Posted on 08/26/2011 9:35:57 AM PDT by marktwain
I hear what you're saying, but there's something to be said for the minimalist approach of FR. Very clean, simple and uncluttered. (Although maybe adding ratings for posters, that would be nice. There are some people that are far more worthy of reading than others, and it would be nice to see some kind of metric rather than just guessing by sign up date.)
Personally, having been here since almost the beginning, I think JimRob, his son, and the rest of the crew do a damn good job, and the rest of us should shut up until and unless they ask our opinions. It’s not like FR is down all that often.
And yes—if you’re not contributing your money to help out with the expense it takes to keep FR up and running, then I think you should do so in whatever amount you can spare.
There is still NO free lunch (unless you are on welfare) and even at that, somebody is paying for all those “free” lunches.
Rant over....
I’d suggest that the site be monitized in some sensible ways besides the way the site is funded tosday.
This is the true test of conservatism being alive. If we won’t pay for it and expect it to be free, then the movement is NOTHING.
Yes, there are two tables, one near the top and one near the bottom.
Also, the HR tag is unnecessary, as is including CSS within the HEAD tag.
That all adds up to extra client-facing code, which increases bandwidth and overburdens the servers and costs more money.
I’ve been doing frontend web work since 1993. FWIW.
I donate monthly, I think.
I LOVE the design. Simple, intelligent and functional. And it doesn’t look like every other message board out there.
Now you’ve done it - you criticized FR’s website: better head for cover. I’ve tried suggesting a few changes here and there, but nope, why improve what is broken, right? Maybe if we could see actual improvements to the site, people would be more willing to donate when they see their money is being used well.
has anyone suggested a mobile app?
Will the mobile app still list "Anthrax Scare" as a Hot Topic?
I understand that. I am a monthly donor. Sometimes people will donote for a specific purpose where they will not for what they perceive as "mere" upkeep.
Nah... Let’s bring back the good ol’ days when each thread was one, giant page and a single unclosed tag could make the whole thing big, blinking italics!
New equipment and mirror sites would be very expensive. We should all buy a lotto ticket and pledge 10% of our winnings to FR!
//sarcasm
Here is the answer to your question from Jim Robinson.
To: paulycy; All
Thank you all very much, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the system other than the fact that it runs on computers and that we run on a shoestring budget with no employees. It’s just me and John, Amy and Chris. I’ve been involved with computers since 1972 starting with the Univac and the IBM/360 and Digital’s PDP and VAX generations. Amy got started a few years earlier. John started programming when he was 14 and was a commercial programmer by 16. He was our C+ guru when we were in the software business. He introduced us to the Internet in the early 90’s before the browser had even been developed. I’ve been a programmer/analyst from the 70’s and also in programming/project management and data processing management and also owned my own software company.
The one biggest thing we’ve learned in all these years is that computer systems have a tendency to crash. And when the inevitable happens, we don’t panic. We troubleshoot, find the problems, fix them and go on. Been doing it for nearly forty years. There is nothing wrong with FR. It’s perfectly normal for systems to fail occasionally.
Now there are ways to make a system more bullet proof and to build-in back ups and redundancy, etc, so there is almost zero downtime for users, but these are usually reserved for critical operations. And that’s because they cost money. Lots of it.
For example we only have one tech, one programmer, one hardware guy, one security guy, one operating system guru, one perl guru, one mysql guru, one all around computer guy and John is it. He’s also our chief procurement officer and liaison with all vendors and suppliers and in his spare time he fills in as our research and development department. Dear old dad with 40 years experience in programming and managing legacy computer systems tries to join in and help but usually just gets in the way. John is a one man shop, he’s on call, on duty 24/7/365 with no vacations or holidays unless he carries a cell phone and lap top and he likes it that way.
We could hire three or four guys to do what John does and we still couldn’t cover it 24/7/365 and provide uninterruptible service. We’d still suffer downtime.
We could also build redundant systems. But that just doubles the cost, doubles the maintenance and doubles or triples the capital requirements and ongoing expense. And unless they were located in different parts of the country on different providers, the redundant systems would not guarantee 100% uptime. Guess what? Even multi-million dollar fail-safe systems fail occasionally. Computers crash! It’s a fact of life and we deal with it every day.
FR was started on zero capital. It was a hobby that has grown terribly out of control. It was a one man shop when I set it up. Amy came in later to help me administer it, then John took over the programming a couple years later and redesigned and rewrote it all at least three times since. He built the servers it runs on. Now it may be that if we had the money we could order all new equipment and redesign and rewrite the software again with an eye for making it all bullet proof, but that would require lots of money and probably hiring some additional talent and it would require time. But we have no money and no access to money. And we are reluctant to take on any additional debt.
Now we could go commercial. We could sell ads. We could sell subscriptions or memberships, We could sell t-shirts and hats. But the moment we do, we invite scrutiny and copyright lawsuits. Before going commercial we would have to scrub our archives of any possible copyright violations. And we’d have to tighten up our current operations to make sure no one posts anything that could get us into trouble with any publisher of stories, photos, images, etc. And with sharks like Righthaven swimming around, there will always be room for trouble. And going commercial still wouldn’t guarantee enough income to build and maintain a paid staff, bullet proof software, redundant systems, etc.
I’m an old dog and I like to keep it simple. We have a nice little system here. We are comfortable with the hardware and our software and our providers and it works fairly well. Actually, very well. We have some occasional problems and have been down a few times but as I said, there are no guarantees that if we had double or triple the size of our hardware or our staff that we still would not suffer some downtime occasionally. It happens.
And we’re perfectly comfortable with donor funding at a shoestring level. I’d hate to complicate the thing by going commercial. We are grassroots and it makes sense to me to keep it all grassroots and uncomplicated if we possibly can.
I see no reason whatsoever to panic about our systems our staffing or our funding.
And I really wish to thank all of YOU who make it possible. Your donations provide the capital we need to keep it all going and your continued participation on our forums makes FR the premier God and Country CONSERVATIVE site on the Internet!!
Thank God for the FReepers!! God bless you all.
588 posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 11:37:01 AM by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is brewing!! Nuke the corrupt commie bastards to HELL!!)
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ah, those were the days.
Hey MT are you running a class this weekend? If so do you have two extra seats?
Mad
Too late. Way too many bans.
great post!
:)
Too many bans?
That means too many disruptors and trolls.
That means FR must be very effective.
Sorry, I am not. I figure the next one will be in October, after it has cooled a bit. Now that we have Constitutional Carry in Arizona (one of my prime goals when I started Isher Enterprises) I don't feel quite the drive to do as many classes, especially when the weather is a bit uncomfortable.
Lots of true conservatives too.
What is your definition of a “true conservative”?
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