Posted on 12/09/2007 8:09:34 AM PST by ODDITHER
Every year or two I like to ask the question to other Freepers. When did you register with Free Republic? What brought you here? What keeps bringing you back?
I was feeling guilty for voting for Ross Perot. My motives were correct but it had unintended consequences. Where is Ross the great American today -under an engine or with his head in the sand?
Free Republic is my home page. Where else could you read articles that affect the liberty and lives of conservatives (that have just been published) from around the world?
Where else would you get great debates, that make you really think through your position. Study the issue and see other sides?
You have heard of the stink test - well hear we have the freeper test. They won't let you get by with anything.
Gone are the days where the site was so slow that people would scream when an image was posted. Gone are the times when it would be down for days at a time. Gone also are some of the really obnoxious posters who would correct every mis-spelled and would fight with each other over anything and everything.
At times Jim was more of a boxing referee.
Any of you remember Quidim? Wish I knew who he really was. Miss his criptic weird messages - especially about GO.
I like barking! -Wb
Very similar FR background including the Perot part.
Not the same incarnation, of course.
Yeah, I remember Quidim or whatever it was. It wasn’t Quidam? I don’t recall. He/she used to tangle with me quite fiercely as I recall.
There were some good free-for-all times back then—usually followed by liberal time outs and bannings.
Gads and lots of fierce opinions about what was trolling behavior—whether it was, or not.
The ability to post based on the Title only...never the article.
Signed up originally in early 2000, but I was an “undocumented lurker” a year or so before then.
Hopefully, Freepers are good people.
September 1, 2000
What brought you here?
Recommendation from my father.
What keeps bringing you back?
Masochism, apparently.
Oh, and I found FR researching the teamsters/Don Adams case and stayed.
Well, then, I'd like to buy him a beer.
I found Free Republic during the era of the “fake but accurate” Texas Air National Guard phony memos.
And if you knew my father, that is the best gift of all. LOL
Started lurking in 1998, but it was the 2000 election that drove me to sign up. I thought I’d go nuts if I didn’t have folks to vent to about that.
We’ve had our good times (go Buckhead!), our nutty times (remember All Your Base?), and our somber times. (this place kept a lot of us going during 9/11)
The only times I’ve thought about leaving are during flame wars like the Schiavo thing - it was tough watching good folks savage each other.
Friends keep me coming back.
Forgot about the trolling - and all the people that would get upset and post the “This is my last post” and then about a month later you see them with a different name.
I guess the giant sucking sound woke you up.
Before that I was a usenet poster against Team Clinton and the weasels.
I despised the man, Clinton and his wife, for their use of the highest office and greatest power in history to viciously persecute vulnerable women. It was the persecution of Paula Jones that got me active in the cause and it was on account of the Waco massacre that I had become sensitized.
At first it was great just to find thousands of mostly like-minded, conservative people and a place to vent.
Now I depend on FR as my premier, realtime news source, as it seems that what is happening anywhere in the world is posted and discussed here long before the MSM.
I can’t remember exactly but it will come with this post.
I joined about the same time.
I remember all the flameouts - tuned out the obnoxious.
I remember not even opening a thread with pix. OFST was especially frustrating ‘til I finally got DSL.
Arch
1. Free thinking.
2. Bourbon.
3. Cigar smoke.
4. An attraction to other handsome people.
5. Self Sufficiency.
Addiction, that’s what makes a FReeper...:)
I joined FR on July 15, 2006, but I’d been lurking since early 2004. I liked reading it because of the hilarious threads/posters, and the insightful things the posters had to say. On election night 2004, my mom got up from the computer and said “I present you....Free Republic!” So I went on and surfed around for awhile, and came across a thread called “57 Reasons Why Kerry Can’t Win.” I still remember some of the reasons—”the mustard jacket,” “Zhen-jis Khan”...and then someone posted “Only 57?” LOL.
I joined a few years later because I’m a political junkie and love political humor, and detest liberals, in which case FR is the place to be. My first post was on some thread with pictures of the G8 Summit....it was “Putin sure has an ugly car! LOL.”
Swiftboat Vets got me here.
Folks like Tonk
I never have figured out how that darned turtle got on the fence post. :=) I miss Ash. (And Don Morgan's "Ash alerts".)
William Jefferson Clinton !
Ahh. The opus.
I joined right after the 2004 election. Y’see, I’m stuck in the heart of liberal land California, and a wave of hate came down on me that was unbelievable. Friends I’d known for years in spite of our differences were insulting me and cutting me out of their lives. And I was all “Fine, I’m not gonna mope. These people are clearly not rational anyway. I’m going to find new friends.” So I did.
I had always stopped in from time to time on FR, and was mightily impressed by how you guys singlehandedly demolished Dan Rather[tm]’s lies, but this is the first time I really came in from the cold. And then I kicked myself for not having joined earlier! You guys are the best! :-) You really keep me sane in the capital of liberal thought.
You all highlight what the MSM— and even Rush too (remember when he “carried water”?)— misses. It’s my go-to site for news and issues. I can debate with people with actual brains. It is now keeping me sane in the face of a trying and troubling time: for the U.S. with the wolf at our door, and for the GOP, where RINOs abound. Thanks everybody, from the bottom of my heart.
FR is the best news source on the planet, and it allows social interaction which brings a wide cross section of people to discuss and dissect the news.
There is always someone who is close to the actual topic who can shed light on it and widen the discussion.
Smart ass comments are fun too.
It beats the old days when I threw bricks at the TV
"God didn't make FReepers. I made them."
What keeps me coming back is all the good people here posting all the news I need to read! And after I read the news, I can hang around and discuss it with a few thousand folks around "the water cooler", so to speak. :)
2000,bill clinton,FR is a vast pool of knowledge,an ocean of information,with great people.
Thanks Jim
I signed up for the Helen Thomas pictures.
/ smartass
Wasn't it "Ash" and a bunch of other names with the same sound? When he'd get banned, he'd make up a new name and come back. Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...
Well, not really...
...well[, here] we have the freeper test...
JUST KIDDING!!!!!!
You left out:
Gone are the days in which we had to close our HTML codes or the next 20 posters would be screaming in 7-font, red.
Did I pass???
I found FR after 9/11.
After lurking for about six months, I signed up in March 2002. After almost six years, it remains my number one site for breaking news and political and religious commentary. And IMO it’s the best-designed, most user friendly forum out there.
(i)Italians off!(/i)
I forgot that part. Caps off etc. We really had to know quite alot of HTML. I have lost most of it now.
It's a good news portal, and the ongoing conservative/libertarian catfight is entertaining.
>>The ability to post based on the Title only...never the article.
I remember that as someone’s tagline. Something along the lines of “Proudly posting without reading the article since 1998.”
Ahh...9/11. I was at work that morning. The boss did roll a TV into the break room, but for those of us more cubicle bound, I would keep everyone updated via the Free Republic thread because there were some eye witness accounts. Several people had me print out the thread for them so they'd have a detailed history of the events unfolding.
Started with FR, but before it was FR. Back then it was the Prodigy Whitewater bulletin boards. Lots of good people had lots of valuable information about scandals and personalities surrounding the Clintons. People like Jim Rob were there. Sam Adams, and too many to remember. By 1995 or 96, Jim get us more bandwidth and called it Free Republic. I guess I became a registered member by 97. Have since had people from all over the world lurk or join.
I’ve learned more about computers here at our “FReepin’ home” than anywhere else.
LOL, so did I. Someone would forget to close the tag and the rest of the entire thread would be in italics and everyone would be screaming at them.
Ann Coulter photos!/?
The Freepathons. Read tagline
Shouted by MANY other FRiends!
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