Posted on 01/19/2011 10:00:05 AM PST by Jim Robinson
Edited on 01/19/2011 10:21:38 AM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
I'm placing this in breaking news, because there have been several breaking news complaint threads recently. Guess there are a lot of people not understanding the facts about FR, or what we stand for, where we're going, etc.
First of all, who reads FR and how many accounts do we have? I honestly have no idea and the exact number does not concern me. We currently have over 369,000 registered accounts on FR, but as someone pointed out yesterday, not all of them are active and I have no idea how many are active.
Many years ago we had less than 30,000 accounts registered. Then we hit a hundred thousand, a hundred fifty thousand, then two hundred thousand and three or four years ago we approached and went over 300,000. Every few years as we hit a major milestone in registered accounts, I updated our home page with the current number of accounts on FR. I'll probably do it again after we go over 400,000, then 500,000, etc, and maybe I won't. The number of registered accounts doesn't really mean much. And our growth in the last few years has tapered off anyway for various reasons.
Who actually reads FR? Again, we have no idea, but there are hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of readers. All kinds of people read FR. News hounds, liberals, conservatives, politicians, talk show hosts, religious types, atheists, you and me brother and everyone in between. We serve over 1,000,000 pageviews per day.
So why has our growth tapered off? Well, probably the primary reason is we've narrowed our point of view lately as we've moved away from just talking about the issues and have actually started becoming constitutional activists.
The time for talking is over. Now we need to walk the walk. Our focus has become closer to working on our primary goal which is a return to constitutionally limited government and a full restoration of our God-given unalienable rights.
We can't do that by being big tent, all things to all people, non-principled, two-talking politicians. If we are truly interested in advancing our traditional conservative pro-God, pro-family, pro-life, pro-country, pro-liberty principles and positions then we must reject the politicians and people supporting the other way.
As an organization, we cannot be both for and against homosexuality, abortion, big government, border and national security, etc. I don't know about others, but if we must choose, I choose to be on the right side of each and every issue. Why should FR use its limited resources to allow liberals, homosexualists, abortionists, big spenders, big taxers, big government solutions advocates, gun grabbers, pacifists, isolationists, environmentalists, open-borders lobbyists, etc, ply their trade on FR? Well, more and more lately, we don't. And, apparently, that has pissed off a lot of big tent, true blue RINO types and the herd is stampeding. Let them go.
We who share our common traditional conservative principles, values and goals will be better off in the long run. We need to build on our strengths and attract more traditional conservatives to our viewpoints than to water down and weaken our own. It just doesn't make sense to me to support politicians like Giuliani, Romney, Gingrich, et al, who have RINO/liberal track records. It doesn't make sense to allow abortionists, homosexualists, gun-grabbers, big-government solutionists, etc, to have free rein on FR to target and lambast us daily with their repugnant bile. Let them go.
FR will continue on the traditional God, family, country, life and liberty path. If it means fewer accounts or less growth, so be it. If it means we receive fewer in donations, so be it. We will adapt, improvise and overcome and I believe prosper (God willing) in the long run. And, hopefully, someday we can say that we helped restore our beloved republic and our Liberty!
There is a third group, and I'd be willing to bet they are the largest.
Right on.
Forrest Gump: “And that’s all I have to say about that”!!
So much violent over top rhetoric.
Those liberals, homosexualists, abortionists, big spenders, big taxers, big government solutions advocates, gun grabbers, pacifists, isolationists, environmentalists, open-borders lobbyists would all be much nicer more peaceful if we'd just shut up, go away, and do what they say.
bttt
I couldn’t agree more with your philosphy. Thank you, sir!
Jim,
Thanks so much for all you and the FR team do, and for re-articulating your vision.
And, yes, shoe-leather must be applied to ideas and philosophies for them to be of any value.
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1:22
Jim, I was just thinking of composing a freepmail to you about this very subject. It would appear that more and more trolls are cruising the boards. They are easy to spot, and some have had accounts for years...some only come out during election years to pick and prod....If you need a troll hunter, I am officially volunteering...
Hear, Hear!!
Well said, Jim
I can’t imagine the world without FR. It’s such a relief to find intelligent, stimulating discussion on topics of importance to me, without having to wade through liberal idiocy and insults. God bless you, Jim!
I am glad that this subject is getting attention.
I hope that we continue to gain power and make inroads.
In my experience, the “middle of the road” tends to be where most of the roadkill comes from.
They neglected to point out that he was already on every station there was available. He had achieved total saturation.
FR could probably grow a lot more (and make JimRob rich) with some good financial backing. I am not against him getting rich - we like capitalism here!
But I do worry that one of the most important sites in the Internet hobbles along, financially.
Thanks for all you do. The ‘Big Tent’ needs more bouncers such as yourself.
Hear! Hear!
Interesting. Always wondered about some of the numbers you gave above.
Reminds me of another good man.
Gideon’s triumph against Midian began when he reduced the size of his army.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.