family member who does.

I have 6 empty med bottles that need to be filled now that I can’t afford to fill, and that’s not even half the medicine I have to take now, and that’s not counting my husband’s.

I was diagnosed with ARVD last year at age 43. My children may have it. Out of my 3 children I have two with an arrhythmia now. We are all going to the Cardiologist every few months so they can be monitored in case They have to get a defibrillator I have to be monitored all the time because of the meds I take and because my body has decided to run low on potassium all the time which means a lot of lab draws, even though I take so much I stay nauseous, and I can no longer take ANY nausea meds. And anyone who reads this with heart problems knows that if your K+ gets to low it causes arrhythmias, which I already have, and would make it worse. The last time it happened my doc told me I’d be lucky if my defibrillator didn’t go off.My nursing career is all but over. So when people make comments that you can afford at least $5-10 a month, no I can’t. Not when most of my medicine is only $10 a script and I can’t afford it. My kids can’t eat my medicine.

We have no satellite or cable. No internet. The only way I can even get on here is through my phone.

Now I know I’m not the only one. Because the economy is crap. But when I read comments like this, and I’m not trying to single you out because a lot of people are doing it, and then you have the owner praising you for it, and you have others calling people freeloaders and freeploaders trying to put people on a guilt trip who can’t afford it, I don’t see how that’s a very wise marketing approach.

As I see it there are 2 main reasons this website is struggling to finish these freepathons. The first is the economy, there are a lot of people hurting right now because of it. We live in South Mississippi. The shipyard my husband worked at is about to shut down. Huge layoffs over the last year with more to come and no contracts. It came out at the end of last week that another shipyard in Mobile is shutting down. They cut his hours so bad we’ve gone without medicine, I’ve had to cancel Dr’s appointments for myself, I even received a certified letter from my cardiologist because I had gone so long without having my ICD checked last week. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve had to go to food banks a few times. 26 years of marriage and never gone through anything like this. It took him 8 months of applications, calling people, trying to make connections and he finally got a job in Corpus Christi. He started this past Friday. He had to go to a food bank for food there. We are living on ramen noodles and sandwiches until he gets paid.

The second thing I see is a lot of people have left this site for just this kind of behavior. Putting people down, including the owner, for not paying their fair share. It says this site stands for free speech but there is a certain clique that can get folks booted from here in a heartbeat. People, including myself, have a hard time with reading that this is a Constitution loving, free speech website only to have their speech stifled because the clique doesn’t agree. Not to mention if the website is free, it’s free. When these freepathons first started this aggressive, “you’re a piece of crap if you don’t pay and quit being a freeloader” was not going on. I think the drop in members is somewhat behind this. Either way it’s just going to cause more people to leave. If you want everyone who is on here to pay, make it a paid membership website. I won’t be able to join, but at least all members will be paying.

“How much is freedom worth to all of you?” Everything! But this website has nothing to do with it. If it did Obama would not have had 2 terms. This website had no effect whatsoever on anything that has gone on since it was founded. Sure, it’s uncovered and continues to uncover through the work of some great people on here things that most of us wouldn’t have known without their work and this website. But it has literally made no difference. Bill Clinton was not impeached. Hillary should have went to jail when he was President. The Bushes fought two wars for their Saudi masters. We still have Ryan. I could go on and on but you get the point. This website nor it’s members have changed anything So to say if we don’t pay up we’ll lose our freedoms or end up with Hillary is disingenuous. Those things will happen and worse regardless of this forum. I love this forum, I love reading others opinion. I learn a lot by being here, but this website will not save our freedoms or change the outcome of an election. But it is a great place to socialize and learn things and vent.

My final comment is about religious freedom. I would say most of us believe in it. Most of us probably believe in the freedom to worship where and how we chose. Except on this forum, particularly the Religious forum. As a Catholic I don’t even go to it anymore which is unfortunate because I love to read about current events. And even after Jim said for the Catholic bashing to stop, it has not. Recently I clicked on an article that was in my news feed not the Religious forum, that was about doctrine/beliefs of the Catholic church and it didn’t take long for the same little group to come on there and start trashing our beliefs. I rarely even read a protestant post unless it’s pertaining to say, Franklin Graham or something like that, and would rarely post. I like him that’s why I would read articles about him. I don’t go on protestant posts and dog them for their beliefs. It’s no concern of mine. Even Jim commented that he didn’t see Catholics doing it to Protestants, and yet it hasn’t stopped. And I got so frustrated that I can’t even read an article about my faith without people who aren’t of that faith coming on there making derogatory comments just for the sake of it. Religious freedom cannot be practiced on a website that is supposedly a staunch defender of it.

So, having said that, that is my line in the sand. If and when I am able to donate, as long as Catholics are continuing to be treated this way on this forum and there is not a real change made, I will not pay to have my religious beliefs infringed upon and ridiculed in such a manner. If real changes are made, and I’m free to read an article about my beliefs without that crew or anyone else starting trouble or bashing my beliefs, I will donate. Or, maybe religious posts should just be banned entirely.

I know this was a long post but I wanted to get that off my chest. I mean no offense to anyone.

Wow. You filled a whole river with crying.

I’m catholic by the way. I see things pop up here and there that i dont like but not NEARLY as much as you seem to suggest. And I’m sure if I needed them, these people would be there for me. You get offended very easily.

If you dislike it so much, dont click that thingy on the internet that takes you here.

You complain a LOT. Want any whine with that.

I have a brain injury 10 years now, and it’s brutal, but I wont beg for sympathy like you.

If this website is of NO USE, in your opinion, why are you here?

Funny, because it’s helped me GREATLY in teaching my nephews and nieces many things, as well as myself.

You are SURE FR didn’t do any good in any elections, since obama won.

Are you SURE it didn’t do any good in sweeping into congress republicans?

Good bye and, well, stop crying so much. It’s unbecoming of a conservative.

BTW, where the hell do you think my donations come from? My swiss account? I GIVE UP some things because it’s worth it.

And I did say “except for those on a fixed income”, and you ADDRESSED that I said that but still had to write a novella complaining.

Just wow.

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