There were so many freepers in those days that FreeRepublic often broke news. Do you remember the day that a freeper said he saw the shuttle over California and that it looked like it was breaking up on re-entry 10 minutes or more before the MSM news reported it! That’s just one example. There are many more.
And the posters here who identified Bin Ladin as the force behind the planes flying into the Twin Towers within an hour of the incident?
My prediction:
The day Palin announces (presuming she will, sure hope so) this place will go nuts.
Volume will double.
People need actual motivation. We’ve been frustrated for so long. “My friends”, and everything else. George Bush calling some “vigilantes”.
The increasing uselessness of the GOP is the problem.
Turn around the GOP, and you set FR into orbit.
I saw the thread about the shuttle landing the night before, and then saw the morning updates as I left to pick up my daughter from a sleepover.
I had just arrived at the sleepover when KRLD started discussing the shuttle landing being visible from DFW but that there may be something wrong. Absolutely amazing.
A few weeks ago I read that Obama will make an announcement Sunday night, then that Osama had been killed by SEALs.
Family is mad that the networks all broke into programming (even Apprentice!) for no apparent reason. I was able to beat all of the networks and radio just by repeating what I read on FR.
Even was able to tell the family that the hour long wait was not caused by “Obama needing to finish writing his statement” but that he was being briefed after being left out of the loop with Jarrett. “Who is Jarret? I never see her on TV.”
We also have nearly 100 people who daily donate computers to help find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease etc. as part of the FReeper Folding@Home project:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=36120
FR is amazing.
Yes, that shuttle re-entry event was one of the things that convinced me that FR had something that no other site on the web has. We have at least 300,000 reporters. That guy, I think, was in AZ or NM and had a telescope as I recall. It was 11 minutes before NASA said a word. Then there was the guy in Jerusalem who heard one of the bus bombs explode close to his apartment and ran out to see what it was. He reported back to us. the news didn’t report it for some time after that. I think that is where we have it over everybody. We can all be reporters. (Now if I can only get a post to work...)
I was on free republic during the 2000 election. Free Republic was the only place on the web at the time that reported Florida was still in play even after bunghole Rather prematurely called it for AlGore.