Posted on 01/11/2011 5:28:06 AM PST by paulycy
FYI -
Here are statements from Jim about the future of FreeRepublic.com for those who missed them. They are quite serious.
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"Well, I can say that there are definitely two things that will never happen. 1) Banner ads. 2) Oracle [a completely new database system.] And a third is a total replacement [of the current damaged system.] Don’t have the financial wherewithal."
"To those who wish to leave because of it, see ya."
"If FR dies, that’s that."
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[To: paulycy]
Hey, you want us to get an all new system with all new software and add a few more pricey techs, system programmers and database administrators to keep it all working 100% of the time 24/7/365? Well, start coughing up the big bucks.
It’s going to take tens of thousands of donations and many with at least three zeros each after the comma to accomplish the task. And that would be EVERY month like clock work to make the payroll. Once you take on a big load of expensive overhead, there’s no going back. As it is, we get a couple thousand donations per quarter averaging about $30 bucks each and there’s no guarantees we can cover this quarter’s expenses much less next quarter. We’re on a pay as we go system and we have zero employees.We just ask for enough to pay the bills.
Throwing more money at the problem won’t solve it. [This latest glitch] was a technical issue and we just had to keep troubleshooting until we found it. And no, we’re not going to invite a bunch of strangers in to get their hands on our secure systems. John has been programming since he was 14 and he’s pushing 40 now. He built these systems and he’s an expert in them.
And no, we are not going to throw out our software and rewrite it and no we’re not going to move on to some other database system. There are no guarantees that any other system can do a better job and not without hiring a staff to build and maintain it and that’s for sure. And we don’t have the financial wherewithal to do any of that anyway. Maybe if we had a couple million bucks at our disposal and a couple years to do it in we could build an iron-clad system. And maybe not.
All I can say is, if someone else can do it better and cheaper, then please step right on up and get ‘er done!! I’ll bow out and retire. Thankyouverymuch.
Hit it boys:
https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/
And no, we have no plans of taking FR commercial. I like it the way it is. Not sure I could handle getting rich.
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- Jim Robinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2653583/posts?page=168#168
Where will I go? What will I do?
$50 on the way!
“Babes of the Free Republic” calandar would raise some serious money ...
“....It would not if only a select few were here.”
From which I infer that one way to keep more cash flowing would be to stop the silly “purges” that go on from time to time.
.NET? Good God don’t do that...
Yep, that's it. Get a bunch of retired people to hand stitch the tote bags. They don't have nothing else to do...well...maybe bingo one night a week, but other than that, put them to work.
They could even make those Green grocery bags so you could feel better in the grocery store by supporting Free Republic and saving the planet. LOL!
I own/run a bunch of database-driven web sites and would have to agree with you, especially for something as simple as a forum.
Also, speaking of forums, FR needs a serious functional upgrade to include such standard features as post formatting, editing, object insertion, emoticons, etc. These are basic capabilities that are extremely easy to implement.
You missed my point. Rather than having to read each and every news site SEPERATELY, FR provides a collection of World references to current events. And the accompanying commentary.
Rush et all would be crazy NOT to take advantage of the wealth of information provided by FR posters as facilitated by JIM ROBINSON.
A simple donation is not to much to ask.
Is it possible to come up with a Free Republic flag for flagpoles?? I wonder how many libs that would drive nuts?
With all due respect I have a problem with it and I seriously doubt that I am unique. Therefore I humbly suggest that you reconsider your position that there isn't a problem. This thread is dedicated to telling FReepers about the situation that they otherwise wouldn't know about. Perhaps you can at least give them credit for having read THIS thread?
Offering suggestions is generally NOT the same thing as criticizing and whining, at least to most people.
Thanks for your kind consideration.
I’m sorry. Yes good point.
I don't debate Religion and I don't post ideas counter to Conservative values and ideas.
So you'll keep "riding in the car" and not pay for gas. Ok.
I'm a fan of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”, too. As a 35+ year programmer (half of which was Control Data operating systems), I was part of a team of 4 who created a software package in 1991 that the Govt still uses today. During that time, I've seen a lot of knock-offs fail and the technology advancements have come full circle to the back original architecture.
I am with Laz on this. I have background, but mostly on Intranet educational applications. When you read ‘unlimited’ bandwidth- that really isn’t unlimited. Most hosting companies put caps on that and when you get into large amounts of traffic, they require dedicated servers and even back-up servers, exponentially increasing the costs- and that doesn’t even consider that FR runs their own, not going through external hosting. All one needs to do is look at operating budgets of similar sites. Both DU and KOS, (before KOS went commercial and DU stopped posting these numbers) were asking for more than $1Million/year (and we get more traffic than DU). I currently am working on a project simply to mirror host an LCMS and expect a fraction of the traffic that FR gets. Our implementation costs are $500K with $100K/year dedicated maintenance- again, with a fraction of the traffic and data FR uses.
Let’s look at the numbers. I don’t have them in front of me (and I don’t know the details) but from a high level, FR is asking for about $300K/year. From experience, I know that when you run a fundraiser, you can expect 1/3 to 1/2 of pledges not to come to fruition but I will be generous and assume FR takes in 2/3rds of what is pledged. That is $200K per year. If I understand, FR has 3 employees, Jim, Chris and John. $200K/year would only pay each of them $66K/year. I sure wouldn’t work for that. That is before you have even gone into one cent of actual operating costs. Now I’m sure all the estimates of where the money goes includes paying the aforementioned folks for their work.. but you get the point. (I’m sure I’ll be corrected on number of employees and costs, but this is just a round number for an example).
I’m sure there are ways technically to run it cheaper, but there is a price for autonomy. Is it the best platform? No, but as Jim said on another thread, feel free to step up and do it better. I’m sure you could outsource some of it to India or Romania but I am sure the PTBs here don’t even want to consider that nor would members like that.
Very good idea. I guess the gals might want one too.
Official Free Republic merchandise would rock. I think I’d get a t-shirt, a cheap one anyways. lol.
But the Tote Bag only for donors.
Microsoft Silverlight. Bleeding edge. ‘Nough said.
Thats the answer!!
Actually quite a few years ago now it WAS the answer.
You would offend the Apple dudes here!
I respectfully disagree. Big time.
Because it takes a little work to format a post here, you don't see posts full of clutter and pointless eye candy (Emoticons? Give me a break....)
Text is king here, and I like it that way.
We are discovering some “interesting” differences in Access calls between XP and Win7 using .net. Some of our 10 year old code is broken when run on Win7.
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