Posted on 01/27/2003 7:15:23 PM PST by HighWheeler
Freerepublic.com is Gaining
An analysis was conducted January 27, 2003, of the relative rankings of some of the larger political sites on the World Wide Web of the Internet.
Alexa services was used to obtain the relative rankings of some of the larger political sites.
Review these graphs taken January 27, 2003 from the Alexa services site. The graphs show the relative rankings of freerepublic.com against salon.com, democraticunderground.com, and bartcop.com, and finally versus rushlimbaugh.com.
Freerepublic.com is a conservative website that boasts over 90,000 registered users, and is funded solely by donations from the users and "lurkers" to the website.
Salon.com is a publicly held company that was once listed on the NASDAQ, but has since been de-listed to the OTC pink sheet. Salon is funded by subscriptions to its website, but a brief view of their historical stock price shows it was almost $15 per share in 1999, but has since steadily dropped, and is now trading at just $.05 a share today. Salon.com is also bleeding money profusely, and as the graph below shows it is also losing its ranking on the Internet.
Freerepublic’s ranking January 27, 2003 was 1251, meaning that only 1250 sites on the entire Internet had more hits than freerepublic.com today. However, Freerepublic’s ranking has grown by 363 in a very short time, in only the last 3 months. Salon.com, however, has dropped ranking during the same period, and today their ranking stands at 1619 with a 3 month average ranking of 751. Freerepublic.com has a 3 month average ranking of 1803.
The decline of Salon.com is very evident here, but it only tells part of the story. Salon.com is bleeding cash at a high rate, and Salon is suffering declining revenue.
Freerepublic.com vs. Democratunderground.com - a democrat centered, user supported site that also allows their users to post in a forum type format. A review of DU shows a very open forum, allowing (and perhaps encouraging) incredibly vulgar language. The users of Freerepublic.com are held to strict limits on vulgar language, and freerepublic’s posters generally have a sharp sense of humor and fun.
Freerepublic.com vs. Bartcop.com. Bartcop is another forum type site, that allows a high level of vulgar language and rather coarse discussions. The sharpness, clarity, logic, and humor at freerepublic.com really becomes evident when compared to bartcop or DU.
Freerepublic is not only gaining fast on their competition, they have soared lately compared to Rushlimaugh.com. Rush Limbaugh changed format in December to a mostly subscription site, and the number have hits to that site has dropped.
-------------------------------------------
Long held assumptions about political Internet sites seem to bolster the recent November, 2002 Republican victories in the House and Senate, and the popularity and high approval ratings of President Bush. It seems that those victories, and the Internet rankings, are showing that there seems to be a definite American shift to the right on the political spectrum. All these liberal interactive and subscription sites have been losing ranking, and losing at a definitive rate. But the simultaneous growth of freerepublic shows that it's not that political websites are losing ranking, but it's definitely the left leaning political sites that are suffering the heaviest losses of interest among web surfers. Perhaps the future may show a shift back to the left, but for now the conservatives are enjoying a powerful resurgence, and it looks to be getting stronger by the day. George Bush looks like he may be enjoying a long, strong ride for the next two years as long as this trend continues.
I've tried that (And I've also tried lodging this "Complaint" too)...
Free Republic is next to impossible to navigate for a newbie. (I've been here for 3 years and I still can't get it right). People I send links to don't like it. (LOVE the content but not the format).
Every person I've sent to Free Republic has told me that they can't figure the place out. Granted, these people don't tend to be Political Junkies like most Freepers BUT these people have spent a long time on message boards and have a very good understanding of them.
Personally, I lurked here for over a year before signing-up simply because I couldn't figure the place out. And once I got registered, I couldn't figure-out all this HTML stuff for months (I've never been to a message board where you had to use those <'s to make a new paragraph.) And I still can't post pictures and color type and all that cool stuff.
Anyway...I'm a cumputer idiot but I'm an experienced computer idiot. I've never seen a message board I couldn't navigate easily other than Free Republic. But maybe this is on purpose...You REALLY have to WANT to be here.
Bottom line...I guarentee you that we miss out on a number of contributors because of this. What percentage? I don't know but I would GUESS it's well over half.
Just my take...
This is the definition of "open"? Being able to use vulgar language at will?
DU is considered open when they will not tolerate dissenting opinions but will allow and encourage base language that offends mixed company.
As Homer Simpson would say...
I guess you're addicted to Freepahol?
;-)
Well, I love the format and I would not change Free Republic the way it is. It is an unique site, something that we love dearly. I don't want to change the site just so we can reach the "mainstream" audience.
We're a niche. Let's keep it that way.
Your are living the ultimate FR nightmare. Bless you.
Here is a couple of links to help you learn basic html and how to post images and such. If I can learn it, anybody can.
jriemer
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.