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
I think Harry took exception to what he perceived to be a public mischaracterization of his behavior here."
That's cool........I understand. I don't want either you or Harry to think that I'm attempting to mischaracterize him or his actions; quite the contrary. I made it a point to even say "I'm not accusing" in my reply above. Think of my reply to Harry as "theorizing" why he might have been banned.........or just a lengthy question as to why, that's all. :) Like I said, I'd just as soon see him back here.
1. Why can't FR be restructured legally so that you and your family are not personally liable in litigation. This should be doable. Yo and your family shoiuld not have to worry aboutlegal exposure, and you are all entitled to be well compensated for your time and energy...
2. Have you reconsidered making FR a for-profit? From my perspective, it wouldn't make a difference to me, and I am sure that advertising could help to defray much or all of the costs....
3. I believe, as we discussed several years ago, that if you maintain the present status..(i.e. nonprofit)..then you ( FR) have to be transparent..and all costs and contributions should be displayed....
4.As a non-profit status..consider a basic two step funding..an annual charge of say $24..that's $2.00 per month...no one could object to that, and you could consider running the fundraisers as well, those who care to, are are able to, can contribute more........
If people would not be willing to contribute $24.00 per year for the privilege of participating in this community, then we don't need them..Also, since you will have everyone's credit card on file, you can institute a flat charge of $5 or $10 for each vanity post.....much of the bandwith is wasted by idiotic, even asinine, vanity posts, ( i.e. those which are not sourced from news websites )and just scrolling through them takes time.....so if someone wants to "self-publish" on FR..then can pay a small fee to do so....and if it curtails vanities by half..that saves nbandwidth and the site will be more productive, and user friendly.........
Your lawyer isn't by any chance Larry Klayman? We're all waiting to hear about your so-called lawsuit, shortly.
I'm not really sure. I'm fairly certain JimRob knows who I am, but I haven't really been openly derisive to anyone since having reincarnated myself.
Maybe JimRob just harbors a touching sense of nostalgia for people like me who've been posting here since FR's first year of existence.
I saw Pardek and Poohbah hunting you down like hounddogs on a thread not so long ago
Those ineffectual dweebs! They couldn't get themselves banned from a Bill Clinton rally! How the hell are they going to stifle a juggernaut like me?
Not to mention, my companies have numerous sites with many ISP's, and many others on dedicated trunk lines all over the planet. I can pop back up as needed whenever, and as whomever, I wish to. Maybe they just understand the complete pointlessness of what may well be their deserved objections to my electrifying presence!
;-/
Asking TLBSHOW about funding for the radio show is absolutely hilarious!
Oh, my sides!
Dasvidania, comrade! ;^)
Liberal disruptor....
Been there, done that...wasn't as fun as I figgered it'd be.
FReegards and hope you stick around awhile, my FRiend...MUD
ATTACK THE ATTACK DOGS WITH TLBSHOW
DEC 6 INTERVIEW WITH JEFF HEAD!
Now exactly why would any of us believe that now? I mean, after all, you KNEW for a fact that HOWLINFR wasn't me, and even after you had been directly contacted by more than one person, friends of yours, and told it wasn't me, you still posted the following:
From: Arator Jun-3 4:51 pm
To: ALL (1 of 43)
My initial instincts were that HOWLINFR was a parody of the worst aspects of Guilder-think. But, after going through and carefully excising her personal attacks, I am now no longer certain. There was an intensity of passion in her posts which would be difficult to fake. So, I offer the question up to the forum as a whole. Do you think HOWLINFR was the REAL Howlin or a Guilder parody?
I repeat, you are a liar and a fraud.
I'll be recieving a record of all contributions (through discovery motions) so I will know who is stingy out there.You are obviously not a lawyer. You will not be getting a list of donors, that can’t have any relevance to your suit, should it ever be filed.
The only reason you could be posting that is to try to discourage folks from giving. A rather dishonest and disingenuous post. I don’t have a problem with you coming here and spouting your anger all you like, but lies like that shouldn’t be tolerated, and I suspect and hope you will soon be banned for your dishonesty.
patent +AMDG
I should add: 'Tis better to breath free along the sunny (but frigid) shores of Lake Baykal then suffer some Neo-con's/Bushie's/GOPparty hack's/goose-stepping globalist goon's oppressions either in the FReeper Kremlin (FAB/"Anonymoderator" central) or the censorious conformity- inducing Gulag, otherwise known as "Free Republic".
Well, I think Jim Rob was hoping to invite the worst sort of AFing behavior onto this thread to gin up and "us vs. them" hysteria and spook the herd into a stampede of mindless reflexive donating.
I disagree. The issues of finances and integraty had come up with a few posters and it appears to me that Jim wanted to bring it all out in the open. Then, so that those who had raised the issues wouldn't claim banning or post delition was an effort of his to hide the issue, he opened the board. In wanting to confront it head-on, as a responsible man addressing a character issue would do, he opened the forum to those that might be noted for their absence and contribution to the discussion. I suspect that there are many days he is tired of this hobby turned juggernaut.
Unfortunately (for Jim Rob), I think that perceptive FReepers are realizing that us "AFers" are really just FReepers like themselves who have been mugged (or watched their FReeper friends be mugged) by FR's abusive management far too many times and, though banished, had the resourcefulness to maintain contact with our FReeper friends rather than slip quietly into post-banishment oblivion like so many others.
We do know that many of you guys are just past freepers. IMHO, Jim's macro, larger, view of the management of his site has often put individuals in the unfortunant situation that their micro, individual, view of their participation was misunderstood or at cross purposes to Jim's management. Any of us that have had a post or article deleted have the immediate emotion and reaction to draw upon, in an experience like this site, that is personal--like participation in an extended family gathering. Like that gathering, we sometimes side with the second cousin we never liked when Grandma goes over the top.
Again, IMHO, outside of Jim's macro task, his personal, micro, tendancy appears to me to be to visit and converse with past freepers, both in defending himself on the net at-large, but also because he knows that there are those that would be his associates if circumstances were different and he, by his macro actions, has cut them off from something they valued. If he didn't have a wisp of that, I think he would just ignore the issue and the individuals.
Perhaps, I am just pollyanna, thinking the best of people to easily. If that is true, then I will keep thinking that way because it enables me to both miss you (except for your most relentless moments) and value what I find here.
I hope your Christmas is grand; mine is looking to be a great one.
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