Freerepublic 2.0

[Mr. Douglas]

Yep. If FR had a like button, I’d have given you one.

It has become a bit of an echo chamber.

[Mr. Douglas]

I also wonder how many post here without “contributing” if that is the politically correct term for it. With very few exceptions, ALL those people should be chipping in or should be ashamed of themselves! I even think regular readers, even if they don’t have a screen name or log in, should chip in, if they are on here every day reading. But if there are any who post here, but don’t “contribute” i.e. pay at all, they are not acting consistently with their conservative values as far as I can see! Do they believe in something for nothing?

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Thing is, a provider of a service must go with whatever model makes it possible for him to remain in business and acquire and keep customers. If the donation system works, that’s great. If the advertisement system works, that’s fine too. After all, the latter is pure free market. :-)

But for a site to earn money it must provide a service people desire. It’s how radio does it. And let’s not kid ourselves. The internet has evolved into a “free content” paradigm. How many articles have been posted here where a subscription is required and posters ding the OP saying they are not gonna pay to read it?

I suspect that changing FR to the same type of format as most of the other sites out there would be prohibitively expensive and force the “advertiser supported” paradigm. I will say that most of the sites I frequent are a bit like old magazines. That is, they are supported both by ads and subscriptions. So far, they don’t (or rarely) limit your functionality based on whether or not you are a subscriber.

[siunevada]

I checked Free Republic’s FB page when nothing came up after a couple of hours. The information was there.

It would be nice if it never had problems and every contingency was anticipated. But it is funded by voluntary contributions from freepers, it is not a big bucks operation.

I’m just grateful it exists, warts and all.