Below: the FreeRepublic "ServerOne" at HQ:
FR is currently seriously underfunded. This is something we FReepers can do something about.
Comments? Suggestions?
Donate:
Banner ads don’t bother me, I can’t even remember them.
They are wasting their money on me.
I have little problem with selling ad space to raise revenue. Jim could consider being selective regarding the type of businesses allowed, possibly giving preference to Freeper business owners.
Just donated. Thanks for the thread.
Thanks for FR. Keep on keeping on...
Best Regards,
bronxville
Thank you.
Yes, I would suggest seeking anonymous donations from Walter Williams, Mark Steyn, Rush, Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, etc. Hand written letters guaranteeing their anonymity.
FReepers should support this site and make the libs pay to see what we're writing about. I wonder what the rate would be if Jim did that?
Should be easy enough to find out how many people post on this site divided by costs. Then it would be a non-profit if Jim wanted that I suppose. There is very little else other than Drudge and Fox that I use the computer for. But I always start at FR.
Several years ago I joined the $/day club. To me it’s worth it. I have no other hobby that I spend this amount of time with and as with most others here, I’d at least feel lost without FR. Most anybody who spends time on FR and other online outlets, probably doesn’t need magazine subscriptions and probably not even newspapers. I would think many folks could at least send FR some of the money they saved by cutting out some of these subscriptions.
Also, Jim, from a 25 year veteran in software development, myself: You have the right idea.
A rewrite is probably a formidable task, since this is an enterprise-level web app. My offhand guestimate is that it would take 2 senior developers, 1 fulltime tester, and one SOLID architect to pull off a full Free Republic implementation in 9 months to a year. Let us say, it is a year. Senior developers go about 100k, testers 60k, and an architect of the caliber you'd want is about 200k. That's 450k, and we haven't even talked about licensing development software and the equipment for them to develop on, much less the server farm itself. Figure 600k-750k to do a redevelopment.
John's system is, frankly, amazing for the price it's cost. it's obvious it's a labor of love. Plus, for him to have accomplished it in a bass-ackwards language like Perl, is truly mindboggling. (Poke poke, John.... lol.... told ya .NET was the way to go......lol.....)
Anyways, the plan you have adopted -- Keep up with the existing software, for it does work, and when needed, troubleshoot -- is viable. Objectively speaking, it is a decent plan.
There may come a time when the Perl system you have simply won't cut it any more. When that happens, I suggest a conversion to a robust enterprise solution. I favor C#.NET with SQL back end. It's battle-tested and well-regarded for enterprise apps. John would be a pro in it in about a month.
Below: the FreeRepublic "ServerOne" at HQ:
I’m here for the long haul and with that my monthly donation is as well. I almost wish Jim would make the site a paid, members only site so they could ease a little of the financial stress they have got to be feeling each and every quarter. Did anyone notice how long the Freepathon lasted last quarter? They seem to be getting longer and longer...I know things are tough for a lot of folks but if you’re coming on every day you should be contributing SOMETHING. Even if it’s only a couple of dollars!
I just wanted to note on this thread that “legacy” threads from before some time in 2001 still are unavailable. I’ve never had any word on whether they are gone forever, or might be resurrected at some point.
An example:
The Clinton Body Count
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39d44f8608d9.htm
A penny for your thoughts.
FReeloaders - banner ads
(ala Drudge)
Subscribers - no banner ads
(donation of any amount = 12 month FR membership)
This way everyone contributes - and FR lives on!
They will have to pry my access to FR from my cold dead fingers!!!
PS - Jim - Oracle would be a very bad choice for what you are doing. The cost alone just doesn’t make Oracle worth it.
“And no, we are not going to throw out our software and rewrite it and no we’re not going to move on to some other database system. There are no guarantees that any other system can do a better job and not without hiring a staff to build and maintain it and that’s for sure. And we don’t have the financial wherewithal to do any of that anyway.”
Sirs, please consider that there is another possibility: Start an open source project.
Remember the advice Moses got when he tried to do everything himself: You have to delegate to others so you can keep your sanity.
There have got to be FReepers who are PHP programmers who would volunteer to create an open-source system that would take the community forward. And there are open-source databases like PostgreSQL that are designed for heavy loads. There are also new databases coming that are “cloud” friendly and scalable.
I am just now getting into PHP so I’m not ready to volunteer, but I know that as large as FR is, we already have dozens of capable people willing to contribute time and code. This is the Open Source era — you don’t have to pay for programming if you’ve got a good cause that will attract coders. And FR is one of the best causes out there!
The look and feel of FR wouldn’t have to change (I really hate all that Javascripty moving menu garbage). A code base could be developed that looks like FR and feels like FR, but is ready to adapt to changes.
There is an excellent open-source project called Symphony CMS ( http://symphony-cms.com/ ), an XSLT-powered open source content management system. It’s lightweight, configurable and capable of heavy loads. The programmers have done a good job making it future-proof. All data comes in as XML and is turned into HTML using XSLT. The codebase is small and learnable.
Symphony is the first CMS that doesn’t make assumptions about how you want your data presented. It could be adapted to look like Freerepublic. It currently runs off MySQL but version 3.0 will allow more databases, and there is talk of adapting it to use some of the cutting-edge databases that are being developed.
Sirs, I would encourage you to consider asking the family for volunteers. The coders are out here.
Please, accept advertising. There is nothing inherently wrong with advertising. It is an integral part of free enterprise.
Class of ‘98 here and long time monthly donor via automatic Paypal payments. I see no rational reason for not accepting ads on the site. I have no problem with that if it means the continuation of this VITAL resource to the Cause.
I’m a Software Engineer and make a product that would be very effective in re-writing a new “Free Republic”. However, it is Microsoft .NET technology and I think the FR is all non MS stuff.
Where will I go? What will I do?
$50 on the way!
Ping; ignore if you’re already on the thread somewhere.