When will the GOP bail out the FReepers?

[Rageneau]

The Freepers are having another of their operating fund-raising drives, and this one is proceeding exactly like all the others -- money dribbles in until one day, late in the drive, when a sudden influx of cash sends them soaring past their fund-raising goal.

I've seen this happen a dozen times.

Right now, after nearly three weeks of fund-raising, the Freeptards have only raised 34% of their goal. But one day very soon, a great infusion of money will come in and they will announce that, overnight, they have again achieved 100% of their fund-raising goal.

IMHO, this suggests that Free Republic is being supported MORE by the Republican Party than by its own posters. IOW, the Republican powers-that-be watch these biannual Freeper fund-raising efforts and -- at the last moment -- donate enough cash to make sure that RimJob can keep making poison for another six months.

I might be wrong and I can't prove anything, but I know this ... it would be just like them.

[Aviation Pro]

1. They have something called monthlies....

...basically a monthly subscription that the noted members of Jim Robinson's FreeRepublic sign up for. This is what pushes them over their goal and leads me to believe that dear, old Jim is raking a lot more off of his flock than is lead to believe. Of course nearly all of them are stupid fucks who don't know this.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I've been over there, and it is a true Hitler's Bunker of the last

hard-core believers, convincing each other of their own warped world-view. I agree that ol'RimJob is raking it in from sources other than members. The posters over there are getting more and more delusional, blaming Democrats for Iraqi suicide bombings and clinging desperately to various GOPer candidates as their daddy-saviors. Pa-Thetic!

[Double T]

3. I think you are correct, sounds like someone is bailing them out.

Also shows that interest in the 'free'rethuglic site is in decline.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Here's what I don't get....

<http://home.compete.com.edgesuite.net/freerepublic.com+dailykos.com+democraticunderground.com_uv.png>


http://snapshot.compete.com/freerepublic.com+dailykos.com+democraticunderground.com+

How does FR average 3-4X the daily traffic of dKos and DU combined? I've checked out their front page and see very low numbers of page views for their top stories....it's nowhere near as active as DU or dKos, yet this would indicate that they are doing huge traffic numbers. Are they autoscripting site hits?

[dsweet]

5. Quote from compete.com

Based on the daily web usage of more than two million members (and growing!) of the Compete community, Compete calculates and estimates total traffic and rank for nearly every site on the web. We use rigorous statistics to make sure our estimates balance demographic and connection factors that match the entire U.S. Internet population. Currently, we're calculating the number of people in the U.S. that visit any given Web site each month (international usage calculations are in development).


Compete has volunteer users, like Nielson Families, that allow Compete to estimate traffic base on their peoples surfing habits. It might be that FR is gaming that system to their advantage. On the other side of the coin, maybe DU'ers are not so keen to sign up with Compete.

[Double T]

6. They are doing what they do best, LYING about their daily traffic.