>> “I’ll donate more when we start having banner ads.” <<
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You haven’t thought it out too well.
We are a political opinion site, and advertisers tend to want to control the sites on which they advertise. If we become dependent on banners, we risk our freedom of expression since the ebb and flow of funding would be subject to outside forces that do not share our views.
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That's not the case for all ad networks.
Mercat: >> “I’ll donate more when we start having banner ads.” <<
e-s: You haven’t thought it out too well.
We are a political opinion site, and advertisers tend to want to control the sites on which they advertise. If we become dependent on banners, we risk our freedom of expression since the ebb and flow of funding would be subject to outside forces that do not share our views.
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That aside, I’m afraid that if there are banner ads, people aren’t going to see the need to donate and donations will fall.
Is there anything fund-wise which would make FR either more or less vulnerable to government intrustion?
FR is targeted because it is so necessary. No place is perfect or even CAN be perfect, just as none of us is perfect. But we do what we can, to the best of our ability. And what FR contributes is absolutely critical for allowing conservatives to collect, capture, and dispense important information. We get so frustrated when FR is down because we know how much we rely on it and how critical its function is.
We cannot let FR slip away.
My husband is already fed up with the amount of time I spend on research, but I will see if I can talk him into letting me contribute. If everybody gives something we can do this.