Posted on 07/17/2017 9:48:56 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Received a copy of the message pasted below that apparently is circulating via freepmail.
In response, all I can say is John is my son and my partner in FR along with Chris and Amy. None of us make a six figure salary. I designed and wrote the original version of FR back in '96, but it was my very first internet project ever. It worked, but codewise it was a dog. And virtually impossible to maintain.
When John came in with me, he rewrote the software and made it work greater than ever before and included maintenance tools that were sorely needed. I never dreamed that a homegrown internet site could handle the traffic and the millions of posts that we do. And even including the few times when we were down hard for more than a day, over the last 21 years we have better than 99% uptime.
And later, when our growth saturated and used up all the resources of our original ISP, John designed and built our multi-server hardware system, negotiated a contract for sufficient bandwidth and installed it at the San Jose data center. I'm not a techie so the hardware and software are John's baby.
And he and Chris are planning on running FR after me and Amy are gone. We are not about to let it die, assuming there's still a need and willing members.
This is about 20th warning being circulated during the last 20 years that FR's demise was imminent within the next year. Someday they may be right.
Lastly, if the guy who wrote the message below thinks he can do a better job than we do, he should go for it. And, for crying out loud, if he thinks he's being ripped off he should stop donating immediately and possibly should start posting somewhere else.
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“I don’t want to answer this question out in public, but I do want to answer it because I believe that many potential donors are in the same position. I have donated fairly regularly, but am becoming increasingly hesitant to continue on.
We see from the numbers that EXCLUDING expenses (collocation, bandwidth, legal, credit card processing fees, etc.) Jim (and I assume John shares) is pulling in a cool quarter million per year from this. Its his baby... he created it, he does what he can from home to babysit it... that’s fine... more power to him. It seems that his son John is the other principal who does the running to the data-center when things need fixing.
I don’t know how much John gets from this... but there’s enough profit there for BOTH Jim and John to make a six-figure salary. John apparently already has a full time job... he gets around to FR issues “when he can squeeze in the time”. If someone’s getting a six-figure salary to mind a system then that system ought to be sort of a high priority, not something that can be squeezed in on weekends now and then.
It is what it is... but here’s where it’s reaching the breaking point for me and I think many others:
Given the frequency of hardware failures, it’s becoming clear that it is now more likely than not that FR won’t exist a year from now. Many of us have suggested that hardware upgrades are becoming increasingly more of a priority... they’re now imperative.
There in NO discussion of this even being considered. I get it that Jim’s a stubborn guy... no one likes change, and a migration is a scary project.
But, without it, this site is going to evaporate... soon. Hardware is cheap... he could get a pair of great servers for $20K... the software is fine, no need to spend a ton of money writing some fancy new system. Just replace the hardware with something modern. Get some of the many experts here to volunteer a few days to work on the migration.
A brand new setup would cost less than one month’s “salary”... but would guarantee that FR survives. If giving up one month’s pay to invest in the future of his site (and the future of his income) is too much to ask, then hold a special freepathon to raise it. I can almost guarantee this money, if it was known that it was being allocated to a legit hardware upgrade plan, would be raised in a matter of a few days.
Perhaps Jim’s plan is to simply squeeze as much money out of it until it dies, then forget about it... we don’t know... he’s not saying anything (at least publicly that I can see). If that’s the case, he should at least be honest about the plan to the people he’s asking to pay his salary. If he has a plan for the site to continue, then he would be better served telling his donors what that plan is.... that would encourage more to be on board with the plan.
I would hate to see FR die abruptly and permanently. The likelihood of that happening soon is becoming very high at this point if these outages and other hardware issues continue on their current trend. If that’s NOT the plan, then I wish Jim would communicate to his donors about it and get moving to prevent that... before its too late.”
If the guy who wrote that message thinks he can do a better job, he should write up a serious and proper proposal to fix the glitches. I'm not IT expert, but 32 years in the military taught that if you are going to discuss a problem, bring a potential solution with you.
His proposal is: "Hardware is cheap... he could get a pair of great servers for $20K... the software is fine, no need to spend a ton of money writing some fancy new system. Just replace the hardware with something modern. Get some of the many experts here to volunteer a few days to work on the migration."
This is not a serious proposal, I am assuming that the writer has not sat down (or even traded emails) with you or John, visited your server site, looked at the appropriate technical specifications or otherwise took any real action to troubleshoot and identify FR's long term needs.
Further, I don't suppose he has examined FR's books to see how you budget and spend donations. I suspect that he underestimates your operating costs (you are in California, where everything is more expensive). I further suspect that while you probably are not living hand to mouth, I doubt that you and John are dining on caviar and champagne while troubleshooting the servers.
Just my $0.02.
Thanks for all you and John do to bring this site to us and keep it running.
-d50FFE
Then we had to live through 20 years of the Uniparty "Republicans" fluffing the Democrats.
Until President Trump... 😀
Jim, thank you for FR, the best conservative site on the web. Nothing else is close. During my 14 years on FR, the technical glitches have been few. Don’t let the turkeys get you down.
...if the guy who wrote the message below thinks he can do a better job than we do, he should go for it.
If the guy who wrote that message thinks he can do a better job, he should write up a serious and proper proposal to fix the glitches
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Amen...the world is FULL of those that can do it better.
At least that is their story and they stick to the story, not offer any solutions etc.
I started a movement just before the turn of the century and was tracking and trying to locate ALL the crew members of a ship I served on. I am still ‘working’ on it but after the 2nd reunion the ‘grumbling’ started about how this should be done and why did you do it that way etc—Of course this cascaded with the ‘gripes’ getting larger as the number of attendees grew.
At a later reunion (I was ‘fed up by now)
I was out of the room one day and while returning I heard a group talking and the line ‘Well, ANYONE could have done it, why give him so much credit?’
I waited a few seconds and the obligatory ‘Yeah, thats right’ were heard.
I just stepped around the corner and said
“You are correct ANYONE could have gotten off their ass and done it. BUT no one did, so I took it up. I don’t want any praise or whatever, just don’t need all this crap”
I walked away, told them I would continue to keep the records etc but said...”All you experts just take it over, I am basically done with it”.
Same theory with VFWs, AL Posts etc those that do the heavy lifting are considered to be ‘the in clique’ by those that sit around the bar griping about everything from the selections on the juke box to the Commanders latest statement and the ONLY hand they lift is to raise their beer - then complain we don’t give enough away.
Like we say, you can’t please some people by hanging them with a NEW rope.
Everybody pleases everyone else.
Some by entering the room and some by leaving it.
Keep up the good work ‘Robinsons’, I have enjoyed my 19+ years here.
;^)
[$2million to $28,953,896]
Nice. Is there an estimating service? I’m guessing there must be.
Thanks Jim for all you and your family does for Freerepublic. You probably should be making more than just a few bucks from this site, it is that important. The worst part of this site is what to do with myself the few times it’s down.
I got a kick out of that range. With an estimated range of almost $27 million, but they peg the upper end down to the last dollar!
God Bless you Jim.....you should feel honored...President Trump is surrounded by trolls such as this guy. Hang in there sir. Without FR, any remaining hair follicles on my head would be long gone....:).
I've seen it both ways. Someone will jump on someone else for minor spelling or grammar mistakes. Then I've seen where a fellow Freeper tries to help someone dial in their posting of a thread because they screwed it all up and left important things out (I could go into detail if you like) then the person gets all offended and thin-skinned about it and insults the person trying to help. People need to chill and take some constructive criticism with class and dignity. None of us where born knowing everything. The goal is to keep the posting of news articles in a uniform format; the kind we are all used to seeing. Things like making sure there is enough information under the title so the reader knows whether to check it out closer or move on to something else. The goal is to do it right; not how many can be posted in a single day or be the first one to post a given article.
I have no idea what kind of costs are associated with keeping a site like this running. I have a tiny little site I put together at a free site so it doesn't cost me a penny but of course it doesn't get the traffic this does. I think it would be helpful if the folks understood what it cost to keep FR up and running per year. People deserve to be paid for their services and time too and just coming up with this idea that took off at the right time and place. I also understand the concern lately. The site during the past year has gone down hard frequently. The previous 19 years might have been great but this past year has not. It would help to put the folks mind at ease to know these issues are being addressed and how without getting too technical.
It would be cool to know how much traffic (hits) this site gets per day, per month, and per year. It would be enlightening to know how much bandwidth it uses and a ballpark figure on what that cost is per month and per year. These small things would go a long way in stopping speculation like what's in that freepmail.
Those freepmail don't start in a vacuum; they originate because there are concerns and questions not being answered. All businesses have their costs, profits, etc. listed somewhere for the public to look up. Is there a place where Freepers can go to see those numbers for FR? If not; why not?
Hopefully no one gets offended by me playing the devils advocate but I bet someone will. I see a lot of cheerleading going on in this thread which is great, I feel the same way, but I can see the other side too. FR is easily my favorite site.
Yeah it’s pretty funny. Maybe one of mine is worth $28 million dollars.
Finally get those sports cars I’ve always wanted, LOL.
[then the person gets all offended and thin-skinned about it and insults the person trying to help]
Yes, that does happen. Happened to me about 3 times last year or so.
Occasionally it’s possible to read a post wrong; it’s always good to apologize.
A bunch of them. Just search “What’s my website worth?” for pages upon pages of them.
Cool. Yeah I had maybe run across some a few years ago but hadn’t looked lately.
Thanks.
Cowards hide in the shadows
The blowhards that trumpet how cheap hardware is wont pony up the full cost. They just complain
You’re killing me.
That is perfecto
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