Do you remember Freepin in 1998?

self | self

[LarryLied]

I registered way back. Freep number 4,000 and something. Came on the net a few months earlier and I was getting a lot of email quoting Free Republic. I thought this forum a crank site and never bothered to click into it. When I finally did, I registered that day and posted within minutes. First thing I saw was the old timers saying how Free Republic had gone downhill because of newbies such as I. Post after post said how they had given up on this forum and would never be back.

I'm still here but I wonder where they are.

[Billie]

Then I Could Be "Old School"

Neener, neener - check my profile date. :^)

[Scuttlebutt]

"Cruel, but true"

'Tweren't meant to be cruel. She now makes a good living on a payday night without singing her bawdy tunes and still manages to get a few kickbacks from the bartender. Where else could a refugee from the ACLU get decent wages?

[cmsgop]

You Are FR# 3218.

So you are kinda like the RUN-DMC of posters.

[Ditto]

Socks C. is up in Klamath takin' care of the sucker fish problem.

Wow. From Albicore to Suckers! Poor Socks sure has hit the skids since he left the WH.

[BibChr]

Who was it that used to post the Ash Alerts

"ASH ALERT" QUESTION ALERT!!!

DonMorgan, wasn't it?

Dan

[cmsgop]

WOW 96!!!!!

[BFO]

Wow, thanks for the heads up on Wallaby. Confirms my dereliction to duty here at FR. I've just had too much other stuff going on.

Wallaby has such a fast trigger finger on pulling up information relevant to whatever the current discussion might be. I've always been an admirer.

[Billie]

:^):^):^):^):^):^):^)

[Sungirl]

...but I wrote an email to Drudge and asked him to change the link from WhiteWater...to Free Republic.

Remember when we had our own WhiteWater link?

That's the link I am referring too. He just chnaged the name from WhiteWater to FreeRepublic. I remember being aggravated because I was telling people to find the link for FR on Drudge and the title was misleading. So I wrote the email.

[cyberaxe]

.....yep.....

.....and getting flamed for my P-dude.....

.....and my squirl.....

.....etc!!! q:?.....

[BFO]

OK, ya got me by a week, old timer.

[Billie]

MORE :^):^):^):^):^):^):^)'S

[MasonGal]

Ah - yes - I remember those good old days. I *think* I first began lurking on FR in March of '98. Was too scared to post anything until June of that year. (Silly me)

I attended the March for Justice in 10/98 in DC, the House Mgrs. Tribute in 5/99, and then the Inauguration Ball this year.

I do miss those old days of FR a lot.

Unfortunately, things just aren't what they used to be.

[Billie]

Whatever happened to Freeper Island?

It's still there - everyone's getting grey hair now though. :^)

FREEPER ISLAND

[cksharks]

I have a post that was posted by you from PharmerPhil on html. Here are a couple of names from that post-Keith,Bob Ireland,Ironword,kdonelan,T'wit,JCG,Catherine,tjblair,thinden,and cd jones. I found Freerepublic I think around around March 97.

[SamAdams76]

I've been around since the very beginning (I changed my screenname from Ken Cook to SamAdams76 in late 1997 because using your real name just isn't much fun) and in fact came over from the Prodigy News BB with Jim Robinson and many of the other "original" members, many of which have either left or have changed their screennames.

Unlike some on this thread, I don't look back on those times as the "good old days." I think Free Republic is far better now than it was back then and much more of a force in the media. Anybody who is anybody in the national media surfs here and virtually every talk show host uses the threads here to get material for their shows. In fact, just today, Jay Severin (Boston) mentioned the thread on Hillary Clinton's car plowing through the security barricades and injuring a police officer. This would never have gotten mentioned in the Boston media if not for Free Republic!

I would say the lurkers outnumber the active posters by a ratio of at least 100 to 1. Free Republic is becoming a clearinghouse for the news and issues of the day! Furthermore, it is a barometer of our times. If you want to get a feel for the public pulse on a particular issue, you come to Free Republic where intelligent Americans will be discussing it.

While I had a lot of fun in the "old days", back then Free Republic was more of a clique. That is what led to the internal flame wars that ultimately resulted not only in the hateful "anti-Freeper" sites but in the split that led to Lucianne.com. Which is a good thing in my opinion. The people who left in a huff for Lucianne.com have mostly come to realize just what a treasure Free Republic is.

The key to long-term success here at Free Republic (as an active participant) is to avoid flame wars, keep a thick skin and a good sense of humor. Don't take what others have to say personally.

Back in 1998, I pretty much knew every regular Freeper. These days, it is impossible to keep track of you all. And that bodes well for the future of this republic. We number in the tens of thousands today. Tomorrow it will be the hundreds of thousands and eventually millions. I look forward to seeing what the future will bring.

[Kevin Curry]

Then you have a wave of Self-righteous religious Freepers (that is one thing I have learned, freepers should never discuss religion. We are a pretty like-minded bunch until a religion thread starts up.)

Well, you pretty much puked up your personal biases all over the table with that comment, didn't you?

Self-righteousness knows no religion. The most insufferably self-righteous people at FR tend to be those who despise religion and who try to shut it down as a topic of discussion. By far, the most insufferably "morally superior" posters at FR are athiests (followed closely by their socially laissez-faire cousins, liberals).

There absolutely nothing wrong with posters expressing their religious beliefs, or taking a stand on issues according to those beliefs. Other posters take stands just as vigorous in accordance with their religion-repudiating beliefs. One is no more worthy of expression than the other.

As long as one's religious beliefs are not being used as a cloak to hide physical assault on others, religion in a free socieity is just as legitimate as athieism as a force for engendering discussion and debate.

There is a good reason why many posters at FR resist "group think" when the topic turns to religion. For these people, religion is their core ordering and defining force, one that finds full and unwavering sanction in the First Amendment. It is good--very good--for Judeo-Christians to take firm, vocal, and unwavering positions based on their religious beliefs.

[VRWCmember]

I first learned about FR when a pastor friend in Arkansas forwarded the URL for a thread about a bunch of Europeans disapproving of the investigations of clinton. Reading their inane comments (and some of those of clinton-loving FR posters) prompted me to register and post. At the time I didn't know anything about HTML so all of my responses were unformatted for the first few days. FR has come a long way since then (and so have my HTML skills).

BTW, I almost always enjoy your posts.

[Rocko]

Quidam. He was like a fortune cookie.