Welcome, and Thanks! [New Posters In Particular, Please Read]

Yesterday was, by the measure of distinct posters, the busiest day ever in the history of Free Republic, as 4,282 distinct usernames posted. Fan-freepin'-tastic. This beat the previous record by a dozen or two.

Even more impressive, yesterday was the busiest day in the history of Free Republic as measured by total articles + replies, with a whopping 31,153. The previous record was somewhat below 30,000.

Signups had their 8th highest day ever, behind 7 consecutive days after the 2000 elections.

I would like to thank everyone on behalf of the rest of the staff for everyone's help in making things continue to run smoothly, for pointing out disruptors, and for keeping the discussion lively but (for the most part) civil. Abuse has not increased with load, and for that we are grateful.

To all the new posters, welcome. If you have questions about how things work, feel free to ask them on this thread. I am sure many freepers will be happy to chime in with help.

At one time, someone had started collecting information for a Free Republic FAQ. The effort died, but there is some good information on that thread here.

The site's owner, Jim Robinson, has asked for some consideration regarding posting articles to the sidebars. More here.

Speaking of sidebars, this thread has all you need to configure which topics show up for you as sidebars, and in what order. More here.

What are vanities? They are posts that start threads, where instead of being an article from another source, the article is written by the person posting the thread. What do you need to know about vanities? This thread should help. It also has some words on types of posts that are not welcome here.

I forgot to add one of the most important things. Be careful about Loose Lips posts. Sometimes this gets controversial and some don't see the point, but we would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to our military. Thanks.

How many people is hard to measure. We have well over 100,000 accounts that have been created, but some people have had hundreds of accounts (they get banned, they create new ones, they get banned, they don't get the hint, they get banned, they don't realize it takes them much longer to create the accounts than it does for us to take them out, they get banned, they think they are accomplishing something, they get banned, and in the grand scheme of things they have wasted a ton of their time and given us all something to laugh at- namely them). Also, some accounts are never activated (the person maybe made a mistake in entering the email address, for example).

Its best to measure by using the distinct posters, the articles + replies, or some outside source like Alexa. By each of those measures, we are experiencing a period of rapid growth. Thanks, AM

Very nice. Thank you, those are welcome additions to this thread.

By the way, not everyone is pleased with Free Republic. I thought I would post some of these for all to see.

[1 of 5 stars] will end in jail
Reviewer: MICHAEL PERKINS 2ND
I only ranked FR a 1 because I could not rank it in the minus ! I recently decided to look at this site and to my surprise I found it was run by people that sounded like storm Troopers! When someone posts and do not agree 100% with the moderators they are banned ! Some FREE REPUBLIC! I reviewing several other reviews I saw that MANY people that used to be on your site were as concerned about where the "donations" go as I am ! The statement that there are NO PAID employees here sure is fishy when 7,500 dollars a week is paid to someone by your own disclosures? What next Jim , church poor boxes and collection plates? Why can't you make an honest living like everyone else? You used to be according to some the premeire site on the web ! What happened . It seems you got money hungry ( as others have said) and given the daily running to a bunch of uneducated rejects from the KKK ! The way I see it you can do one of two things! Change FR's name to KKK republic, OR do as you promised ( best option) and "shut it down when it is no longer usefull and go away " better hurry though before the IRS finishes it's investigations into the missapproiated funds ! It is too late to get back to the excellence you used to have . You allowed idiots to moderate that have a collective I.Q. of about the high tempature in Alaska this morning ! Most cannot string 5 words into a sentence that makes sense! You blew it Jim ! And it cannot be fixed because you are not in control any more! They took your work and made it dirty , cheap, and a lie..... Shame on you I feel sorry for them ! They are just too stupid to know better but YOU DID know better and for you there is no excuse!

You have to love someone who starts off by saying "I recently decided to look at this site" but then goes on to talk about the way things used to be. But I digress.

[1 of 5 stars] Ignorant frauds!, 3/19/03
Reviewer: Candace Thompson
If you do not agree with them then they call you names! They are VERY pro Zionist and you DARE NOT say anything against Israel even when it murders an american girl that was unarmed and peacefully protesting the demolition of a Dr's house with thew DR and his wife and children in it ! If you answer back one of the idiots that just called you every 4 letter name their meager minds can come up with you are banned from the "free and fair grassroots movement"! Well personally I think they MUST have grassroots because they all SMOKED all the grass in order to come up with their KKK views! Oh yes and "you must NOT slander or threaten anyone or group on the site" ! Unless you are Rob or one of his cronies in which case you get to call them anything you want in hopes the truth will just go away so they can all sit and chew the fat about a world that does not exist any more! They just have not awakened to realize it is 2003 and NOT 1955 ... Someone needs to tell them that both women AND blacks can vote now ? On second thought they would probably commit hari-keri when they hear this! ( excuse spelling here )

I guess we are from the Zionist branch of the KKK. </sarcasm>

[1 of 5 stars]
facist knuckledraggers, 3/18/03
Reviewer: ButterflyBlood
if you call yourself Christian but really worship Bush instead of Christ and think killing Iraqi civilians or non-violent peace activists is funny, think Rush Limbaugh is a good non-biased source of info and think Clinton's penis is responsible for every single horrible thing that has happened since the '90s, and are a homophobic bigot who thinks gays are part of a secret conspiracy to convert people to homosexuality and destroy American families, this is the site for you. A better way to sum it up is people who are simply too lazy to join the KKK.

Seems that someone has given out the KKK talking points.

We sure are driving some people batty :-)

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