You are hilarious. When people donate, they're thinking, 'I want to give what the site is worth tom me.' Obviously, if you don't think the site is worth a hoot, you don't pay anything at all. If you think it is worth 10 bucks a month to you, you pay that. Some think it is worth more than they can afford to pay, and so give whatever they can spare. Some don't bother, because they don't have to. There is no way that could be fraud by any definition of the word. But if you think it is a fraud, don't pay, and don't post. It IS that simple.
But, whether it is or not, no one outside a closed circle of FReeper elites knows for sure.
I'm way outside of the 'closed circle' and I know for certain that my donations went precisely where I wanted them to go. I wanted them to go to whomever provided this wonderful service, and that's it. Beyond that, I don't really care what happens to the money once I've sent it, since I have enjoyed immensely what I have seen here, and since I'm still seeing it, my money, as little as it is, must have worked.
There are, however, some facts which have recently come to light which should raise concerns to all donating FReepers.... a lack of accountability at the top of FR.
No accountability is owed to me or any other freeper that has enjoyed the forum. The forum exists, and we've enjoyed it, and that is the reason we are paying- for what we took (bandwidth). If there is enough to keep it going, so much the better. What goes on between the owner and others is irrelevent to the rest of us, so long as the forum works.
Abuse is possible, even abuse of the owner and host of this forum, not to mention everyone who has ever donated to FR in good faith.
Abuse of the owner is none of our business, unless the owner asks for my help. I donated my money to hopefully cover the cost of what I've used. Nothing could be taken from me, since I have already 'collected,' and so, I cannot be 'abused.' Nor can anyone else.
Greater financial transparency would, it seems, protect not only you, the FReeper doner, but Jim Rob himself from possibly unscrupulous hangers on who may gravitate toward him and seek to use the big FR money pot for their own nefarious purposes in your (and Jim Rob's) name.
Financial transparency is neccessary and wise only for the IRS, the stockholders, if any, and the partners- not for any snoop who wants to use the information for political purposes. All funds are freely given, not coerced. The money goes to a place of Jim Rob's designation: it is his business where it goes after that... even if he wanted to give it to a 'hangers-on.' He's a big boy. The donors are all adults.
FR may or may not be a financial fraud, but it IS without a doubt a political fraud, and that is what is at the heart of all my disputes with Jim Rob.
Nope, it is just not your personal cup of tea, which is what you wanted it to be. You keep forgetting whose site it is. It is NOT the donor's site, it is not the freeper's site. It is Jim Rob's site, and whomever he designates as his partners.
Jim Rob claims to value freedom. But the way he manages his forum screams otherwise.
What you don't like is that he is USING his own property as he sees fit, in other words, he is using his own freedom. That just burns you up.
Too many of my FReeper friends to count... have been abused, bullied, censored, and finally banished merely for expressing CONSERVATIVE political opinions.
You can't be abused if you aren't here. No one is holding you hostage. You are free to go at any time, and Jim is free to toss you out, or me, if he so desires. I would hope that on my web site my freedom to kick people off of it is guaranteed if I so desired as well. That's a real CONSERVATIVE opinion.
And you cannot be censored by Jim Rob, by me or anyone else on your web site, so your rights have not been infringed in any way. You do not have a God-given or constitutional right to use someone else's property, not even for 'speech.' You're just a mooch, trying to get on the Freerepublic dole, trying to get a piece of Jim Rob's property. (And you are trying to turn Freerepublic into Freedemocracy, in my opinion.) If you have stock in FreeRepublic, then you have a right to see the books according to your contract. But you have no stock, because you are not a co-owner. Property rights are a SIMPLE conservative concept, not a great mystery. Why is it so confusing to you?
The abuse continues. Now, "Jim Rob" has a gang of stealth bullies I like to call the "Anonymoderators" to do "his" dirty work.
It's Jim Rob's company... Jim Rob can hire whome he pleases, or recruit whomever he pleases. He does not have to tell you their names any more than an employer is required to give out the home phone number of his employees to the public.
It may even be that, unbeknownst to Jim Rob, these "Anonymoderators" have abused the trust Jim Rob has given them.
Maybe, maybe not. That's his business, not yours. But they can be no more abusive than the likes of people like yourself, who admit and complain they know nothing about the way the site is run, yet who go about making accusations and inuendos about what they don't know.
The proximate cause of my last banishment was my attempt to bring to Jim Rob's attention...
Life's a bummer sometimes. Get your own site and stay on it, and you won't have to worry about moderators, will you? You just cannot stand the idea of property ownership... you think FreeRepublic is an ENTITLEMENT. You'd be happier if it was socialized, so that anyone could post on it and not be discriminated against in any way, as in, 'equal opportunity, affirmative action, equal rights act, federalization, etc.' Some conservative.
Whether I actually ever corresponded with the actual Jim Rob or not I cannot say, but, if I didn't, whoever was acting in Jim Rob's name that day made sure that I never would, for he banished me for the attempt.
You can reach Jim Rob in any number of ways. His email has been out there, even to people not registered. But you have reached him just now. Happy?
But, whatever the case may be, these "Anonymoderators", by virtue of their anonymity, are absolutely unaccountable to you.
And they can STAY that way. In fact, I think it is a good idea, so that kooks won't be harassing them like they do Jim Rob, or people who foolishly put their e-mail addresses up in public.
One thing's for sure: The carnage they have inflicted to this forum since their stealth appointment over one year ago ought to be unacceptable to all self-respecting freedom-loving FReepers.
Why? So far, YOU are the one who is trying to screw with someone else's freedom- their property rights, and their company's reputation. No one has violated your rights... not Jim, not the moderators, and not me or anyone else here.
I would urge you all to stand up this fundraising cycle and demand an end to draconian censorship, moderator abuse, and Soviet-style banishments.
NO WAY! I am against your attempts to coerce and berate others for using their property as they wish. I will stand up for Jim Robinson's freedom, his property rights and HIS free speech rights. That is what his site is about- his property. It's not some communal property. That is the essence of freedom- respecting other individual's property. It is time for you to respect his. And we'll respect yours, if you can ever figure out how to establish a web site of your own. We won't censor you on your web site, I gurantee it. No moderator can reach you there. (Tip: there are free web servers out there to help you get started.) You can take the communal BS there, and offer your web site to as many people like yourself as you want, and let them post whatever they please on it.
To see why, consider the last thread of mine summarily pulled by Jim Rob's rogue gang of "Anonymoderator" thugs:
It's all about you, isn't it? JIm Rob appointed a moderator, The moderator deleted your post. Live with it- obviously you still have a copy. Now take the copy and put it on geocities or buy your own domain name and put up a web where you can type to your heart's content. It is very easy to do. What is hard, is trying to get others to read it. You have to submit it to search engines and so forth, or get people to link to it. That's too much work for some folks, so they think they should have a right to be read here, because the staff here has already done the work and the search engines prowl the site frequently. You want to be able to freely take whatever advertisement and bandwidth you want, no strings attached. But you have no right to what you take.
THIS is what FReeping OUGHT TO BE ABOUT.
Well, go freep on your own site and them you can determine what 'it is all about.'
But, it's not. Instead, it's all about some small-minded "Anonymoderator" who, drunk with his/her own power to stifle debate and squelch views he/she can't understand, summarily flushes the entire thread right out from under us.
Repeat after me: property rights, property rights...build a forum of your own, and then YOU will have property rights to it.
Now, why on earth would I (or anyone) want to subject themselves to such abuse, much less pay for it?
Don't pay for it, don't come here, and you won't be subject to anything. Those who want others to feed them, must get used to the taste of other people's cooking. Comprende?
This is why FR will die unless it changes.
If it dies, it dies. But if you know what a good site is all about, go prove it by setting up your own. Demonstrate your knowledge of how to run a web site by outperforming Free Republic.
Only YOU can force such positive change by demanding it.
Why? What right do I have to dictate how he uses his web site? If I don't like his site, I don't have to come here. If I thought I could do better, I'd set up my own and outdo him.
I would urge you all to screw up your courage and do this, before it's too late for anyone to save FR from itself.
You are SUCH A LIBERAL. Hillary used the same sort of logic when she tried to socialize health care- to 'save it from itself.' 'It takes a village to overthrow a web site owner.' 'Save the suckerfish, the spotted owl, the starving artist.' 'Save the world from the imperialsit yankees.' Be like congress, coming up with Social Security to 'save us from ourselves,' but instead making people dependent on government and depriving them of opportunity to act as responsible individuals. Your motto should be 'moochers of the world, unite!'
Since, barring significant changes in FR's moderation policies, this will be my last post to FR, I leave you all with links to some of my censored samizdat advocating FReeper freedom:
Well, finally some good news from you.
There are no such things as 'group rights,' no 'freeper rights.' All 'group rights' end up in failure. When people dabble in 'group rights,' it is ALWAYS at the expense of individual rights. You are trying to assert 'freeper' rights over those of the owner. That's wrong. We're not stockholders, we are guests.
The money FReepers might donate is THEIR private property to do with as THEY wish. If they do not wish to donate their money to a forum which subjects them and their friends to draconian censorship, moderator abuse, and Soviet-style banishments, that is THEIR call, and they are perfectly within THEIR rights to withhold both THEIR donations and/or THEIR participation until FR stops systematically abusing its guests.
If more FReepers would exercise THEIR rights, the present draconian "Anonymoderator" regime could not long stand.