WE NEED TO GET THIS MOVING FAST
Posted on 06/19/2026 9:17:14 AM PDT by ducttape45
I hesitated to make this post. I've been watching along the sidelines the past 2.5 months, waiting to see what happens to this website.
Free Republic relies on donations to keep itself operational, but, more and more, it looks like this quarterly donation period will not reach its goal. My question then is, "then what?"
Let's face it, financial times are hard. People are not able to donate as they once did. In addition, many of the old guard have passed on to their rewards. And there are other reasons, to be sure.
At the end of the day, I don't want to see this website die. It's one the best last few sites of its type anywhere on the Internet. But if the donations don't come in, we may be looking at the last days of Free Republic, at least in its current form. So my plea to everyone out there is this; if you can give, please do, and let's keep Free Republic on the Internet.
But conversely, if the mission of Free Republic has come to its conclusion, if it can say with all confidence, "mission accomplished," then maybe its time to let go.
Thoughts?
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Thank you for your time.
Possibly consider a mandatory paid subscription to post articles and comments?
Free Republic has a method of fundraising that has lasted for decades. It works every time.
Many people suggested improvements to Jim over the years. He stayed with what works.
Chris and John have seen no need to change things. In fact, they generally pass on posting Freepathon threads.
If management is OK with what works, I see no need to worry.
I will commit to donating $100 over the weekend...and challenge my fellow Freepers to help out with whatever they can afford.
Evolve with the internet and understand that it might be time to include advertising? FR is a well trafficked site with decent circulation in Conservative circles. Wouldn’t bother me none to see some ads on here. If you’re going to charge a sub fee, however, I’d say the site needs updated with modern features. FR is the original social media and well established. Perhaps that could be taken advantage of.
I gave what I could.
A year or so ago, I asked Jim R. about running ads, but he absolutely denounced the idea. I believed then and I believe now it is something that should be considered.
What are the suggested features you claim that need to be updated.
What are the suggested features you claim that need to be updated.
Every quarter I go through the same issue about my card being declined. something about the address is incorrect. Perhaps I’m not the only one and people just give up, like I’m about to.
I had the same problem with online some purchases ... I switched browsers and they went right through ...
You have to leave it as it is until enough donations (or fees if that happens) come in to warrant paying someone to do the additional design, programming, testing, deployment, and maintenance. That's a-ways down the line AFTER we save the site from collapsing.
You don't actually think that all work happens for free, do you? It's probably $50K worth of software and IT work. Pinging Chris for comment.
First let's try to keep the site alive as it is.
I’m with you on this one.
Modern social media style features, such as like/dislike, upvote/down vote, perhaps even more photo posting ability.
At the end of the day, I appreciate FR. I was a monthly donor for a while until I came into financial issues. I wish I could continue that.
Running ads changes the rules and exposes FR to liabilities that don’t exist as a forum.
I would welcome a mandatory fee to belong to this site.
There are some people here who are into less desirable commentary, and ad hominem attacks. Perhaps a subscription fee would discourage such people from being here.
I would welcome some advertising as well. I’m sure there are some businesses who would be eager to advertise to the audience that we have here.
I know we’d have to talk about where to draw lines. I would not want to see this site overwhelmed with advertising, or multiple pop up ads every time you log in.
I also don’t know about ad rates. Or if enough would be received from ads to help close the funding gap.
Is the Robinson’s objection to advertising that they want to keep this site free and pure? Is it because advertising just is not going to raise enough money to help out with the financial problems here? Is it because advertisers try to control content on sites they advertise on?
Just some thoughts I have about this subject.
It’s been over a year since I contributed. I’ll do my best. It means cutting into my heating and plumbing fund. I’m strongly considering leaving anything I have left to free Republic instead of my kids .. they stole everything else.
I refuse to pay a subscription fee. Seems like just about everything nowadays is a sub fee.
I rather have ads.
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