[topher]

This is a low priority question. John Robinson and others have more important things to do these days...

[TomGuy]

The ‘search’ function has been (and continues to be) a big problem on FR.

For most searching, I use Google and restrict it to “site:freerepublic.com” [without quotes or use the advanced search feature].

FR used to restrict the Google type search engines from accessing the articles/comments, so articles from that period may not be Google-able.

As an alternative, you might try searching the Web Archive

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.freerepublic.com

[backhoe]

No such file (give_legacy_article)

I keep encountering that problem with most of my old bookmarks, and usually- usually, hitting F5 or refresh repeatedly will get it to load.