KEEP ON FREEPIN' ON!!! Posted on 11/28/2001 7:31:29 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Out of that, maybe only 10% of that number are "hard-core" Freepers. That is, Freepers who visit here practically every day and post quite often. That number would be 1,750. Now you know and I know that far more than 1,750 people visit this site every single day and benefit from what Free Republic has to offer on a constant basis. But I want to be really conservative in order to make my point.
Now let's imagine if we asked those 1,750 "hard-core" Freepers if Free Republic was worth $20 a month to them. They would all say absolutely. In a heartbeat. To us hard-cores, and I am certainly one of them, we would certainly rather pay $20 a month to Free Republic than to see it go away. Not all of us are wealthy, certainly not I, anyway. But $20 a month is very affordable to me. It's the cost of a couple of pizzas. An HBO subscription. Or a movie with the kids. Certainly Free Republic is worth that much a month to me.
Now imagine if myself and the rest of the 1,750 "hard-core" Freepers were to donate $20 a month through Free Republic by having it automatically deducted once a month from my debit card? That would provide Free Republic with $35,000 per month of revenue. That would more than cover the expenses that Jim Robinson just laid out for us. Not only would we keep Free Republic running, but we would have extra left over as well to fight the lawsuits and maybe do some fun things every once in a while.
You know what? I've BEEN giving $20 a month for the past year now through my debit card. I set it up in five minutes using this link. Since then, my $20 has painlessly been going to Free Republic automatically. I can ignore the fundraiser threads guilt-free. Furthermore, I feel good about my monthly contributions. Makes me not feel like a freeloader.
Now I've never said this before but if you are a regular Freeper like me and you do not give to Free Republic to help it stay running, then I am ashamed of you. How dare you come here each day to reap the benefits of this most excellent forum and expect Jim Robinson to pay all the bills! Now my $20 a month doesn't exactly make me a heavy hitter around here. There are others who give far more, not to mention their time as well. But if every regular Freeper gave $20 a month, or even $10 a month, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Instead, this website would be growing by leaps and bounds and we would soon be rivaling the major media in influence.
My estimate of 1,750 "hard-core" Freepers is damn conservative and you all know it. It's probably closer to 5,000. And if we have 5,000 people giving an average of $20 a month, that would be over $100,000 in contributions every single month.
Think about what I just said. If you have been giving regularly, good for you. If you haven't, please consider how valuable this website is to you and give at least something to help keep it running!
Thank you.
It isn't so much that so many here are outright enemies of freedom, it's the unreasoning quality of it. Anything from certain sites, or by certain people (including, bizarrely, Ron Paul) is immediately set upon by people who seem incapable of using anything but ad hominem arguments. These people seem to see no distinction between believing in freedom and being a communist or a liberal or a member of the taliban or whatever pops into their heads. Not only is this bad in itself, it poisons the whole forum. The more of it goes on, the less rational discussion goes on. This sort of thing happened before, but it's choking off good discussion. Another thing polluting the forum is that the newbies are often carrying in bad habits from other forums or chat rooms. For example, I've seen people write "R" for "are". Some of them just aren't that good at writing English. Too many people use all-caps instead of arguments.
Sure, this stuff happened before, but it's a lot worse now.
I don't think it's so much the attack, although that made it worse (the nuke 'em all crowd and suchlike), as it is the fact that people let their guards down when Bush got elected. How many of the people exulting over every new government power would have the attitude with Clinton in office? Few or none, I would venture. Why did we hate Clinton, anyway? Because he was the kind of person to exploit tragedies to expand his power? So, it turns out, is Bush. He had a fascist Attorney General? Well, congratulations, now we have a mere authoritarian. Does anyone doubt that Ashcroft would've treated Elian the same way Reno did? But I suppose that would be fine, so long as the kid's taken by our jack-booted thugs. Did we go through the whole election thing just to get the privilege of having the same policies Clinton or Gore would've enacted pushed through by someone with an R after his name? The bill's the same, but the person signing it hasn't slept with the interns, so we're happy? Was it all about the sex after all?
Do we have anything that we really stand for, or are we here to be cheerleaders for Bush?
Freepers have largely given up the fight for freedom, or were never involved in fighting for freedom in the first place and just joined recently so they could cheer each new chain. I'm afraid we won't get the old Free Republic back until there's a democrat in office. But why don't we like the democrats? Is it really nothing more than the reason people in Chicago don't like the Packers? That kind of political activism is more than a little hollow. There has to be some set of principles that we hold even our own to, or there really is no reason for us to exist. If we're that destitute of principles, not even principles but just plain thoughts of our own, we really don't have a reason to exist. Not just Free Republic, but the whole Right. If we give up on the idea of freedom this easily, we might as well hand over the country to the Left. Why not? They're winning anyway, and Bush is helping them do it. Look at all the new democrats coming in over the border. Unless things change pretty radically, there won't be anything worthwhile left in 20 years. Maybe we should just give up, then. If there was somewhere else, we might go there when things break down too much here, but there isn't. Why not, then? As it stands now, they won, not just America, but humanity. Just have a good time, don't care, munch your grass like a good little sheep, and hope things get better a few hundred years from now.
Maybe things will look better in the morning.
I hope you won't see the need for FR to go away. I particularly hope that it wouldn't be because of some people (and their 'FRiends') who have attempted to splinter this site for quite some time.
I can't remember how long ago I found this website, but since I've been here I've found more talent, inspiration and friendship, than any place else on the face of the earth.
I read an essay last November by Interesting Times, that captured so well, what you have created here, Jim. I think of it often......it's called "An Election Eve Vanity"
Is it time for Free Republic to go away? No, the site serves a vital purpose not only to the Free Republic community but also to the lurkers, including some from the media.
IMHO, some people over the years have wanted oversight of your finances while others have wanted veto power over content, rules of conduct, membership and so forth.
But you alone are responsible for Free Republic and you can't accommodate everybody.
If a few of us were truly wealthy – you wouldn’t need fund raisers.
I wish the fundraising needs were a bit more publicized--I was here for quite a while before I realized how much this site relied on contributions, and I had no idea how much the monthly costs are until now. Is there a way to put the fundraising blurb at the top of the discussion forums page?
-penny
I wonderd where you went.
jim please do not close this haven for conservative mingling. i feel that this website has had a significant place in the return to a gop president. don't close it jim. tell us what you need to take care of you, john and the website. we will respond in a magnificent way. just give us another chance. leon
I doubt you'll find a single person here in favor of scrapping FR... and I'm sure most of us will contribute, or pay a subscription fee, or whatever.
KEEP ON FREEPIN' ON!!!
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