I don't think that it is important that FR should aspire to be relevant to anything but its own internal rules - primacy does confer a few perks and this place has been around for a very long time in Internet years. For that reason alone it is a fascinating study - groundbreakers, however quirky, tend to be that way. There is a massive cultural trap awaiting should we pretend to be anything else - look, for example, at the absolute cultural and intellectual wrecks resulting from people attempting to "reimagine [fill in the blank] for a modern audience", only to find that that audience isn't exactly what the reimaginers imagine. You can try too hard to be relevant and all it costs you is your soul.
It will stand or fall on its own, I think. So will its country. God bless Jim and the rest.
Where else could there have been a FReeper Book Club on “Atlas Shrugged” or the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers? This site performs a public service.
Like your comment. Truly