[6SJ7]

What a waste. Imagine how the history of the rightroots could have been different if Free Republic wasn’t still stuck in 1996?

Hugh seems to have forgotten the major role F/R played with the whole Dan Rather Fontgate / TNG story in 2004.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Hugh Hewitt refers to the “lead pipes” of the left-wing blogosphere that are slowly but surely contaminating the groundwater in the Democratic Party. But if their pipes are dirty, ours are leaky and badly in need of an overhaul. (At least if one wants to do more than just pass along positive information about the war.)

Might be handy if the RNC plumbers aren't trying to install lead pipes as a fix. IMO, the failings (some might say disintegration) of the national conservative movement has eveerything to do with "leadership" losing its way - not the grassroots failing to act.

[Leisler]

"Free Republic increasingly finds itself marginalized

Wrong. FR has ALWAYS been marginalized. It is too grass roots for the RNC, a Tory elitist, financialists, hereditary organization that at it best disdains working class conservatives in the millions, small business in the hundred of thousands with their petty gripes. We have done nothing for the RNC and the Republican party save raise money, voters and issues in local and national media. With zero thanks. FR was near neigh responsible for bringing down Dan Rather and many other successful illuminations of MSM lies, distortions and out right daily sloppiness. Something that the billions of dollars spent by the RNC could never do. (Of course it is hard to be taken seriously when you wear an ascot in the shower.)

Anyways, we don't need the RNC, the Republican party anyways. Real politics is in the street, at the one to one level. Elitists of all stripes that think productive citizens are some sort of resource cattle to be mobilized in some lame campaign by one of their overpaid hack friends with a 'consulting' business, haven't a clue. Internet and talk radio is the reality. Politics shuffles along in the dust of our passions and ideas.

[joebuck]

The author seems to miss the point. FR is for the free exchange of ideas from a conservative standpoint, NOT for the indoctrination of the useful idiots. FR will be here long after the propagana mills have come and gone.

[GOP_Raider]

“Where’s our YearlyKos?”

Holding a YearlyKos is easy when most of the Kos Kids don't have real jobs.

[xcamel]

Oh Hurl.

Having Free Republic on the right is like a humans need for food.

Having DippyK on the left is like a humans need for a toilet (after bad food).

[infidel29]

Free Republic increasingly finds itself marginalized...

By...?

Elitist republicans and their media lackeys who attack FR, denegrate us and conservatism, downplay the role of many activist FReepers who are out carrying the water for candidates who don't deserve the support, and doing the legwork for many beltway "republican" reporters who look here to find out what the story is before spinning things their way?

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Patrick Ruffini and others, who continue to attack and bad mouth FR in an effort to placate the left and demonstrate how "fair and balanced" they are?

BS, why does the right have to bend over and genuflect to the left while the major media has to make no such gestures. We get attacked from the left and the right while only feeble attempts are made to shine the light on the roaches like DU and KOS. By attacking us they weaken their attack on the left by making the uninformed masses think "well that's just something that happens in politics, see they do it too". Neglecting the fact checking and truth that supports most every post and point that appears here.

Marginalized? Whatever.

[Grateful One]

The great crime that the Free Republic has committed, is that it has demonstrated and reminded the Republican Party of what it has lost, namely a-———— BACKBONE!

[NittanyLion]

We’re simply in the middle of a natural cycle. Groups tend to unite when they’re in the minority, and fracture when in the majority. At some point the Dems will own the White House, and everything will come full circle.

[Darkwolf377]

If you support Rudy Giuliani, who still has a decent shot at being our nominee, you’ve probably been purged.

Rudy is not my candidate, but this line is hitting a nerve because it's true in spirit, if not in fact. (I have spoken kindly of Giuliani in some ways, and I'm still here.) But the writer is trying too hard to fit FR into a framework that it isn't meant for--this isn't a Republican site, it's a Conservative site. While I would be interested in a more open and accepting forum, one that has room for equal discussion of where the party is headed and who is "kosher" as a representative of it, FR is what it is. Moaning that it isn't Kos is kinda weird, actually, since Kos is emblematic of the take-no-prisoners approach of the Democrat party, which is liberal through and through. Kos is a Democrat site, AS WELL AS a liberal site--the two are inextricably melded together now. I don't think the Republican party is so overwhelmingly conservative as the dems are so completely liberal.

[Man50D]

Sites like Townhall, WorldNetDaily, and Free Republic have monthly audiences that regularly beat Daily Kos and the Huffington Post, to say nothing of Drudge, which still reigns supreme.

Let's see, FR is marginalized because we're stuck in 1996 but at the same time they still beat Daily KOS. Am I missing something or is this a glaring contradiction?

[fulldeck]

check

[ontap]

If you support Rudy Giuliani, who still has a decent shot at being our nominee, you’ve probably been purged.

This is just simply wrong!!!

[hellinahandcart]

But Free Republic simply could not succeed in the world of the blogosphere, social media, and Web 2.0. The founders made the decision that they were going to hoard as much traffic on their servers as possible, by posting full-text articles (that eventually got them slapped with high-profile lawsuits from WaPo and the LAT). Early on, links to blogs were verboten. If you expressed your own opinion when starting a thread, that was a “vanity” and it was frowned upon. And fundraising for candidates was strictly forbidden, except for those pet causes approved by Jim Robinson. Their culture was very anti-blog and anti-original content.

Today, Free Republic increasingly finds itself marginalized. If you support Rudy Giuliani, who still has a decent shot at being our nominee, you’ve probably been purged. Free Republic’s walled garden approach worked in the days before blogs and broadband, but they actively resisted changing with the times. What we now have is a resource with more unique eyeballs than Kos but one that won’t work with others or push the envelope technologically. What a waste. Imagine how the history of the rightroots could have been different if Free Republic wasn’t still stuck in 1996?

Who wrote this, Mojo?

HHC's husband

[wouldntbprudent]

Today, Free Republic increasingly finds itself marginalized. If you support Rudy Giuliani, who still has a decent shot at being our nominee, you’ve probably been purged. Free Republic’s walled garden approach worked in the days before blogs and broadband, but they actively resisted changing with the times. What we now have is a resource with more unique eyeballs than Kos but one that won’t work with others or push the envelope technologically. What a waste. Imagine how the history of the rightroots could have been different if Free Republic wasn’t still stuck in 1996?

Just happened to stop by after a long absence. See that most of the old-timers have been banned or run-off. Hmm. When you purge your most experienced and committed long-term posters over a *political disagreement,* of course you weaken your cause and tarnish your reputation as well as your effectiveness.

It's sad, because FR once was a powerhouse.

[Leofl]

Thanks and bookmark for later

[don-o]

Is Patrick Ruffini someone I should know? Never heard of him. But, he’s a pretty good axe grinder

[Tribune7]

The Wall Street Journal basically did not change its front for about a century and was just sold for $6 billion. Meanwhile other newspapers are going for pennies on the dime for what they sold for five years ago.

Change for the sake of change is stupid.

And FR is far more easy to use and find information than any blog I see.

[bvw]

FR is and has been way ahead of the so called "Web 2.0" blog site in a few regards. We have self search. We can search and review the posting history of posters. We have a history and traditions.

I may wish that the purges were less, or even wish that so many good posters hadn't moved up to more aethereal realms. But we seem to be getting new members and are replenished with youth.

And I disagree that the WAPO LAT settlement is good law, and hope it will someday be stricken down -- for we should be able to extract under fair use. What a burden to apt discussion it is to not be able to quote the pertinent parts of articles or even to post links!

[Libloather]

...the cries of “Get out of Cheney’s house!”

Rats HATE being protested. Keep up the great work...