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
you were one of the best posters here! Good Luck to you!
Guess what? He's BANNED there; they KEPT eschoir and banned him...........ROFL.
Why did it cost $7,300.00 for corporate and non-profit filing fees for three corporations? This kind of work is done all the time for a few hundred dollars per corporation.
Were the Free Republic Institute or Free Republic Network involved in those corporate filings?"
Well, it's a long story and I do not want to go into any detail about it at this time because there are still negotiations in progress and who knows? There may even be some additional litigation before it's all resolved. By the way, we did not believe that eschoir would abide by any terms agreed to short of a court order.
$7,300 was the price quoted. We had a quote earlier from a different firm and it was much higher. $2,500 or so per firm for incorporation and 501(c) filing did not seem out of line at the time.
The origingal Free Republic Institute and Network have been abandoned. The current FRN is a new project. I am not involved with it.
I stated my criticisms here some time ago. Got balls?
Well, given the opportunity, you certainly cleared things up. You were, indeed, a victim.
Good God.
BigMack
Oh yes, a world of trouble. Part time hosting with software which gives the host no ability to thwart or stop multiple ID's trolls intent on burning the place down is a very hard job. In fact, I (at considerable cost to my own reputation among the FReeper diaspora) apologized to Jim Rob for the harshness of my former critique due to the experience.
I even enjoyed a few months of undisturbed FReeping bliss afterwards.
But then war fascism descended on the forum, my threads were pulled again, I was banished for raising a protest, and then permanently banished for suggesting to Jim Rob that a rogue moderator (the one who banished me with a completely over the top and insulting admonition) may be causing him and his forum some embarrassment.
Be that as it may. Jim Robinson is very generous to let you (and Me) stay on this forum.
Yes, indeed, if you can call a man who repeatedly invites you into his house, feeds you a good meal, and then always ends the evening by repeatedly kicking you in the nuts generous. The evening-ending groin kick kind of takes the luster off the good meal and good fellowship which preceded it. You know what I mean?
Now, having foolishly "enjoyed" many such evenings, if the groin-kicker invited you back to dinner, would you go?
That's the dilemma I face now that I am unbanned. Needless to say, I am decidedly ambivalent about the invitation.
This is neither a shareholders' meeting, nor are you on trial, inspite of the few disruptors who keep trying to put you on the defensive.
You do not have to explain how you spend the donations; it is just that, people donating money for the existence of this wonderful site.
But I do admire your frankness and sharing with us things that you don't have to. And I thank you for all the hard work you do.
I am ashamed to admit that I haven't gotten around to sending money, but I will be sending what I can shortly.
Again, thank you, and we (well, most of us) appreciate you as a person, a patriot, a veteran, and a great American.
My $1 BiWeekly donations have begun. You should receive the first check next week and one every two weeks after that, untill FreeRepublic or I die.
My we both have long happy lives.
Marine Inspector
There is no way I'm going to wade through 1800 plus posts to this thread. I will offer that I support this forum financially, always with the stipulation the you use my modest contribution in any way you chose.
I cannot imagine the amount of time required to operate the site, tweak the software, etc. But I hope you sir can manage to make a living wage and compensate John and any others necessary to continue to operate as well as turn a profit for the effort.
I've been around a while, seen some come and some go, waded into many an outraged "I'm Leaving!" opus and chuckled at the petty personalities and egos strutting and sputtering outrage and self importance. Well I'm here for the duration and I support any decision you feel it necessary to make.
To your detractors I would suggest another pastime. Go play on Usenet and flame away.
Jim let your conscience be your guide. Do not feel obligated to continue if the burden outweighs the compensation. I would be sad to loose FR and the clarity provided by discourse and research from freepers in search of truth, but I do feel you should not be obligated to continue if you don't wish to do so.
Thank you for your efforts to date.
Pat
Only in Howlin's prodigous fantasy life.
Besides, I have very little interest in the legal and financial aspects of FR. Most of my attention is devoted to the unfair treatment of the membership and the Stalinesque censorship that takes place on a regular basis, and gets worse all the time.
Bob J may be able to give you his take on the case. Just ask him.
Cheers!
Callahan
No, he doesn't.
First off Jim, did you read my e-mail to you last week or so? I ansewred to your e-mail to me. I thought I made myself clear, but obviously I didn't, or maybe you didn't read it.
Jim, in no way do I want FR to be gone, and I have never charged you or anyone else with fraud. Show me where I've called FR fraudulent an I'll send you $100 bucks. What I suggested to you was my opinion that full disclosure of the FR funds is the best way to shut up the Af'ers. It would also in my opinion bring in more funds from those who are undecided or afraid to donate. It's also just good business. I don't believe the lawsuits make any difference as all funds are solicited publicly here. They know how much money is raised, Joe posts it as it comes in.
Claims that I've turned into an AF'er is just plain wrong Jim. If you've read my posts over there, you would see that I have stood up for FR in most every instance. I have tried to fill those guys in on some facts about my knowledge of FR activities. I have also stated some of my displeasure with FR, it's a free country Jim, anyone can post on any internet site they want. Just because they do doesn't make them AF'ers. You know that right before Callahan was banned he was sort of warned by Bob J to quit posting on AF boards. A short while later, boom, he's banned from FR. I found that to be troubling.
Now, about this cruise business. Bob stated correctly that I was on the original cruise committee. As you probably know, the committee had had it's own secret site for committee members to plan the cruise on. It was on this site that Bob posted a thread one night titled "Don't mention the Travel Agent Fee Split". Apparently some people had asked Seeking the Truth some questions about the cruise raising money. As a member of the committee I could not in good consciense continue to serve if the fact that raising funds was going to be concealed. Call me goofy or what ever, thats just the way I am. After 6 or so cruise threads on FR, I urged Diotima to make this public, she did, but not completly to my satisfaction. All the thread said was "Proceeds to benefit FRN". No mention of the travel agent fee split. No mention of how funds were being raised. No accounting of how they were to be spent. So yesterday, about 6 weeks after the cruise, I ask Dio how much was raised. The standard answer of it's none of your business came back. Then I was slammed as an AF'er trolling for dirt. Nothing could be further from the truth. An accouting is owed to those who went on the cruise, and to the forum. At least you provide some idea where the FR money is used. So far, nothing from the cruise. I would also mention that 2 other FAB members requested of Bob to make the fundraising public, they were told to go to hell.
I was also troubled that Joe made my donation status available to Bob. I thought this was supposed to be confidential information. I refinanced my home and used some extra cash to close out my credit cards. I ask Joe to please stop my donation, fully intending to start back up as soon as I closed on my new loan. But I get a late night phone call from Bob asking me why I quit giving money to FR. This also troubled me. As you know there were/are some internal conflicts among some FAB members and I felt like Bob was trying to get me to align myself with him against Connie. I just wasn't into playing those silly games, so I left the FAB, and FR except for reading the news.
I see that Bob weighed in earlier and he thinks I want an accounting for me, not true, I think all Freepers deserve an accounting of some sort, just MHO. If it ain't coming so be it. Others are free to do as they wish. I helped this site raise alot of money and I decided not to be party anymore without full disclosure, thats my right. You have your rights as well, use em as you see fit. No hard feelings from me. I hope you raise a million bucks.
Best Wishes
chuck
ps, thanks Topaz for the kind words, you're right on the mark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.