Here’s a Wayback Machine page of posts from the closest day I can find to the day you joined.
https://web.archive.org/web/19980419111032/http://www.freerepublic.com:80/
Man - thanks! I’m getting misty...gonna need a tissue ;-)
Thanks for posting the archive. I don’t post much but I’ve been here since October, 1998. Lurked for several months before signing up. I remember dial up and feeling desperate when it failed. It was 3.1, my first PC.