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I had hoped to post a similar article yesterday, but events did not make it possible.

The original article I posted used the number of unique hits FR gets and compared it to the number of donors. Each unique hit is a separate person and each donor is a separate person. It turned out that only 5% of those who use Free Republic are donors.

My sense now is that there is a threshold of use that should signal to a person that they really are being negligent in support of a site that provides them the only opportunity of its kind: that of posting on a conservative forum, without annoying advertising, without annoying liberal moderators/posters/attack dogs, and without the necessity to hunt and peck to eventually find something you posted and perhaps if someone replied.

In my opinion — and this is regardless of a person’s resources for the most part — anyone who posts 3 threads or more in a quarter, and/or anyone who posts 30 posts or more in a quarter, and/or anyone who reads 90 posts or more in a quarter, then that person has an interest in Free Republic, and that demonstrated interest equates to an obligation to help pay. (I would, in fact, tell anyone with a handle, except in the first month of their membership, that they have an obligation to participate.)

Why do I say that those using the resources of FR above the levels I’ve mentioned have an obligation to help pay regardless of resources? Because their USING the site at that level says that they DO HAVE the resources to pay for computer, internet, and phone/satellite/broadband. They also have the time to sit down and burn WHILE discussing the issues of the day on Free Republic.

It’s a very rare person indeed who has those resources and has absolutely nothing left over, not even $5.

I’m beside myself with frustration at “conservative FreepLoaders.” I honestly believe that if we could have a face-to-face that they would own up to their obligation.

And for those with complaints about this, that, and the other. Their favorite idea has been resisted, their writings have been censored, their posts have been deleted — please rethink your objection in light of FR’s legal responsibilities and FR’s financial needs given that it takes in absolutely ZERO advertising.

FWIW, I’ve tried the last few months — and I don’t have a slow connection — to get on The Blaze, Breitbart, and others. Their ads have been so many, so intrusive, and so overwhelming that my relatively new computer, and relatively fast internet simply cannot get access with near the amount of time that keeps me interested. It has been SO BAD that I’ve simply left those sites and ignored those articles that I had wanted to read.

That is NOT the Free Republic experience. It is fast, smooth, and easily navigated. Why? Because donors fund it and not corporations.

My hat is off to Jim Robinson. This site is the mainstay of conservatism on the web. All those others are marginal, feeding off of true conservative discussion that takes place here and no place else with near the ease and clarity.

My sense now is that there is a threshold of use that should signal to a person....

Ah, yes. The signal. For me, it came maybe six months after I signed on and I became aware that certain expenses needed to be met. It is simply the way I live my life - I prefer to pay for what I consume. I believe what I was taught about no free lunch. Now, there are "in kind" payments. If my neighbor brings me a pie, I could repay with a loaf of fresh baked bread.

Perhaps some consider their comments here as such.

My electric company probably isn't open to my bread as payment. And it's really GOOD bread.

At one time, I was credited with coining "FReeploader." Maybe we can get that into the next set of Oxford Dictionary new words.

I have a very fast internet connection, and a fairly fast computer. I have found the same slowness and obtrusive ads on the other sites. I’m getting to the point, I don’t really want to go to the other sites when they are linked.

“FWIW, I’ve tried the last few months — and I don’t have a slow connection — to get on The Blaze, Breitbart, and others. Their ads have been so many, so intrusive, and so overwhelming that my relatively new computer, and relatively fast internet simply cannot get access with near the amount of time that keeps me interested. It has been SO BAD that I’ve simply left those sites and ignored those articles that I had wanted to read.

That is NOT the Free Republic experience. It is fast, smooth, and easily navigated. Why? Because donors fund it and not corporations.”