OK, I’ll bite...
Conceptually, Free Republic is a Godsend. Through hard work and wise policy, JimRob has kept it pure and simple and coherent — the ideal gathering place for conservatives. Frankly, it’s my one-stop PORTAL for Web news and especially politics. I essentially don’t go anywhere else (yet) for news and politics unless I’ve been sent there by a FR post.
Practically speaking, through a combination of stubbornness and technical ineptitude, however, Jim has let FR degenerate to the point where it’s just about unusable. It took five page reloads to bring up this damn comment box. It’ll probably take five more attempts to post my reply. During all three debates, Free Republic was basically off line.
Astonishingly, there has been NO explanation for this technical mess, nor has there been ANY roadmap for righting this serious problem. We’re just left to twist in the wind, and those who mention the technical difficulties are blown off (when they’re not forcefully denigrated).
Election night is shaping up to be a gigantic JOKE, free-republic-accesswise.
The sad thing is, it doesn’t have to be like that.
If JR and JR don’t get their stuff together soon FR will cease to exist. (my prediction)
FRegards
P.S. Don’t whine to me about funding. I’m a monthly and I contribute more to FR than any other infotainment. My monthly FR contribution is more than my monthly cable teevee bill.
Thank you very much. We’re working on it. Hope to have it fixed soon.
Free Republic is a true forum. With it’s focus on current events and politics it is probably the best political news aggregator on the web, better even than Drudge in that users post so many different local or breaking stories so quickly and with a much wider scope. That said, the technical shortcomings are really killing it. Whenever the technical discussion of FR comes up some freepers always ask for a different platform, features or software. I am content with FR the way it is I just wish it was accessible. It was useless during all 4 debates and without a server change it will not be useful election day and night. There are dozens of great hosting companies that could deliver rock solid/scaleable hosting for FR. No matter what the traffic shoots up to on heavy news day FR would still be accessible.
What browswer are you using? I switched to Fiorefox and it made a huge difference, even though I thought it wouldn’t.