Well, since you asked...
I’ve been here almost every day for more than a decade. I read far more than I post. FR is far and away the most important web site for me. Nothing else comes close.
Having said that, I would like to see FR financed with ads. I have donated in the past but have no plans to do so in the future. I just don’t like the NPR style of raising funds. Capitalism is good.
Another thing. It seems to me that there are far more overtly religious postings than there used to be. I am not anti-religious, in fact as a former Christian, I still have an affinity with Christianity, especially as it relates to culture and politics. However, I find myself irritated by the growing number of overt religious threads, that, it seems to me, do little more than use up bandwidth.
Having said all that, I fully recognize that this is Jim’s forum and he can run it as he chooses.
financial independence allows philosophical independence
JMHO....but I think I’m right.
Lots of small donations lessens the impact the withdrawal of any one donor might have.
Huge sponsors with ads can threaten withdrawal and to keep the site going they would have to receive concessions.
I don’t think FR is as religious as it used to be. ALL religious threads used to be on the open forum. Surely you remember.
There was a religion forum created to handle religious threads....those that weren’t also related to actual news. (The Catholic Contraception ObamaCare Controversy, for example)