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Perhaps a statement to the effect of: Free Republic is entirely supported by member donations. As such, we run no advertising, and bow to no outside control.

I’ve thought a lot about having some sort of indication that a poster is a donor, and in the long run, it’d lead to some expression of superiority. We see what kind of expression can be based upon sign-on date alone. Don’t wanna feed that alligator.

Dunno about hats and shirts, what with the current non-profit status either.

I do appreciate that you’re thinking about these things though. Somewhere down the road, they can become quite useful...

I also have thought about giving continuing recognition to donors. But, I’m sure that would be a pain to manage. And, we already have that during the Freepathons for the Dollar a Day and the Monthly Donors lists.

There is a “donate” link always visible, though it becomes part of the landscape and is easily ignored. I think for a graphic to have any effect at all, it has to be pretty garish and maybe we don’t want that either.

I’ve always thought that FR was the cleanest and classiest of any discussion forum on the net. Truth be told, I am not all that jazzed about the recent changes. But, that’s another thread.

How about this, if it is possible? Could we have a random “commercial post” display in the threads? It would be akin to the posts that automatically begin each thread during Freepathons. But, this one could be content heavy, noting that we are funded by voluntary contributions, accept no advertising, etc....

And have links to the other appropriate pages, including donation page.

Can such a thing be made to post automatically at a set time interval? If it can’t be done automatically, would there be enough volunteers to agree to post it on an agreed schedule? I’m not talking about every thread or once an hour, even. Just some reasonable amount of putting the story out there where people will come across it.

And that’s enough out of me (for now.)