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
Did you see any of them talking about me? I never get talked about. (..sigh..)
I couldn't get any studmuffin feebs to come calling during the Trannie thing, either. And the 'silent calls' have stopped.
My life is so boring.
PLEASE, have mercy! My man is addicted!!! He said I would be too, but that'll never happen. /sarcasm Please don't fold on us. We are willing to pay something monthly to keep it going. Are there price breaks for couples!! ::giggle::
Say what you will, some of you, about this not being the place to put anything that is not political....but there are those of us Republicans that have issues that are relevant. Maybe you don't think an discussion about Harry Potter apropriate, and yet it is something that is influencing our youth who will be our leaders tomorrow. RIGHT? Where else can someone go to ask for prayers and people all over the US to keep their eyes open for their missing children? These are important things to fellow conservatives, and hold us all together.
Count us in on helping fund. WOW! The figures DID surprise me!
"....but you were definitely warned several times in September. You even documented your discussions with the moderators over on one of the AFer sites."
True. But check the contents of the warnings. Those warnings were not (for the most part) for being "vicious" to other posters. Most of those warnings had to do with "baiting moderators". There was one poster who requested that I not speak with her again. I accidentally replied to an article she posted and thereby recieved a warning from you around this time frame. Again, my post was not "caustic" against the poster.
"There were several abuse reports submitted about some of your posts, but not nearly as many as some of the others who got banned."
If I had to guess, I'd say most of the abuse reports had to do with the content of my articles. Not caustic replies. A few weeks ago, tpaine was involved in a tussle with the Admin Moderator. Word of the scrap was posted all over the AF sites. The Admin Mod let it "slip" that he has the capability to reach back FAR into the archives and compare how many civil replies there are as opposed to how many flames. One would think the Admin Mod could do the very same in my posting history. He/she might be surprised to find that I'm NOT caustic, as a general rule.
"The final straw that got you banned is when you became and active anti-freeper and even started dragging some of their garbage into FR. If you want to be FReeeper, you should avoid doing eschoir's bidding."
I note that Pesky is having fun with this part of your reply over at the AF board. It is false, you know. I don't do Eschoir's bidding. The day I got banned for posting "AF material" (aka the Substitution of Counsel text from the docket), I grabbed the text from a post authored by a fellow who goes by the name Snopes. Pesky didn't post that info. I brought it over here and posted it on the PROPER thread (staying on-topic, as it were) and got scorched for my trouble. Anyhoo, NONE of this was done at the behest of Eschoir.
I don't even work "in concert" with my relatives and friends most of the time. I'm damn sure not working "in concert" with Eschoir.
Happy Holidays,
Callahan
PING to the rest of you!
Hmmmm. If I did not know that FR's software is much more capable than Delphi's, I might have thought that that nasty fake Howlin had returned. Sometimes it's just hard to tell you two apart. ;^)
In a sense, the answer is yes.
FR's structure is to take copywrited articles and post them in their entirety as the basis to begin a thread. The LA Times and Washington Post objected and told Jim Robinson to stop this practice. He Said "No". He further said it was legal to do this and even encouraged the LA Times and Washington Post to sue him if they wanted. The two papers took him up on his offer (They were going to sue him regardless of his hard toned attitude). He had "expert" legal advice and free legal help. The end result is that Free Republic owes these two newspapers 1 million of those (illegitimate) Federal Reserve Notes ( The LAT and WP won't accept Confederate money). So, while before the lawsuit he could have argued in good conscience, that it is ok to post copywrited articles and simply not do it to organizations that objected. One Million Federal Reserve Notes later and guess what? Free Republic is not posting LAT and WP articles. Why are they complying with this order ?
If they are complying with the order( and they are)then why continue to run the web - site in this fashion?
So , in a sense, the website is a fraud, and their own ( sought after with Freeper FRN'S) lawsuit validates this very point.
(They could have paid some competent lawyer about 2500 Federal Reserve Notes to tell them to not post LAT and WP articles. Instead they got FREE legal help and a 1 million Federal Reserve Note judgement against them.)
Should FR go away?
The answer to this question is very simple: It is up to you Jim. Now if the Question really is:
Should I give my hard earned Federal Reserve Notes to you so you can run this website?
The answer is NO WAY. I would not give a dime to this website. I play here, I have fun here, I read articles here, I post here. I attended the Judgement Day Rally. However, I would not give a nickel to this site. Here are several reasons why:
1. Jim Robinson blew 1 million FRN's (those are real Freeper dollars) on the WP/LAT lawsuit. bad! who gonna pay for this ( hint - they want donations)? that means for every dollar you donate to Free Republic about 50 cents goes to those liberal papers. If you don't see the connection then I can't help you.
2. On the heels of the LAT/WP lawsuit the guys at Free Republic had a brilliant idea to squeeze 1 million dollars from eschoir (can you believe this?) Well it back fired and now Free Republic doners are on the hook for another 105K FRN's. The Free Republic lawyer, clarity, took his 105 K and quit Free Republic (would you quit Free Republic for 105K?) This lawsuit to go after eschoir is a disgrace!
3. One of the stated goals of Free Republic was to provide an historical archive to future generations about the fraud that took place during the Clinton years and to give historians insight into conservatives thought during that time. Guess what ? The archives are not worth a confederate dollar anymore. There have been so many threads with heartfelt comments purged that it is not funny. All of the threads that had great debate between libertarians and conservatives from 1998 are pretty much gone. WHY? I think the answer boils down to rewriting history and not giving potential donors hard data about things that took place here several years ago. ( I might contribute if he reopens the OWK opus though- that alone would be worth an Andrew Jackson).
4. I am a Republican. during May of 1999 Jim Robinson wrote some very very nasty things about Republicans and George Bush that pretty much drove away the conservative Republicans. That was what drove Lucianne to start her website, drove out Don Morgan, Navigator, Mojo, Boston, Uncle Daddy and many others. That was also the time that the the Libertarian (Big L) and tin foil hat guys dominated. ( The Big L guys always called the conservative republican guys the coven. They accused the coven of doing the very things that are being done here NOW! - ie censoring threads out the whazoo. The funny thing is - it rarely "actually" happened then.)
5. A big turn about happened when the Gore/ Bush contest happened and all of the sudden it was cool to be Republican again. The only thing is, that the old Republican got even more cynical and really began wondering what Jim Robinson's real politacal agenda is. This wonderment fuels much of the AFer effort.
I still like the spirit of discusion here. It is FAR more entertaing than Lucianne. It is fun. But this place is never going to have a real influence on the policies of this country. (BTW - I do think that this site was a factor in Clinton's impeachment, but this site drove out the workhorse politcal "doers" like Don Morgan, and panders to the internet talkers (won't name names) and foremost to the donors)
So to all of you who want to donate to this enterprise, On behalf of my entertainment, and on behalf of the Washington Post and the L A Times shareholders, I extend to you, my heartfelt THANKS!
Lastly, I had thanked Mojo and Don Morgan several years ago for helping me see the falacy in the Libertarian arguments. Their comments helped me to see how GREAT this country really is and how Good our System actually works. I still have fond memories of those threads. I remember the Navigator- Hepperla Y2K arguments too. (Guess which party was actually correct? )
You are such a hyperbolic hysteric. Grow a friggin skin.
And yes, there WAS moon landing.
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