We need FR now more than ever!! [FReepathon thread XI]

We are so close. Our Tea Party Rebellion in 2010 turned the congressional world upside down and swept conservatives into power in the majority of state houses and state legislatures. And the results are happening in states like Wisconsin where they've successfully challenged the socialist government employee unions and brought them down a peg or two. And we all witnessed the ugly protests the angry socialist government workers staged while trying to block the changes, but conservative Governor Walker and his conservative legislature held firm and We the People won the day. It CAN be done!

Socialism can be brought down and freedom restored but it takes guts and will power and people who are unafraid to take on the untouchables. Creeping socialism is strangling the life out of this country and will permanently destroy our capitalist economy and end our freedom if it's not stopped.

We who love liberty must rip it out by the roots and burn it so it can never take hold again. Marxists Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and their comrades must be defeated and sent home. We must retake the senate and the White House in 2012 and continue strengthening our gains throughout the country. Meanwhile, Obama is trashing and burning America as fast as his little Marxist hands can light the fires.

This is no time to allow FR or the Tea Party to wither. We need each other now more than ever. We've achieved much together in the last few years and are so close to achieving a great victory over the evils of socialism. The nation needs us. Liberty needs us. Victory is ours in 2012 if we remain strong and vigilant. The entire world is watching. They all see what a buffoon our Marxist child leader really is. It's up to us to throw the bum out.

Click the link above to donate via Credit Card or PayPal on our secure server or mail checks to:

Does that really matter? If you are a true FReeper such things shouldn't matter. We all have different opinions.

I think it does matter.

I don't condemn anyone for having a different opinion than I do. My point was that the screed I referenced was a "state-sanctioned" call for uncivil, derogatory attacks from the anti-Paul crowd - i.e. open season on people with a different opinion than theirs, backed up by the owner of the site and, at least some of the "moderators".

If Jim's "bashing years ago" offended you so much, why are you still here?

Well, let's see...

As I mentioned, I have "paid my dues" here in the past. Additionally, in the Clinton years, this was a site friendly to Dr. Paul and libertarian (rational) thought. I was in such agreement with the average freeper that I never was motivated to sign up until algore tried to steal the 2000 election (which, in hindsight, I wish he had - he was far too stupid and incompetent to do the kind of damage bush did).

Some freepers, include ones 180 degrees out of sync with my beliefs, are capable of rational debate - that can be both intellectually stimulating and entertaining, not to mention the fact that I occasionally learn something.

I've seen more than one freeper change from the "(R) good, (D) bad, even if it's the same thing" school of thought into a hardcore Ronulan over the years, which is always a good thing for the nation.

Lastly, you can't offend me, or anger me, or deliver a credible insult to me for that matter, if you try to do so in an anonymous internet post. The man that'll stand in my face and insult me will get my respect, the one doing it by the official Free Republic Paul-bashing procedure, not so much.

Jim's Statement Regarding The FR Servers

Jim's Original Post:
Click Link Above To View Original Post

Thank you all very much, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the system other than the fact that it runs on computers and that we run on a shoestring budget with no employees. It’s just me and John, Amy and Chris. I’ve been involved with computers since 1972 starting with the Univac and the IBM/360 and Digital’s PDP and VAX generations. Amy got started a few years earlier. John started programming when he was 14 and was a commercial programmer by 16. He was our C+ guru when we were in the software business. He introduced us to the Internet in the early 90’s before the browser had even been developed. I’ve been a programmer/analyst from the 70’s and also in programming/project management and data processing management and also owned my own software company.
The one biggest thing we’ve learned in all these years is that computer systems have a tendency to crash. And when the inevitable happens, we don’t panic. We troubleshoot, find the problems, fix them and go on. Been doing it for nearly forty years. There is nothing wrong with FR. It’s perfectly normal for systems to fail occasionally.
Now there are ways to make a system more bullet proof and to build-in back ups and redundancy, etc, so there is almost zero downtime for users, but these are usually reserved for critical operations. And that’s because they cost money. Lots of it.
For example we only have one tech, one programmer, one hardware guy, one security guy, one operating system guru, one perl guru, one mysql guru, one all around computer guy and John is it. He’s also our chief procurement officer and liaison with all vendors and suppliers and in his spare time he fills in as our research and development department. Dear old dad with 40 years experience in programming and managing legacy computer systems tries to join in and help but usually just gets in the way. John is a one man shop, he’s on call, on duty 24/7/365 with no vacations or holidays unless he carries a cell phone and lap top and he likes it that way.
We could hire three or four guys to do what John does and we still couldn’t cover it 24/7/365 and provide uninterruptible service. We’d still suffer downtime.
We could also build redundant systems. But that just doubles the cost, doubles the maintenance and doubles or triples the capital requirements and ongoing expense. And unless they were located in different parts of the country on different providers, the redundant systems would not guarantee 100% uptime. Guess what? Even multi-million dollar fail-safe systems fail occasionally. Computers crash! It’s a fact of life and we deal with it every day.
FR was started on zero capital. It was a hobby that has grown terribly out of control. It was a one man shop when I set it up. Amy came in later to help me administer it, then John took over the programming a couple years later and redesigned and rewrote it all at least three times since. He built the servers it runs on. Now it may be that if we had the money we could order all new equipment and redesign and rewrite the software again with an eye for making it all bullet proof, but that would require lots of money and probably hiring some additional talent and it would require time. But we have no money and no access to money. And we are reluctant to take on any additional debt.
Now we could go commercial. We could sell ads. We could sell subscriptions or memberships, We could sell t-shirts and hats. But the moment we do, we invite scrutiny and copyright lawsuits. Before going commercial we would have to scrub our archives of any possible copyright violations. And we’d have to tighten up our current operations to make sure no one posts anything that could get us into trouble with any publisher of stories, photos, images, etc. And with sharks like Righthaven swimming around, there will always be room for trouble. And going commercial still wouldn’t guarantee enough income to build and maintain a paid staff, bullet proof software, redundant systems, etc.
I’m an old dog and I like to keep it simple. We have a nice little system here. We are comfortable with the hardware and our software and our providers and it works fairly well. Actually, very well. We have some occasional problems and have been down a few times but as I said, there are no guarantees that if we had double or triple the size of our hardware or our staff that we still would not suffer some downtime occasionally. It happens.
And we’re perfectly comfortable with donor funding at a shoestring level. I’d hate to complicate the thing by going commercial. We are grassroots and it makes sense to me to keep it all grassroots and uncomplicated if we possibly can.
I see no reason whatsoever to panic about our systems our staffing or our funding.
And I really wish to thank all of YOU who make it possible. Your donations provide the capital we need to keep it all going and your continued participation on our forums makes FR the premier God and Country CONSERVATIVE site on the Internet!!
Thank God for the FReepers!! God bless you all.

588 posted on 01/11/2011 9:37:01 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is brewing!! Nuke the corrupt commie bastards to HELL!!)

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.