Posted on 11/26/2017 1:35:54 PM PST by Oscar in Batangas
It's an anniversary of sorts -- and should be something of a national holiday.
Twenty years ago, Jim Robinson became FReeper #1 on this website, and we all are much the better for it.
I found FreeRepublic.com via my news aggregator at the time, The Drudge Report. Quickly I lost interest in that site in favor of this my new home page.
I found that Freerepublic is just not a news aggregator, but an intelligence aggregator. Thanks to the overwhelming diversity of interests amongst the FReeper community, we can go from the smallest subatomic particles to the vastness of inter-gallactic space in only a few posts. And from pottery shards from the earliest human civilizations to the flying car concepts from the day after tomorrow.
Thought provoking discussions about history, religion and even cold fusion and train travel has intrigued us over the past twenty years.
And those are just some side benefits to one of the best sites anywhere for the sharing of conservative and patriotic ideas.
Thanks, Jim, for following through on the glimmer of your idea for this site. Happy Anniversary memories and hopes and prayers for many more anniversaries to come!
All your base are belong to us!
And sadly, the Philippines isn’t one of those locations. So several of us expats aren’t in the census base!
I found FR by looking over my son’s shoulder, tried it out and never looked back.
It would be difficult to pick one event/story, but I’ll say spending the bulk of 2015 with Homer Simpson’s daily posting of the 1945 NYT concerning the last months of WWII, and sharing and learning a myriad of things about that year that I would never otherwise have learned, because of the community that shared what they knew and allowed me to do the same. Every once in a while I go in the archives and re-read those pages.
I’m here for those that have departed, on heavenly wings or their own.
Yellow Rose of Texas, Common Tater, EdlLinn, OldAtlanta, heavyd, askel5, OWK, Tonk, CHIEF Negotiator, BahBah, harpseal, MrConfettiMan, registered, kayak, kattracks, Congressman Bill[ybob,and all our great fellowship that has died off, run off, dove off and gotten off this great train ride.
Did you try to insert Philippines into your info and see what happened?
Youve got a point. Dating apps have pictures. How can we choose our food if we cant see that juicy burger before we order?
(And in both cases the real thing doesnt always match those photos..)
An “Intelligence Aggregator” indeed.
Multiple people looking at a problem, picking it apart, contributing some piece of personal acumen, helping some see the problem, while giving everyone the opportunity to see an issue from a different angle.
Not that we all grasp that opportunity to see things differently, but it is available.
Discourse can be stupid, inappropriate, impolite, uncivil, and downright offensive. I have unfortunately participated in all those negative aspects at one point or another, but thankfully with one exception, I have been able to patch up those disagreeable interactions and remain on speaking terms with most other Freepers.
When I enter the Internet each day, Free Republic is my first stop.
I use it to see what issues exist in the world each day. I used it as my jumping off point for everything non-sports and non-retail related in the world.
If I need accurate information on military matters, I can get it on FR.
If I need to see all aspects of a political issue, I can hear it on FR.
If I need an opinion on energy related issues, we have people on FR who know the industry.
If I need humor, I can get in on FR, everything from sweetly cute humor to grossly off-color humor. Both quality humor and bad humor.
I have personally met dozens of quality people due to FR (HT to the DC Chapter of FR) and been able to be a personal participant face to face with the Left in some of the most divisive issues of the last two decades.
I have become personal friends with many Freepers.
To me, if Free Republic is down, the Internet is far less interesting, usable, and informative.
bttt
Great Website!
The founding of this site is/was a great day in American history.
Imagine how much more trouble we would be in as a nation had it not been founded!!
Another early bird here. To me the best part of FR is the format. A heading with several lines of info of the story. It makes for quick/easy scanning of what to read.
Use to go on all the outtings when I lived in Calif. I was AllenInSoCal then. Sometimes muse about my annual contributions over the last nearly 20 years. But quickly admit they were worth it!!
Our most enjoyable event was a FReeper Meet pig roast at the home of a FReeper north of Tacoma. We all dined on Diane Feinswine.
My absolute favorite thing about FR is the level of true expertise here and the sheer number of stories that have a personal FReeper involvement.
How many times have we seen a news story and some FReeper is nearby, or has personal knowledge of the events or the people involved?
I was even that FReeper once.
Happy Freeperversary! 20 years of AYBABTU goodness!
A MAJOR side benefit of this site is that we can “blow off political steam” without resorting to physical violence (a’la antifa, blm, and all the other UN-civil groups.
JimRob has contributed significantly to peaceful of political discourse in this regard...just by giving us access to this forum.
I found FR thru a post on the Whitewater Bulletin Board on AOL.
Lurked till election 2000 & signed up.
Thank you, Jim Robinson! Been here since 1998. So many memories . . .
I started lurking in 2005, it would be another 10 years of lurking before I took the plunge and signed up.
I have learned so much on FR it is incalculable.
I “discovered” FreeRepublic in 2000.....I was in Houston and everyone was staying glued to their radios in their offices trying to find out what was happening with the Supreme Court when one of my employees came in my office and updated me. I asked how the hell she knew and she said “FreeRepublic.com”.....I immediately went to the site and been hooked ever since!!!!!
“I have learned so much on FR it is incalculable.”
As have I. Had just gotten a computer as a hand me down from my daughter and SIL. Wasn’t puter savvy at all but had tired of TV and commenting on local newspaper articles.
FR and computers were new to me but I was hooked.
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