Posted on 11/28/2001 7:31:29 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Free Republic has had one helluva run over the last five years or so. We helped impeach one president and helped get another into office. We've been active in demonstrations and protests in nearly every city across the nation. We've participated in conventions, petition drives, activism campaigns and projects for dozens of conservative causes.
We've grown from a tiny web site with a few hundred posters and readers from the time of inception in 1996, to one with tens of thousands of participants today. Along the way we've made lots of great friends and, unfortunately, also made lots of bitter enemies.
We've grown from a small web site that I could manage myself on a part-time basis to a huge monster that has totally consumed all of my time and resources plus nearly all of John's time, plus the time and resources of many dedicated FReepers who volunteer or contribute large amounts of their own time and money.
The site is now consuming all of a 10 mbps dedicated line with two servers and we're still growing, and it consumes large amounts of money to keep all this running. In the early years, it only took a few thousand dollars per month to keep Free Republic on the air, but it is now costing over $20,000 per month to cover all expenses.
The major costs include approximately $8,000 per month for bandwidth, 3,000 for systems management and programming services, 7,000 for management, operating and administrative services, plus two or three thousand per month for miscellaneous office expenses, telephone, communications, repairs & maintenance, travel & lodging, postage, rentals, insurance, legal fees, accounting fees, etc., etc.
We anticipate a reduction in bandwidth costs next year as we renegotiate our contract (the market price for bandwidth has fallen recently), however, that will be more than offset by an expected increase in costs of our legal expenses. As most of you know, our pro bono attorney has left us and we've hired a new attorney to continue with our case, plus we have the suit against eschoir to pay for. My projections are that our regular monthly expenses for next year will be running in the neighborhood of $22,000 per month, or approximately $264,000 total for the year. This means we will need to raise approximately $66,000 per quarter.
Talking about making enemies, we've got several ex-FReepers and other detractors who are claiming on their anti-freeper web sites that I am ripping off the donors and that Free Republic is a fraud. Now, Free Republic is what it is, and it is definitely not a fraud. It is a conservative news discussion forum that encourages participation in politics and activism projects. It is not being billed as anything else. We are not selling or promising anything. And I am being up front about our operating costs. The costs of running Free Republic are what I've stated above and they are necessary to keep FR on the air. I do not have the financial wherewithal to operate this site without your help. If the majority of the FReepers feel that these costs are out of line or too much to bear or that Free Republic is no longer wanted or needed, then we will either cut it back or shut it down or do something altogether different.
I've also been criticized about not making our financials public. Well, the reason I do not want to do this is that I have been sued, both personally and as Free Republic, LLC. The people suing us want to bankrupt us and shut us down. They subpoenaed our financial records, but we refused to turn them over. The judge agreed that the plaintiffs have no right to the information, thus I have no intention of making any more of it public than I absolutely have to, until this lawsuit is resolved. You all know the amounts of money we raise if you follow the fundraising threads. It is all above board and out in the open. The totals posted by BadJoe are usually pretty close to the actual cash received and the amounts expended are pretty close to the amounts projected. No one is getting rich here and no one is being ripped off. The funds raised are being used for the purposes stated, and that is keeping this website on the air and that's it. Nothing fraudulent about it. Those who want to help fund us freely do so with nothing expected in return. Those who do not want to contribute do not have to.
There was a thread running this morning where people were making all kinds of accusations about Free Republic "hiding the truth" or whatever. These accusations are being made by Chuck Allan and others and fall along the same line with the accusations being made by some of the earlier banees or AFers including Mojo, Inspector Harry Callahan, Arator, keep U.S. Sovereign, TKEman and others. Some of these people are existing FReepers and some are banned. I am going to reinstate Mojo, Inspector Harry Callahan and Arator's accounts so they can join Chuck Allan, TKEman, K.U.S.S. and whomever else wants to get involved, and I invite them to come onto this thread and make their accusations public. As long as they do not go onto other threads and make a nuisance of themselves, I will let them have their say.
Like I said above, if it is time for Free Republic to go away so be it. Those who want to keep it going speak up. Those who want it to go away, tell us why. But if those who want it to be gone lose out in the debate, then I'd say they should just go away themselves, or, in the very least, shut up and quit whining about it.
Thanks,
Jim
Its over Harry the anti's can now fight with each other LOLROFLMAO
Dec 6th 9 pm THE TLBSHOW ATTACK THE ATTACK DOGS!
But you've changed! You ran into the Anti-Freepers, and well... made a butthole of yourself... and now you're TRYING to get banned in order to draw attention to yourself and tell all those anti-freepers how unfair JimRob was.
If you're not trying to get banned, then you're giving a very good impression otherwise.
Whatever it takes...When's the next fundraiser.
Don't let your enemies get you down, Jim! Your friends and supporters have them vastly outnumbered.
Thank you for insightful post.
Sorry to hear that Harry, I really am. On most issues, you were a postive factor around here and I thought highly of you. If this isn't a sour grape, I would be at a loss to understand your opinion on this affair.
I've never understood what people mean when they say this.
"Silence opposition?" Other than getting banned -- which happens very rarely -- how in the world can anyone be "silenced" in a public forum? Sure, people get called names. Sure people get laughed at. But that doesn't tie their fingers together and stop them from typing. [shrugs] Heck, even when people get ganged up on it's just a metaphorical thing -- even _that_ doesn't squash their hands and stop them from typing.
Heck, I've had the legalize it crowd turn on me. So what? I once spoke out against the Viet Nam war in a soldier's thread and dealt with the consequences of that. People can't reach out of the screen and break your fingers! I'm still typing.
In a computer forum, nobody "silences" anyone. I just don't get it.
Mark W.
$25 check written, envelope addressed, check inserted into envelope, stamp affixed, envelope sealed............will be inserted into blue R2-D2 postal container during my lunch break.
It's lunchtime........the checks in the mail!!!!!!!
Am I to understand (by this mess you've made of the English language) that you don't expect this thread to get pulled?
Oh, my sides!
I did not say: "Jim is the victim here." I said that Jim has been the victim of distorted lies for a long time. Maybe longer than you've been around. The official antifreeper line used to be that it was about 'exposing hypocrisy'. Then it changed to be 'exposing FR's corruption'. No matter who says what, the participants who engage in 'antifreeping' (and boy, do I use that term loosely!) were never up to much more than being vindictive. For some it was because they were banned. Others were pissed because Free Republic wasn't being operated in their best interests. Some, like Eschoir, had a special talent for manipulating facts and people, and he enjoyed a long run at 'antifreeping' by gathering people around him who liked the fact that he was a minor celebrity at Free Republic. They were sort of gullible groupies.
Somewhere along the way, all of these people started to believe that they were pursuing some noble cause on behalf of the "FRuckers" at Free Republic. They weren't, and aren't. You might consider that neither are you. No matter what points you make, they will always be irrrelevant because you discredit yourself more than anyone else can by attempting to disguise your resentment at being banned. Be honest about it, and you'll be better off in the long run. Trust me.
I laughed at YOUR comments about Howling, or Howlin. Bzzzzzzt.
We'll soon find out. Click on my user name tomorrow.
In the meantime, Cheers!
I don't know about Harry, but I've tried that several times, only to experience the same abusive cycle at the hands of Jim Rob and/or his "Anonymoderators": my perfectly good, non-rule-breaking threads get pulled for no apparent reason and myself or other FReepers I care about get banned without cause. That's why I can no longer be content to passively acquiesce to continuing and ever more intolerable FR mangagement abuse of its guests. The systematic abuse of FReepers on this site by the management must stop in order for me (and no doubt many others) to want to spend our time (or money) here. It's as simple as that.
Ultimately, this lawsuit issue will shut down Free Republic. Already your "pro bono" lawyer has agreed to 1 million dollars regarding this. I'm not a lawyer, but have worked for some of the high powered ones. Upon questioning, they think you're wrong on this issue.
Dude, it is fair use. To believe otherwise is to accept the premise of LATWP - that there should be only a single electronic copy of ANY news article in existence anywhere on the planet, protected behind a pay-per-view firewall and open to Orwellian memory-hole tampering. How would you prove that LAT re-wrote an article after publication? To post the original would be a copyright violation. Get it? Once they win the lawsuit, I'm betting that microfiche storage of newspapers at university libraries goes away, and is replaced by the single online electronic copy, with the hard-copy subscription soon to follow (though the CHARGE for the hard-copy subscription won't go away - big$$$$$!!!).
If they have the time, money and ability they are free to start their own sites. This is America.
Nobody is forced to come here or pay so any whiners should either try to compete or shut the hell up.
You realize, of course that this is simply a tool to generate funds.
All I ask is what was asked countless times here of Clinton. Accountability.
Check out:
www.delphi.com\frureform
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