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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
Yup. And said as much later on but was pooh poohed by someone.
“I’d be willing to pay $30 per year or $58 for two year subscription.”
Might be good to require subscription in order to post. But it should be available for everyone to read,as I expect troll types need to read the discussions. They could learn something important. Trolls (from D.U., etc.) would be less likely to post and stir up trouble if they had to pay money.
Agreed. I love the FR format and layout.
You don't have to be pro-abortion to recognize that there are a lot of voters out there who say they are pro-life but consistently vote Democrat.
When I raise these issues here on FR, asking how to change those voters' minds, the usual responses are "neener-neener-neener, can't hear you" or "If you say that, you must be a RINO or a baby killer yourself"...
That is correct.
That could work. With an article by Jim too.
FR has always been an important part of my day, since I joined 10 years ago. I got my news here, my laughs, even met my wife. I have donated.
However, something has changed recently. We used to allow different types of conservative viewpoints here, but lately, if you’re not an Evangelical, New-Earth Creationist, Rudy-Hating, Mitt-Hating, goldbug conspiracy theorist, you don’t belong here.
That is entirely missing the point of what FR is intended to be. We’ve become a circular firing squad, and have already killed off 80% of our own people.
and that's fine....there's still SOME people who still get around with horse n buggys. Not many. Which is where FR is heading.
“Now you’re talking nonsense.”
If you’ll re-read my post, I mentioned that I’m just now getting into programming... I didn’t claim to be an expert. I don’t know what is “nonsense” yet.
Java, C++, PHP, whatever is not the issue. Google is working on a new language called “Google Go” ( http://golang.org ) that is cutting edge, nearly as fast as C but with the development speed of Python. It’s too early in development for active deployments.
I stand by my suggestion that an open-source project is the way to go. The technology used is secondary. The first step is to reach out to the programmers already here. That’s the point I was trying to convey.
Actually, if they'd clamp down on the blog pimps, that might help a lot.
I checked out the posting history of some of them and there are precious few who actually participate in the forum. There is one who posted 26 threads in one day. Hardly anybody commented on them. He never replied to a one of them.
I don't have a problem with people who are linking to their own blogs to get the traffic being charged for the service. FR is not a free advertising site.
And I don't see the point in wasting bandwidth to store useless or pimping threads.
At the risk of encouraging the posting police, maybe they could eliminate some of the dupes. Having a thread posted twice because someone didn't see the first one is one thing. But on some of the big breaking news stories, we're seeing 5,6,7 or more threads. That's not necessary. Of course, if people used KEYWORDS, it would help.
That's a suggestion I have. Make the KEYWORD section mandatory when posting threads. That way when people do keyword searches to find threads, they get something. It's not hard to think of keywords for articles.
Your observations are right about Rove. But when the roar against him on FR was at it’s peak, he did take notice.
Unfortunatly, O’Donnell seemed to be the best candidate vs the RINO that Rove supported.
O’Donnell with all her warts would have STILL been better than what MD has now.
The Tea Party learned a lesson from that episode. VET the candidates it puts in the block. And then Vet again.
A lot of precious money went to waste on O’Donnell. I just hope we all learned a good lesson. However, I am not willing to accept wholesale the Candidates of the Party professionals.
I’m kind of surprised there haven’t been some conservative versions of Soros around throwing large donations this way.
My two cents...I think that going with a benner ad like Drudge would be okay, if it solves the problem. This is a consumer based society.
I’ve been married 40 years and don’t always agree with him either. ;-)
Maybe there are but I speculate that Jim would say no...
This is my memory of a campaign speech "that man" gave when he was running for senate. I don't post it to be snarky at Jim, I guess I post it to say the other side isn't shy about asking for money, Jim doesn't need to be either.
And to think I've been wasting all this money for all these years on buying transit when I could have just gotten myself 'Facebook like data traffic' from some 'unlimited bandwidth' dedicated server!
Have you hugged your employer today? You should. :)
It's incubated and thrives here, as well as continued efforts to paint Mormons as less than Conservative.
I'm just sayin’
That's odd ... to me, FR feels like a stripped down sportster with a souped up engine. It's all go and no show; meaningful content without the meaningless eye-candy dreck that pollutes entirely too much of the wwweb.
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