Is Free Republic a Fraud? Is it time for Free Republic to go away?

Free Republic | 11/28/01 | Jim Robinson

[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

[Torie]

That is a most excellent statement. Better than any I have ever posted. I am quite jealous and envious. I intend to get even. Watch your back. :)

[Arator]

I'm here to read what people say

I was exactly the same way. But then my threads started disappearing, my FReeper friends started disappearing, and finally I disappeared (several times). I was compelled by all this to ask, "What the heck is really going on here? Why is this happening?" It's a natural evolution, really.

[Silverdrake]

Please do tell me what "hold[ing] hands with a liberal" has to do with interpersonal relations on Free Republic...?

[Silverdrake]

If YOU can find a redeeming feature in this waste of bandwidth, you're a better man than I; Gunga Din. LOL Oh, and I'm NOT a man!

Heh. Neither am I. ;) But note, while I said that community-type posts help build friendships, etc., I also said that we should avoid them in order to save bandwidth and keep costs for FR and JimRob down.

If you wanted to get to know someone / just chat, there was a FREEPER / FreeRepublic chat roomm, and The Alley.

Haven't heard much about those, just a mention here and there. How do you access them? Or does your use of "was" mean they are now defunct?

[Clinton's a liar]

"My apologies to Clarity and Clinton's a Liar for my presumption..."

It happens, more often than not with the sub-human antis who're the most ill-informed people on the planet.

Apology accepted, Arator. With a caveat, however. We are all fleeting on this planet. What you do with your time here is between you and your Maker.

The caveat: stop being so self-absorbed and make an effort to think beyond your pride. This website is what it is. No one controls what happens here. Not you, not the moderators, no one. The content, in its voluminous nature, is controlled by the people who post here. If they stop posting, this website dies. If they stop contributing, this website dies. It's something more profound than you or me or Jim Robinson or the moderators. None of us, separately, can begin to replace the heart and soul of this website: the participants.

If you'll stop your I, me, mine bandwagon, not only will I forgive you (which means nothing in the big picture) but you'll never again be threatened by banishment.

May God bless you and keep you.

Regards.

[John Robinson]

The moderators made a judgement call IMHO partially based upon a misinterpretation of Jim's intent. This judgement call was overturned.

There are still a few pulled posts on this thread. For the curious, I will summarize what they are:

#1410: Moderator Comment: "pulled, due to the site linked trying to install that CometCursor program. The user was already notified from an earlier thread."

#1844, 1861, 1865, 1872, 1875, 1882, 1900: All by same poster. This poster was "nuked", they were banned and all their posts where removed. This was a new signup with a vulgar screen name. Moderator Comment: "Liberal disruptor."

#2521, 2526, 2538: cruel reference and personal attack (2521), and posts which quoted said reference. It really was sick, the poster of #2521 was suspended because of it.

[Arator]

Well, I've been waiting for this for two days! In order to extracate yourself from this accusation, you're willing to say you don't believe your OWN friend.

No, I believed absolutely that our mutual friend believed you. But that doesn't answer the ultimate question, "Was she right to believe you?"

Now, it turns out that she probably was, but her belief in you was being contradicted by many others' absolute conviction that the fake Howlin was you. So, I finally had to acknowledge that I had no basis for acting as the final definitive arbiter of that controversy, and admitted as much. Everyone made up their own mind with what they had to go on, but there was simply no way any of us, including me, could be certain of the truth.

[GeronL]

LOL!

I forgot all about that post. I was just referring to the 'can't we all just get along' tone of one of your posts.. it was meant tonuge in cheek.

[Howlin]

but her belief in you was being contradicted by many others' absolute conviction that the fake Howlin was you.

Others? Those AFers? Weasels. And, btw, I'm pretty sure she wasn t the ONLY one who informed you it wasn't me.

You really are the lowest of low.

[WIMom]

You are so right, if FR went belly up, those poor soles (intentional) wouldn't have a life any more, nor material for their site. LOL! Isn't it funny, they are trying to bite the hand that feeds them.

[Howlin]

Everyone made up their own mind with what they had to go on, but there was simply no way any of us, including me, could be certain of the truth.

You are STILL insinuating it might have been me, aren't you? You just will NEVER admit you lied about it. Enough.

[swheats]

Jeff thanks for posting. It does help me a great deal to read a ray of light in the midst of this onslaught from the "pit". What's really unfortunate, is the only thing that has been brought out is the fact that Jim is a trusting soul that has been betrayed by many that have come along to use and abuse his trust.

I commend Jim Robinson for still believing in his vision enough to continue to deal with spiteful, jealous, and envious people.

Z2 you would probably have accomplished more if you would have been working on behalf of the victims of 911 and trying to get each family their million bucks from United Way and the Red Cross, truly a talent being misdirected. Bitterness will eat you alive. I was a Buchanan brigader but just as all the others he wasn't real either. He said just enough to get those Republicans on his side that wanted Clinton to pay for his abusive power. Z2 you might question many things about Bush, one thing you have to give him props on, and that is his ability to say what he means and means what he says.

I will continue to support this forum, use the money however you deem appropriate, if nothing more it has shown in real time how your enemy desires to sift you as wheat. I still say, time is the greatest equializer.

[John Robinson]

I forgot to add,

#2594, 2595, 2601: where deleted by the moderator staff because of links to AF. These actions were overturned.

Your user account was also "deleted", which is not quite the same as a ban. Your deletion was due to the misinterpretation. I assume. It was believed that you were only allowed to post to this thread. However, I believe you probably have a green light to post as long as you keep the "pigpen" stuff to this thread. (A cursory glance at your recent posts would show that you did not spill the pigpen into other threads.) Obviously, this action was overturned. ;-)

[Inspector Harry Callahan]

Thanks for clearing that up John. Any idea why I was unable to post or login for about a half-hour and why the login page was telling me that the name "Inspector Harry Callahan" was not in the database and "maybe I spelled it wrong". I tried several times. Finally, when I clicked on my screen name I was taken to my homepage, already logged in and everything.

How crazy is that?

[Inspector Harry Callahan]

Wow. That was fast! You answered before I even asked! That's some kickass software!

[uglybiker]

The Alley is now history, but the chatroom can be located on the Freerepublic contingency site on Yahoo.

[John Robinson]

I've been making improvements!

[TLBSHOW]

as posted by arator.......

That's one reason to think it really was Howlin

[Silverdrake]

Thanks for the chatroom link. :)

[Torie]

Well said. We have a lot of deflection of energy being expiated here. I suppose that is inevitable in a village such as this. Frailty thy name is human. Of course to enter the theatre of the absurd it would have been better if I had been in charge, as perhaps to the things that went wrong, but then how much wouldn't have gone right that did go right if I had the whip hand? Yep, the loss on the asset side of the ledger would have swamped it all no doubt. We can all keep striving for perfection, but even if we are most lucky and talented indeed, it is but an asymptotical function.