All your base are belong to us!
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.
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
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!
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 “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 can’t even remember how I came across FR, but it was probably on the C-SPAN message boards. I think I lurked for about three seconds here before signing up and posting *something important*. It was either about the lardy Michael Moore or that fat Dixie Chick.
Someday I’m going to start a blog so I can pimp it here.
(Also—full confession, here—anytime you see the keywords “oopsicrappedmypants” or “iamwearingadiaper” I did it. You’re welcome. Hey, those were bits from the last of the decent SNL days!)
Thanks for the great post Oscar, and Happy Anniversary Jim #1 Robinson.
Great site, and so glad Lucy T tipped me off to this site back in 2001 when I was at Lucianne.
When Lucianne purged us rough-around-the-edges sorts I found myself full time lurking until my birthday 2004 when I finally joined to comment.
My wife, and I enjoy the daily experience of FRee Republic, and send a token of our appreciation in the form of a donation each quarter as we already did this quarter.
Let’s not forget, and a BIG shout-out to John Robinson for a bear of a job keeping the site up, and running. Great job!
Thank you, Jim for establishing a forum for like minded people who are conservative.
When MrConfettiman posted, “I was there, where were you,” he had a picture of himself in front of the White House with a big sign, ‘Fire the Liar,’ and was protesting Clinton. He invited us to join him the following Sat but warned us that we didn’t have a permit. I went and have been involved ever since. The DC Chapter would post After Action Reports with pictures - Jim announced that he’d be here the weekend of Halloween. It was great - in less than 2 month’s notice, we had 5,000 patriots on the Mall on Sat!
One of my favorite posts was Kristinn’s report of FReeping Clinton at church!
And, of course, Dr Raoul’s posts and FReeps!
I am so grateful for all the work that Free Republic has done save and regain our freedom.
Love this site. It has been my daily elixir for almost 20 years! I don’t comment as much as I used to, but I am still here every day getting my news and having fun. Thanks JimRob!
I found it through Drudge too.