[dayglored]

Many thanks, and much appreciation, not only as a FReeper, but as another Sysadmin who knows -exactly- the kind of trials and tribulations you've just been through.

As you plan future system upgrades, let me offer some unsolicited thoughts:

• Please don't change the display/rendering software. The wonderful plain-text/HTML presentation is ESSENTIAL to those of us who don't have unlimited bandwidth and patience. The simple look of FR is one of my great joys.

• Please keep the "No ads or outside support" maxim (but of course you know why that's important).

• RAID1 disk mirrors are great. Even with SSDs, they're a good idea.

• A mirrored server is a good idea, so you can have rapid fail-over. Depends on your database as to how it's done.

• If you put stuff in the cloud, you still have to back it up. Cloud VMs aren't magic -- they're just servers in somebody else's datacenter. Have a ground-based clone/mirror site ready to run for when the cloud drops its load.

• It would be nice to add SSL (HTTPS) to the site, not just the donate pages.

• We stand behind you in your fight for Truth, Justice, and The American Way!

Keep up the great work, and God Bless you both, God Bless FreeRepublic, and God Bless America!

[dayglored]

Gentlemen,

One other thought: Please please PLEASE don't migrate FR to Facebook. Having a page there as an emergency message place is fine. But if you move the site itself into that swamp, you'll lose a large number of us who refuse to fight with Facebook's awful cr@p, fake news, rampant leftist attitudes, and not-so-subtle censorship. That would be a shame, and I believe FreeRepublic's important mission would be corrupted or lost.

Thanks again,
Dayglored

[Scrambler Bob]

Ditto this.

Especially points 1 (most important), then 2,3,7

The other points I don’t know enough about to comment.

And I am backing up this Ditto with $100 in donations.

And THANK YOU

No /s in this message.