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
----- How bout a third option? - Public pressure on the deadbeat.
The mechanism for such is already in place.
-- I've made over 6500 posts to FR since April 2001, according to John Robs new self search page navigation link, here:
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--------- That 'post total to date' [6571] could be on public display on the members Home page, along with a 'donation status' percent [100%], based on, say a 1 cent per post suggested minimum donation.
Thus, when my posts reach 20,000 -and my total donations remain at $100.00, my donation status would be [50%].
Peer pressure on big mouth posters [like me] with low percentages would rapidly solve the deadbeat problem, imo.
No, I'm not. The whole reply was unnecessarily rude. Personally, I sort of like unnecessary rudeness if it's topical and funny and the person on the other end deserves it. But, having been on the receiving end of a moderator warning before they were told to cool it, I can guarantee yours was strong enough to trip the alarm (at least, if you caught one of them feeling especially prissy). Profanity was in no way necessary.
These blind freakers are not worth the effort, Alison.
This thread has become a general crank thread. Management doesn't seem to have a problem with that. If you want to come over and bitch about this place you should willing to take it when someone here wants to bitch about your place. The two are apparently related.
Doing FR a service you are not. Flacking your crap goods is more like it.
Seriously, though... no one really cares about the AF site, until people from there tromp in here with mud on their boots. Even then, there's no reason for anyone to go there since no one wants to tell you how to run your site. You can have it all to yourselves.
All I've seen so far is an e-mail from Buckley to Arator stating that you were advised of the potential costs of the FR vs. Eschoir suit, and referring to other e-mails Buckley sent to you without quoting them. The e-mail to Arator closed with Buckley saying, "You can quote me on that."
I can't believe Buckley would actually disclose info that a client wants to be kept confidential, and I don't think that's what has happened here. Of course, if the client denies that his attorney advised him about a particular fact, the attorney would then have every right to set the record straight.
Like I said: I think Buckley advised you at one point that the bill could go as high as $75K - $100K, and you probably read and deleted that e-mail at about 3:30 AM with about 100 other e-mails. The sigificance of that message did not register at the time.
This is how disagreements arise. People who work too hard, too late at night, may miss a detail or two. This description fits all three of us. And that's what a paid staff would be for: keeping track of the details.
Speaking of which, it wouldn't hurt at some point to repeat the old words discouraging religious threads on the grounds that they're off-topic on a political site. Lately, the place has exploded with prayer threads and reprinted sermons. And the "Harry Potter is Hellspawn" stuff (60 Potter articles at my last count) is just embarrassing."
Well, I've got news for you, this forum was always intended for a family audience from the very beginning. The members have a right to object to posts and posters who spew profanity, obscenities, vulgarity, violence, threats, racism, slander, bashing, etc. We are also a patriotic site. Have been from the beginning. We do not advocate violence or an overthrow of the government. We love and support our country and defend her from all enemies foreign or domestic. We promote freedom, liberty and equality under the law for all Americans. We could care less about color, race, religion or country of origin. Our rights come from God, not government, and no person should be deprived of them. We've got a forum where we can discuss issues that are important to ourselves as conservative Americans and I only ask that we conduct our ourselves in a polite and courteous manner while doing so. We do not appreciate those who go over the line and we do not appreciate disruptors from any side of the political spectrum. We do believe that liberals, socialists, marxists, etc., are working to destroy our way of life and our Constitution thus we are defending ourselves from them. Therefore, unless they are especially polite and on topic and not pushing their anti-America, anti-family, anti-freedom, corrupt, lying leftist agenda, they will usually be ejected. Same goes for nazis, skinheads, racists or bashers of any stripe. They will be ejected on sight. You may call us control freaks if you wish, but those are the rules and those are the facts of life on FR. People who cross them are likely to be removed. Those who don't like the rules, and or cannot abide by them, might as well click over to another forum, because they probably will not like it here.
I have absolutely no problem with religion or prayer. I use a lot of it myself. My only draw back to religion on the forum is, I do not like to see threads where they are heavy into debate and they start accusing one another of being un Christian (or whatever), or claiming that their faith is the only true faith and the rest of us are going to hell. I also do not want sermonizing on FR. I agree that this is not the place for that. We have way too many religions represented here within our diverse membership and there are always people who are going to get hurt. Other than that, and the fact that I do not want anyone bashing any religion, I have no problem with these threads.
Keep up, bro....
If all that's changed, it's your prerogative and more power to you. But don't go all rabies and psychosis on me.
You built a real nice web site. But you didn't get nailed to a cross for my sins, okay?
LOVE, DO
God bless you and all the others who work so hard to make this site the gift it truly is. I sent in my money today, and will continue to do so. I'm still fairly new here but I sure know a good thing when I see it, and I can't find this comprehensive news and discussion anywhere else.
As for the ex-freepers, IMHO they are whiners who just like the attention. Don't agree with the site? Leave. Don't like how it's run? Don't contribute. FR is better off without them.
Have you examined the contents of Ali's and my FReepmail boxes to determine the origin of the messages from Clarity? Sure looks like FReepmail from Clarity to me. Sounds like Clarity, too.
That would be the cowering, hiding, quivering Mojo who hasn't the guts to make his outlandish allegations on this thread? That Mojo - the spinless? Whether the AFers think this is a JR ploy to boost fund raising shouldn't be such a concern. This is quite an opportunity to get the Mojo-orginated assertions against JR/FR on public record, and JR's counter. This is where you may finally be able to make your case...but Z2 hasn't the knowledge or tenacity to do so.
But you and I and so many others know Mojo won't show. Even he knows that in the light of day, many of his outlandish accusations can be written off to misunderstandings, mis-statements, poor communications, poor management, change of mind, change of heart, personality quirks, his own hate-filled bias distorting his reasoning, and other equally non-sinister reasons. Like many in the junk science arena, Mojo starts with an unfounded thesis first and attempts to build supporting evidence. You will always think yourself right if operating from that perspective.
Here is what the AF community believes they have proof of:
JR is a liar;
JR is a perjurer;
JR is a thief;
JR is a fraud;
JR is a scam artist;
JR is a Bircher;
Here is your chance guys and gals. Only Mojo can argue your case as it needs to be. How about it? <
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