A local friend of ours told us to look up Free Republic in ‘98 or ‘99. He was a lurker back then so we lurked until 2004. My husband printed out the Sore Loserman sign then enlarged it for use at local Freeps (Omaha)during the 2000 election. We got lots of comments and the occasional ‘bird’. Good times, good times.
I learned to post on FR and to this day, I can barely work any other board because they don’t work ‘right’ ;-)
That's 'cause FR has the best discussion software in the known universe. Like you, I've used the others, too, and they just don't measure up. In fact, they're annoying they're so bad.
FR's software makes community possible.
Personally, I'm convinced he could get rich many times over selling it, but he's kept it exclusively for FR.
And we're the beneficiaries.