Posted on 03/07/2007 6:57:43 PM PST by Bob J
I have diligently watched the rise in size and influence of conservative websites, including Free Republic, over the last 7-8 years. I have been shocked and concerned over the drop in traffic at the most popular ones over the last year or so. There was good growth up until 2006 but since then there has been a steady downtrend that would crash any other market.
Anyone have any ideas as to what is happening? I'm out of explanations. The deficiencies in alexa.com are noted, but even if the numbers aren't accurate you're still comparing off numbers to off numbers so the decline is consistent.
Free Republic seems to ban quite a few of 'legitimate' conservatives for silly reasons maybe close to 30% and it only seems to be getting worse as the issues make us more ornery and divisive.
I don't lurk there, but I've seen snippets of the insane crap spewed there.
Being a member of the Class of 98, I've seen the change in overall tone in here.
Botton line is that to anyone not sharing our ideology, the average lurker only has to touch on the immigration threads to see the dirth of intellect and the abundance of Archie Bunker rhetoric.
Goes to show you that when you have a large 'family', you get more crazy uncles.
People have become very nasty Bob. We've both been here a long time and have gone through flame wars that would roast the skin off your back, but this is different. This is just nasty and there has not been the honest, intellectual debate just crash and slam.
So, the Illinois GOP screws up, can't get a candidate, calls in Keyes at the last minute for a completely no-chance campaign, and you bitch about it. And then you whine that the powers-that-be got mad at you.
How would you arrive at 30% of conservatives being banned? What are the silly reasons?
Same here, plus FR is my homepage on my laptop. How can we be sure Alexa "sees" us?
Disagreeing on what is "conservative" was an issue when Buckley founded National Review in 1955, and it hasn't stopped since.
But when the site mods purge posters whose idea of conservative differs from theirs, the site loses traffic. And some of us remember large purges, which eliminated posters for stating opinions that are now standard here.
Some of these posters were members of long standing. I don't know if they would return if they were asked to.
Lucky you.
I love FR and it was a remedy for my cussing a blue streak. On yahoo political sites your cussing was only limited my your imagination. I could get Marines covering their ears and running for cover when islam was the topic. I was always fighting with them over Bush and islam. Yahoo political sites are not for conservatives.
I haven't been there for a year and a half of more, don't know if it's still like that now or not.
You think they're deliberate trolls? I just thought they were 60 yr old women with too much money and too little to do. And with really nasty dispositions.... :)
FR and other sites are really a compilation of what's in the "press" that day.....(DUH, I know)...some of that is spontaneous, but a lot is driven by PR firms pushing agenda's into the MSM. That plus the HOLIDIZATION of America - Black History Month, Martin Luther King's B'day, yadayadayada...FR (and others) pick up those stories (there are not too many FR "journalists" who write independent stories). I think people are TIRED of it all - and the same stories/issues get repeated and repeated. I'm thinking that as I read FR now about the election....knowing we have over a year to go yet, and it feels almost like we're only a few months away with all the news....too much, too early.
No, I very rarely call anyone a troll. But some posters I've seen as "operatives." That is, when I'm in a cloak-and-dagger mood....;^)
Totally agree.
I agree with Lancey Howard's comment. FR is home. I check in every day, and I visit the other sites occasionally. The only other site I visit every day (except for business sites) is Drudge so I can see what is going on with the disfunctional celebrities.
I just took a look and it is very slightly down from a year ago.
quizás...quizás...quizás...
(As the old song says)
Don't forget, Keyes previously ran for president so his MO was evident to anyone who was paying even minimal attention and not blinded by ideology.
The man is a mountebank, a wordsmith who makes a living telling ideologues what they want to hear.
That's all well and good until he starts turning using contributions as his own personal piggy bank.
dirth=dearth
;^)
Perhaps. ;)
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