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
There have been bad decisions made regarding the LAT/WP lawsuits and the Eschoir action. Some of the players were less than honorable, and the results certainly not what we desired. But Jim Robinson was, is, and always has been an honest man who took on the establishment with his bare knuckles. If he got beaten, we all got beaten. Freedom got beaten. The Constitution got beaten. And our Republic got beaten. For you to glory in that defeat, or to slink away in fear shows your moral mettle. Thank God Jim had more guts than you.
If he needs help patching the bullet holes he took for us, I for one will be glad to pitch in and do my part. If that means funneling money into the Defense Fund, nobody ever said freedom was free. (Not that facts matter to you, but Jim hasn't paid one dime to the Times/Post for their "judgment.")
You are at best a sunshine patriot, a fair-weather friend. The loss of folks like you -- and the company you keep: Don Morgan, Nav, Mojo, et. al. -- is no great loss for this forum, or for this Republic.
LOL!
Hm....as much time as I spend logged onto Free Republic, that would be a cost of about 0.00001 a minute! LOL!
That didn't hurt much to admit, now did it?
Thank you.
Pot=kettle=black.
You're FOS and everybody knows it>>>>>>get over yourself!
I don't think that's asking much. If it is, don't contribute. But we've got work to do, and kvetchers don't contribute much to the effort.
1) From your description it would appear that you are having your bandwidth delivered, and you are paying substantially for it. Further, it appears that your contract is about to roll over. Maybe it is time to look at shopping colocation instead of keeping your machines cozy at home (or business location) with big chunk of bandwidth.
2) Management and software costs are understandable. You have to eat. But can some of this be improved? I've never been very impressed with your software, particularly when the software behind slashdot (slashdot.org) is available for free, is efficient (moderately), and is currently handling demand significantly larger than Freerepublic.
3) Speaking of slashdot, it offers a far better method of discipline. Namely distributed moderation. If you are a valued poster, you get the authority to rate the postings of others. And you only get respect if sufficient other posters agree that your postings are valid. Then they take it one step further with "meta-moderation". That is, everyone has the opportunity to vode on the validity of your moderations, and you have the chance to lose credibility that way.
4) Another lesson from slashdot. Why bother posting the full body of articles. Just put up a link. Everyone comes here for the discussion, not for the artful way the news is listed or rated. They bounce off, read the article, and come back. And the whole threat from big publishing houses gets blown away.
5) Threads and subthreads.
6) Posting authority, and the ability to filter specific story posters, on a user based basis.
7) I have no problem with advertising, particularly if no single person has complete editorial control. It seems to me that a major advantage of a site like this one is the general absence of a single editor. Not to worry, the predominance of conservatives/libertarians/tin foil hats/republicans/ etc. can take care of keeping the site largely on track.
8) Maybe everyone has been over all of these issues, but I sure haven't seen it. Most people here have no idea what slashdot is, but anyone discussing policy regarding a news discussion site should take a glance at one of the best implemented such sites. And by the way, there are well over a hundred such sites across the net.
9) Don't get offended at any insult to your software product. It works well, and handles load moderately well. But in economics it is referred to as sunk cost. If you can pick up an alternative for .... free, and then do your own development to tailor, it deserves serious consideration.
Finally, maybe we need to think about putting up such a site just as a test.
P.S. - Bumps are a massive waste of bandwidth and a huge source of noise - Restructuring along the above lines could save piles of money.
Irrelevant? Read the whole thread--it's about the relevance of personal opinion.
And FR is "created" by ALL posters, including those whose knees don't jerk and who eschew cliches; if it wasn't, it wouldn't be FR. It's the source, degree, and consequences of dissent that this thread is about.
Yep, I was wrong. And I won't make the mistake of underestimating this country again.
But..big deal. I got over it. I suspect most others did too.
Actually, my lovely, gracious, beautiful, 6' tall, former-farm-girl-and-strong-as-an-ox, former Texas State judo champion, wonderful mother of my seven children would start with mine................:)
As for how long you've been here, believe me, compared to them, you're a well thought of Freeper. (Well, that's kind of an insult, isn't it, since nobody really likes them......LOL) but you know what I mean!
Because TLBSHOW proved no such thing. His post actually proved that you were in error in claiming that I took two days to ban the fake Howlin and delete her posts. Our mutual friend will confirm this. Please confer with her before you embarrass yourself further with this.
My gawwsh! That's a downright fantastic pile of horse-dung prose, Arator. It's so grandiose and eloquent at the same time!
Honestly, I don't mean to overreact, but I'm just not used to seeing such grandiose thinking and such eloquent prose go hand in hand. It's perfect for fund-raising purposes.
Don't forget: Show up at least once a quarter. You're great for business.
Arator, really, you have very little knowledge of what went on with that lawsuit, with the exception of what "heard" on the AF boards, so my suggestion is that you shut your pie whole and stick to what you know best...and that would be...
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