Posted on 11/28/2001 7:31:29 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Free Republic has had one helluva run over the last five years or so. We helped impeach one president and helped get another into office. We've been active in demonstrations and protests in nearly every city across the nation. We've participated in conventions, petition drives, activism campaigns and projects for dozens of conservative causes.
We've grown from a tiny web site with a few hundred posters and readers from the time of inception in 1996, to one with tens of thousands of participants today. Along the way we've made lots of great friends and, unfortunately, also made lots of bitter enemies.
We've grown from a small web site that I could manage myself on a part-time basis to a huge monster that has totally consumed all of my time and resources plus nearly all of John's time, plus the time and resources of many dedicated FReepers who volunteer or contribute large amounts of their own time and money.
The site is now consuming all of a 10 mbps dedicated line with two servers and we're still growing, and it consumes large amounts of money to keep all this running. In the early years, it only took a few thousand dollars per month to keep Free Republic on the air, but it is now costing over $20,000 per month to cover all expenses.
The major costs include approximately $8,000 per month for bandwidth, 3,000 for systems management and programming services, 7,000 for management, operating and administrative services, plus two or three thousand per month for miscellaneous office expenses, telephone, communications, repairs & maintenance, travel & lodging, postage, rentals, insurance, legal fees, accounting fees, etc., etc.
We anticipate a reduction in bandwidth costs next year as we renegotiate our contract (the market price for bandwidth has fallen recently), however, that will be more than offset by an expected increase in costs of our legal expenses. As most of you know, our pro bono attorney has left us and we've hired a new attorney to continue with our case, plus we have the suit against eschoir to pay for. My projections are that our regular monthly expenses for next year will be running in the neighborhood of $22,000 per month, or approximately $264,000 total for the year. This means we will need to raise approximately $66,000 per quarter.
Talking about making enemies, we've got several ex-FReepers and other detractors who are claiming on their anti-freeper web sites that I am ripping off the donors and that Free Republic is a fraud. Now, Free Republic is what it is, and it is definitely not a fraud. It is a conservative news discussion forum that encourages participation in politics and activism projects. It is not being billed as anything else. We are not selling or promising anything. And I am being up front about our operating costs. The costs of running Free Republic are what I've stated above and they are necessary to keep FR on the air. I do not have the financial wherewithal to operate this site without your help. If the majority of the FReepers feel that these costs are out of line or too much to bear or that Free Republic is no longer wanted or needed, then we will either cut it back or shut it down or do something altogether different.
I've also been criticized about not making our financials public. Well, the reason I do not want to do this is that I have been sued, both personally and as Free Republic, LLC. The people suing us want to bankrupt us and shut us down. They subpoenaed our financial records, but we refused to turn them over. The judge agreed that the plaintiffs have no right to the information, thus I have no intention of making any more of it public than I absolutely have to, until this lawsuit is resolved. You all know the amounts of money we raise if you follow the fundraising threads. It is all above board and out in the open. The totals posted by BadJoe are usually pretty close to the actual cash received and the amounts expended are pretty close to the amounts projected. No one is getting rich here and no one is being ripped off. The funds raised are being used for the purposes stated, and that is keeping this website on the air and that's it. Nothing fraudulent about it. Those who want to help fund us freely do so with nothing expected in return. Those who do not want to contribute do not have to.
There was a thread running this morning where people were making all kinds of accusations about Free Republic "hiding the truth" or whatever. These accusations are being made by Chuck Allan and others and fall along the same line with the accusations being made by some of the earlier banees or AFers including Mojo, Inspector Harry Callahan, Arator, keep U.S. Sovereign, TKEman and others. Some of these people are existing FReepers and some are banned. I am going to reinstate Mojo, Inspector Harry Callahan and Arator's accounts so they can join Chuck Allan, TKEman, K.U.S.S. and whomever else wants to get involved, and I invite them to come onto this thread and make their accusations public. As long as they do not go onto other threads and make a nuisance of themselves, I will let them have their say.
Like I said above, if it is time for Free Republic to go away so be it. Those who want to keep it going speak up. Those who want it to go away, tell us why. But if those who want it to be gone lose out in the debate, then I'd say they should just go away themselves, or, in the very least, shut up and quit whining about it.
Thanks,
Jim
So, it was President Bush who coined the phrase "Too bad."? Has that one made it to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations yet?
BUSH, GEORGE W.1. Too bad.
LOL. It's funny how you quote pat phrases from him as if they were scripture. What other famous Dubya quotes do you have in your arsenal?
...as President Bush says, "Good morning!"
...as President Bush says, "What's for dinner?"
...as President Bush says, "How are you?"
The list I'm sure is endless. LOL.
Miss Marple, I don't dislike you. In fact, I enjoyed debating you. You missed several gem replies when my threads were pulled right out from under us. Perhaps if you would have allowed the debate continue instead of mashing that abuse button, you might have learned to like it.. maybe even me. ;^)
ps: I know you admire Arator, but stop before it's too late for you. He talks the talk, but never walks the walk. He's a cyber-entertainer whose schtick is politics and free speech and issues surrounding our government. One act is as good as another as long as his ego keeps getting fed. You aren't helping.
You get two points. One for irritating me so much that you actually pissed me off with #1 of your post because it is just SO WRONG...the second for figuring out a way to repost a one-year old deleted thread. Congratulations.
By that, I was seeking to determine how and whether the donation revenues were being taxed, since FR is not tax exempt. I have read (possibly uninformed) statements in the past that the donors considered their donations "gifts" which are not taxed to the recipient (FR) under the Gift Tax laws. That claim wouldn't fly with the IRS, so I was seeking clarification from Jim. He said he paid most of the tax on FR's revenue as the majority "member" of the LLC.
It has been anonymously pointed out to me that this portion of my text may very well be in error. Since posts cannot be edited by members here, I must correct the record all these many hundreds of replies later.
I now have it on some pretty good authority that FR's former lawyer may, in fact, NOT have hidden the costs of the Pesky suit from the Powers-that-be, purposely or otherwise. Those rumors I mentioned originally could well be WRONG. As I said in my original disclaimer, if any of that post was in error to feel free to correct the record. Thank you, Mister Anonymous for doing so.
This just gets interestinger and interestinger....
The "Too bad" quote is famous among Bushies, but obviously you wouldn't know that. Those of us who like President Bush do indeed quote him, because he is quotable.
As far as not wishing to debate, that is a patent untruth, as those who have been on this forum for any length of time know. I will not, however, keep an argument going when the other side simply refuses to concede a point. It is a waste of time.
By the way, you used to post very disagreeable pictures of President Bush during the campaign, just to annoy people. That is not adult behavior, so if I were you I would hesitate in casting those first stones.
If you like, I could flag Jim and he could explain exactly why you got banned based on my abuse report.
One other thing about me: I do not lie.
YOU: That's for sure. Thanks for the blanket admission, though.
Dar, YOU expressed an opinion about Ara, and YOU declared it to be a "fact;" I didn't make any "admission" in my response, I merely pointed out YOUR mis-use of the word "fact."
Candor was not involved; semantics was.
More of your usual selective memory. Anyone who asked questions about the cruise was given a polite and full answer...EXCEPT for those whose questions were obviously had a different agenda including antifreepers who only wanted to take a few quotes back to their website to slander and defame the cruise committee and the event.
Do you deny that you were posting on antifreeper boards and criticising the Forum or Forum participants?
No one owes you anything GFTB, so quit acting like they do. Let me give you a clue, anyone who banters on the AF boards and unjustifiably attacks FR and the posters here will be grouped in with them and will basically be ignored or vilified by anyone who's a target of their unjust and nasty attacks.
"It wasn't posted that there was a fundraising aspect to it for several more threads.
So you admit that once this was brought to our attention it was corrected? What was your complaint THEN!
"I thought that FR contributions were supposed to be private. I thought that only BADJOE and those who received the checks were aware of the names of donors. Was I wrong there?
To answer your question, no one has had information about donations other than Joe, Jim, the bookeeper and myself. Why do I have any information? Because Joe and I set up the donation system, paid for the hardware, set up the accounts with the bank and ran the "FREEPSTUFF" program for several years. I have very little to do with it now so I don't get any information and have never asked Joe or Jim for any.
99.9% of FR donors are anomymous because there is no way to tie screen names with those on a credit card. Chuck posts under his real name, that's why Joe knew who he was when he discontinued his donation. Joe contacted me about it because Chuck and I were friends, he had been active and a member of the Forum Advisory Board, which I supervise. Joe didn't give me any information about his donation other than that he had requested it be discontinued. I had his phone number and Joe didn't. To be honest, I don't understand Chuck's issue with this. No confidential information was given out and our concern was about him and any issues he may have had over recent events at that time. I would have done the same for any other FAB member.
Evidently they have the vast majority of FR threads stored on their site.
How true! And, thank you again for this most recent candid admission.
I can't tell you how frustrating it was for me to be on a thread with her enjoying a vigorous debate when, just after posting a brilliant reply, the thread goes dark before she can even read it.
And then he types this comment:
You missed several gem replies when my threads were pulled right out from under us.
Arator, if your posts in this thread are any indication, I doubt Miss Marple missed anything "brilliant", or lost the opportunity to view a "gem." You are the Johnny One-Note of posters.
Arator...?
Or a rat?
(Roar at!)
Jim,
Did you receive the following correspondence from Clarity on February 16, 2001?
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian L. Buckley
To: Jim Robinson
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 11:56 AM
Subject: FR v. Aldridge
Jim: Unless we are prepared to incur very substantial attorneys' fees (possibly as much as $75-100 M) and participate in legitimate discovery while vigorously opposing abusive discovery, it is pointless to continue the Aldridge matter. The pros and cons of proceeding or not have been pretty well discussed by now, so no need to repeat them here.
Let me know what to tell W&S.
-BLB
================
A Really Horrible Anagram:
Grampa Dave =
A damp grave
Hang in there, buddy -- we'll reach 5000 donors before you can say, "Get me a copy of my will, and an eraser!"
How would you, whomever you are, come by it?
More to the point, what on earth are you posting it on an public forum like this? It seems your intentions are very far from honorable to me, and if it is an actual email from a lawyer to his client, I hope Jim uses every means at his disposal to find out how you came to have it and to exact whatever remedy is available for posting it on a public forum.
Sorry to hone in here, and I will back right out, but I have read this entire thread and your questions, online mannerisms and actions throughout appear more interested in laying the gorund work for action against Jim and FR than anything else ... but that is just my opinion.
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