Is Free Republic a Fraud? Is it time for Free Republic to go away?

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.

You can whine all you want on this thread, at least so long as you don't get banned. If you get banned, you can whine somewhere else. But to say that you have a right to say anything on this site whether the owner or those he designates as moderators like it or not, is just nonsense. Well, actually, you can say whatever you like. He can also delete it, and delete your account, and does not owe anyone an explanation for anything he does here. He can also delegate the job to someone else. I'm just pointing out that whining is rude and obnoxious even on invitation. It's also futile nad convinces no one.

What IS the point? Jim Rob isn't going to give them what they want, nor is there a reason for him to do so. So what are they trying to accomplish? Are they just secretly trying to increase the donations for him? If so, they're doing a good job so far... at the expense of losing all their credibility. (Assuming they ever had any.) Maybe they are helping him that way on purpose. If not, then they're shooting themselves in the foot.

They're too bitter to be secret assistants, though. So far, they haven't managed to convince anyone of anything, nor have those who claimed the site was a fraud or that the donations are 'misused' managed to prove or support their points. They haven't presented anything of note in thousands of posts but some lame come-backs... and more whining. Instead, they just make unsupported allegations, or complain of their hurt feelings, make weepy-eyed appeals for sympathy, feign 'persecution,' pretend to be martyrs, pretend to be 'for the children (other freepers)' all with exaggerated claims of their 'rights' being usurped when they have no 'rights' on this site to begin with.

They came, they complained, they accomplished nothing.

No one has 'rights' on this site but the owner. None of them have managed to justify why the owner should not run the site as he pleases.

We've heard one try to make a 'one of the guys' appeal by feigning concern for the owner's well-being... demanding a right to know the site's funding information so as to prevent the owner from being 'abused.' What a joke! Does anyone think Hillary Clinton was collecting FBI files for the benefit of the people whose were the subjects of those files?

One went on to try to justify his demands by claiming he was doing it for the sake of people who might be spending their limited little incomes on donations... and could somehow be bilked. An amusing claim, to say the least. Definitely not a claim a conservative would make. Very illogical as well, because the person would be out of the money whether the donation was public information or not. The site isn't selling products, and then not delivering. Perhaps the 'genius' who thought up that argument should spend his time investigating people who try to sell meat to people in neighborhoods out of the back of their trucks.

They claim to want 'what's best' for the site. But who asked them to run the site OR be the determinants of what is 'best' for it? What business is it of theirs? What right do they have to be heard here? They only have a right to be heard here so long as the owner wants them to be heard here. Period.

What is right for the site is whatever the owner wants to do with it, whether he wants to make it grow or even if he wants to utterly run it into the ground. It's his right, because it is his site, entirely his site. He can put whoever he wants in charge of the sideboards, and they are accountable only to him. He can do it all himself if he wished to do so. He doesn't have to answer to you, or to me, or to anyone else when he does do what he wants here. He doesn't HAVE to tell us why he bans us, or a post was deleted. He doesn't have to justify his actions to us in any way. We can only ask. And once we ask, we can vote only with our feet- if we don't like it, we can leave.

Until these jokers prove that it isn't his site, or that they are managers and shareholders, they have no case.

Now, some folks who have been banned didn't go and whine about it, and didn't set up sites devoted to ruining the reputations of the owner of this site. Those people still have respect, and Jim Rob generally lets them come back after a time. That doesn't mean they are immune from getting the boot again.

Most of the people whining here have in fact been banned, which is why they whine. They HAVE been asked to leave by the owner of the property. Even when asked, some of them simply changed screen names and came back aboard. That was unethical and shows that they have no respect for the owner's right to run his own site.

Others attempted to set up their own sites and that was wonderful- that was the respectable way to behave and still excercies their rights. The owner of FreeRepublic didn't go on their sites and whine like they do here, because he respects their rights more than they respect his. I sure don't go to their sites and complain about them. their sites have nothing to offer or interest people- if they did they'd be getting lots of hits and their owners wouldn't have time to come and bash the owner here for doing what is clearly within his rights to do.

People of high character go hang out where they're wanted and respected. They don't whine. You can whine all you want on the whiner's thread, but If you get banned, respect the property owner's rights and stay that way.

I don't get the feeling that this is a very friendly place.

This is like a street corner, barber shop, corner saloon and neighborhood park. There are far more likeable folks than not and every once in a bit, some hooligans ban together wishing to control the operation. That is when the likeable folks act like the red-blooded 'marecuns we are and kick the hooligans in the butt. Some of us nice guys have been known to aim for the groin when we are sorely tested. And that is when it is nice to have friends.

Now, don't be afraid of Howlin...many conservatives are touchy. I, on the other hand, am an old fashioned liberal who strongly believes that Democrats run better local government and Republicans run better federal (since Republicans are by and large, bossy, rich and cliquish). The one thing we all have agreed on is that the Clinton years and the Clinton Crimes were abominable and we must do everything in our power to rid the country of their evilness. I will continue to try to pry them from their control of the Democratic Party and Howlin will continue to win the House and the Senate and maybe go after them again. We also almost all agree that we are in a struggle against terrorism and regardless of political posturing we should stand together to whack the bums one up the side the head.

Now, I see you've been invited to tea with the ladies and I will depart from any further encouragement just in case the tea is too sweet.d

Actually, it is a friendly place, if you are friendly to others, and don't go off to other web sites and slam the site owner or make false allegations. Some people get banned for doing just that, some get banned for just losing their cool and needing some time off, some for pushing the site in the wrong direction, some for spreading rumors, for advertising their own sites, spamming, for deliberately trying to destroying the community, for personal attacks, or threats on others, profanity, etc.

There are times when you will have to defend your position all alone, but if you do so in a civil fashion you will generally be treated well. Howlin and myself had a very hot, blood-curdling debate over an issue at one point. Flames were flying, but neither of us asked Jim rob to ban the other, nor did Jim Rob opt to ban us, even though neither of us were giving ground. Maybe that was because, as hot as it was, it never got to the level of personal attacks, and never got to the point that the site owner's goals for his site were in danger of being drowned out in our fight. I had a real nasty encounter with another hot-tempered poster who freepmailed me some extremely profane comments over something I said, but with a bit of talk we came to an understanding and even friendship.

That's part of the point- the site owner has the right to determine the destiny of the site, to command his ship. He has a vision which we believe we share, and that is why we joined him here. We joined him, for all intents and purposes asking to be signed on as crew. We didn't sign on to take over his job, or to mutiny when we don't get our way.

If a time comes when we think he's navigating to a place we don't want to go, we'll disembark, leave the vessel in his hands, and look for another captain or build our own ships and become captains ourselves. But until then, the best way to keep the ship going is to let the captain command the thing, and find for ourselves a niche where we can use our skills and talents to lob verbal shells on liberals, to keep the sails trimmed, to keep the decks swabbed, to stand watch. We can't all be captains- if we were, the ship would never get out of port. The goal isn't to be captain, but to achieve victory.

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