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I especially remember some of our fine essayist! I looked forward to seeing their newest and the discussions following. Many went on to to be banned and after 9/11 you don’t see near as many original Free Republic essays.
I did the reset for the new servers or login change after 9/11, and can’t remember my original, but I remember staying up late to catch-up on the discussion of the clinton scandal of the day. And I think we ripped Reagan a good one for amnesty too. But it’s been a long time and 6-7 computers ago.
I live in Alaska, work long hours and most of the time I don’t have to post because someone else has already brought up my point or question.

I especially remember some of our fine essayist! I looked forward to seeing their newest and the discussions following. Many went on to to be banned and after 9/11 you don’t see near as many original Free Republic essays.

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I remember them too. Thoughtful and passionate. I think that the essays no longer get posted because of the reception by some people. If you don’t to their line on some point it turns into a ripping instead of conversation or even debate.

You bring up an interesting point about essays. I used to be a prolific essayist, and I had a good fan base of FReepers who couldn't wait for my next Publius Essay. Some of that material went into Who is John Galt?, a book by myself and Billthedrill. Every major event created a whole new wave of FReepers, and I found I had to prove myself again and again to new people before I could get respect for my writing.

By 2005, I had gotten tired of the effort, and I stopped.

Then in 2009, in collaboration with Billthedrill, I launched two FReeper Book Clubs, one on Atlas Shrugged and one on the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. The first led to a successful book, and the other book is in progress.

I've considered a Publius Essay on the history of federalism based on a lecture I gave to a Tea Party group in Georgia three years ago, but with the most recent crop of FReepers, I suspect it would get five comments and be forgotten.

The current typical vanity on this site consists of one line statements that could just as well have been comments on an existing thread.