Note to lurking Freepers (the ugly truth about FreeRepublic pledge drives)

[Evil_Dewers]

Jim Robinson is taking you folks for a huge ride. Even though he's using the ancient perl/CGI format, there's no way in hell it costs $260,000 a year to run FreeRepublic unless RimJob is paying himself and his family at least $225,000 a year.

https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/budget

Monthly Expenses
Bandwidth $2,700
Technical Services 4,000
Administrative 7,500
Legal Expenses 3,000
Estimated Bank Fees, Insurance, Office Expenses, Maintenance and Repairs, Supplies, Travel, misc. 2,200

$2700 a month for bandwidth? What, he has his own dedicated T1/T3 lines? LOL! $48,000 a year for "Technical Services?" You could hire three Indian programmers and a few $1000 a night call girls for that. $90,000 a year for administrative. That's JimRob's salary (not including the amounts he skims from the other expense accounts). Legal expenses of $36,000 a year?!? C'mon. The Washington Post was awarded no money after their successful suit against FreeRepublic. Just cease violating copyright law and FR would have no legal expenses anyway. Here's my favorite: $26,400 a year for bank fees, insurance, office expenses, maintenance and repairs, supplies, travel and miscellaneous.

Jesus Christ. I'll bet JimRob has a 24k gold plated wheelchair just like Larry Flynt.

Even if you add all that up, it is only $232,800 a year. Read on:

http://www.freerepublic.com/

"Free Republic operates on an approximate $260,000 annual budget which includes all equipment costs, bandwidth fees, consulting and labor costs, license fees, insurance, rents, office expenses, advertising, travel, professional fees, and taxes."

Isn't it nice that you freepers get to pay for RimJob's family vacations and taxes?

Don't believe me? OK, freepers, ask RimJob for the actual financial statements he files with the state of California and the IRS and take it to an auditor. But because FreeRepublic.com is a limited liability corporation, JimRob will chuckle at you and say he doesn't have to release anything to you. Even if you got something from Jim, I guarantee the auditor would laugh you out the door when he/she reviewed the multi-inflated expense accounts.

If you really feel sorry for MD victims, donate to the
Muscular Dystrophy foundation http://www.mdausa.org/ --

Jerry's Kids need 225 grand a heck of a lot more than Jim Robinson does.

Hey, why don't we have a disclaimer like this?

Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and may or may not be the opinion of Free Republic or its operators.

Free Republic does not advocate violence or an overthrow of the government.

[bpilgrim]

1. "ancient perl/CGI format" like wine it only gets better ;-)

i know nothing about the fr drives but lets not drag one of the most used languages not only on the web but also sysadmin in use TODAY, please :hi:

peace

[eileen_d]

7. i'm with you on that

I love Perl! FR, on the other hand... these fundraising numbers are hilarious

[Noordam]

8. Perl is not a good forum software language

One of my Webbie friends just moved off of it. It requires too much resources.

edited to ad language to title.

[bpilgrim]

11. that may be cause it is a LANGUAGE and not 'forum' or any other kind of SW

but i suspect you aren't a programmer so you wouldn't know that ;-)

anyways, tell your friend bout mod_perl, which gives perl all the performance benifits any other scripting language has by being imbedded in the web server.

php is certainly a nice web scripting language that is relatively new and certainly worth knowing as well, as well as shell, expect, etc. ;->

:hi:

peace

[Noordam]

14. 30 years programming and

this is one of my favorite projects http://terra.nasa.gov

[bpilgrim]

22. cool, thanks

http://terra.nasa.gov

sorry, about jumping to conclusions :hi:

peace

[Noordam]

27. Just remember

[bpilgrim]

30. lol

i know a couple of them managers in real life ;->

peace

[bearfartinthewoods]

28. wow......thank you!!!!!!

seriously...you did this? it's been one of my top three check-in sites since i found it. thank you. it's wonderful.

[Ivory_Tower]

31. You worked on Terra?

Cool. Nice site. Maybe you can do something for the websites of missions I've worked.... :) (So you must work at Goddard? I'll bet we know some of the same people there.)

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

33. Total garbage - Perl blows the pants off of php everytime

mod-perl on apache remains the best web system available. The Php kiddies are just starting to catch up :)

[Evil_Dewers]

9. Perl/CGI is most used--because it was the first

and nobody wants to re-invent the wheel. But Perl/CGI is still ancient in the internet world.

[bpilgrim]

12. not to mention paticularly well suited to the task at hand...

processing text files... for the world ;->

my main point is the fact that by simply being old - ancient - in no way should be considered a detrement and not only to perl but also any other language.

in fact many would argue persuasively that it was actually a PLUS :evilgrin:

:hi:

peace

[FarLeftRage]

2. This only shows

that not only is rimbojob a hate-mongering terrorist, he is a also a THIEF stealing blindly and freely from his poor, deluded followers.

[Must_B_Free]

6. That's why he's a perfect Republican

.

[FarLeftRage]

10. LOL!!

You are correct!

[Noordam]

3. it would be interesting to know DU expensives

and how they compare to FR.

[Must_B_Free]

4. There's one born every minute...

I'm suprised he's not reaming those suckers for more than that...

[Don_G]

5. How About A Rush "Orange Juice" Drive?

...or is that for alcoholics?

[Cat Atomic]

13. Modern conservatives admire corporate crooks.

But it is funny how these demagogues so often turn out to be frauds, isn't it? Swaggart, Baker, Limbaugh, Gingrich... even the low-level ones seem to be nothing but lying sacks of shit out to extort a few bucks.

[Catherine Vincent]

15. Why are you posting that junk here?

No one gives a damn about the freerepublic idiots.

[Evil_Dewers]

16. Do you agree

that the world would be a better place if freepers didn't exist?

[w4rma]

19. That is a slippery slope you're standing on with that statement. (n/t)

[Evil_Dewers]

21. Yes it is.

But educating them doesn't seem to work.

[VTMechEngr]

17. But But

If we don't pay him, he might have to put the wheels back and move! Then FR would be down for a few days.

/sarcasm

[Evil_Dewers]

18. LMAO.

But RimJob is actually raking in the big bucks because freepers are some of the dumbest, most gullible mo-fos on the planet. They belive the lies of Bush, his administration and el Rushbo the lying drug addict.

They actually thought drug addict Rush sounded lucid the last 6 years.

From what I've read about OxyContin detox, right now Rush is nauseous, vomiting, has stomach cramps, diarrhea, and has all over excrutiating body pain. He's probably screaming for his mommy.

[frylock]

20. how much goes to the design team..

for the award-winning layout and graffix?!

[Chovexani]

23. $2.00?

Maybe 3?

And I'm bein' generous...

[darknemus]

24. At least 500....

....Iraqi Dinars.

-darknemus

[donotpassgo]

25. They make a pretty penny with a sizeable donation from...

a certain political party's national commitee. I wonder how being labled a hate group has affected their means of income?

[grasswire]

26. his son John...

...is the sysop.

Maybe the legal expenses include the new suit they filed against the City of Fresno because a councilwoman called FR a hate site.

[oasis]

29. Freepers could give a shit, they charge it on their wive's credit card.

She's the breadwinner in most of their households. Ask yourself this question: "Who would hire a semi-concious knuckledragger with a prison record?"

[hexola]

32. I wondered about that too...

Seems like someone capitalizing on their clients ignorance...

They should be able to run that thing for - less than $10000 a year...

and thats being CONSERVATIVE!!!

200,000 ain't buying much today...looks like a DoS...?

[Woodstock]

34. Freepers need someone to look out for them

Who's Looking Out for You? by Bill O'Reilly - imagine if a left book had that title - what an insult. We can look out for ourselves, thank you very much.

Reading the reviews the freepers did of Franken's book (that they didn't read) on Amazon, they kept saying "he's not looking out for you" - very sad.

[Evil_Dewers]

35. RimJob speaks out...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/993189/posts?page=1382#1382

To: All

Just received the following email complaint from an ex-FReeper, now anti-FReeper and LPer:



Subject: Re: Your Password
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 23:01:52 EDT
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]


Why do you lie to freepers? Admit you make a living off
them. I guess God knew to stick shit in a chair, you reap what you sow.
Hope you hate life in that chair, you deserve it.


If there is anyone here who doesn't understand that the bulk of the "Administrative" line item on our budget report (see our secure server donation page) goes to me, well I guess I didn't make it clear enough. So, "I'm coming clean" (as this AFer/LPer calls it). Free Republic consumes all of my time for approximately 12 to 16 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Even take a laptop when I travel so I can log in on the road. I do not take a salary as I am not an emloyee of the company (there are no employees of Free Republic, LLC), but I am the majority owner and I do take a draw from time to time when I need it and if there are funds available. It is budgeted in with all the rests of the costs necessary to keep FR on the air. Thank you all very much!! Jim

1,382 posted on 10/05/2003 8:44 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Conservative by nature... Republican by spirit... Patriot by heart... AND... ANTI-Liberal by GOD!)
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1376 | View Replies >

By his own admission on his website, RimJob pays himself the bulk of $90,000 a year in "administrative" expenses just to surf the internet. This is in addition to the amount he steals from the other over-inflated expense accounts. RimJob is a guilty of felony fraud, grand larceny and mail fraud, since he is scamming people for money across state lines. C'mon freepers, ask for RimJob's financial statements (tax returns) that he files with the great state of California and with the Internal Revenue Service. What a scumbag!

Aren't you freepers pissed that you paid for RimJob's new RV? Idiots. Audit this mo-fo and stop sending him your money. You need to keep all your "hard-earned" money in this lousy Bush economy.

[Catherine Vincent]

41. Kick!.....hahahahahaha!!!!!

:kick:

I don't care about the freepers but I had to laugh on this post!

[bushisanidiot]

36. $260,000 a year to run FreeRepublic ? That's $21,666.66 Per Freeper!!

Damn, they must each have part time jobs just so they can "donate" when the owner does his begging campaign.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[GOPisEvil]

37. Hey! Somebody has to pay for all those porta-potties dammit!

:D

[MrPrax]

38. Sorry...but I am not seeing the controversy

It maybe be eating up the Freepers about their site, but I don't know why it should be a concern what the owner/uberMOD/check-cashing guy is doing with the cash...
It's free, you type, you chat, if you like and are honorable--you might kick the guy a few bucks--so what if he makes a big wad of cash.
If he is lying to the IRS, they can deal with it...if he is suggesting that his expenses are overstated...so be it.

So Freepland WAS successful...
I mean would anybody be all that alarmed, saddened, shocked if the DU folks made a few bucks--no...
I am a socialist, but I wouldn't dump on someone's better mousetrap or their ability to make a buck off the internet...

Ironic the Freeps are in a tizzy over being successful

[samsingh]

39. topsy turvy all over the place

neo-cons like Rush and Freepers want to benefit from liberal compassion.

O'Really publishes a book about 'looking after someone'. r they turning into a twisted form of liberals? just weird.

And we're defending capitalism!

[Evil_Dewers]

43. Berated on unFreeRepublican for only giving a dollar

To: justshe

Thank you, justshe!

And here's another batch of checks received:

$15 from Washington
$10 from New York
$20 from Alabama
$30 from Nevada
$10 from California
$18 from Arizona
$25 from California
$100 from Louisiana
$15 from California
$20 from Georgia
$35 from Illinois
$50 from Washington
$25 from California
$50 from Ohio
$15 from New Jersey
$35 from Massachusetts
$50.37 from California
$1 from Texas
$20 from Idaho
$20 from Washington
$25 from North Dakota
$25 from Arizona
$100 from California
$35 from Tennessee
$50 from Florida
$25 from New Hampshire
$10 from Utah
$25 from Florida

Thank you FReepers and Lurkers!!

Woohoo!! We just blasted through the 40% point!! And, adding in the $20,000 of monthly donations that will come in later, we are actually over 70% !!!


252 posted on 10/10/2003 4:30 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Conservative by nature... Republican by spirit... Patriot by heart... AND... ANTI-Liberal by GOD!)
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 246 | View Replies >



To: Jim Robinson

1 measly buck from Texas? Who? Texas Cowboy? Deport? Me? AlamoGirl? TXnMA?

Expose!


275 posted on 10/10/2003 4:56 PM PDT by txflake
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 252 | View Replies >




To: txflake; MeeknMing

1 measly buck from Texas? Who? Texas Cowboy? Deport? Me? AlamoGirl? TXnMA?

So glad you noticed this too, lol. I'm sure it is a very fine dollar, and all dollars count, but COME ON TEXAS!!!! How many posts did JimRob allow about our feckless Chicken Dems? Scores of them! Wasn't it wonderful to come to FR and rant and rave about the way they scurried off to Oklahoma and NM?

Meek, have you used your Texas ping list for the FReepathon? Okay, now I am shamefacedly clicking my way back to the contribution site because I've put it off all week.


314 posted on 10/10/2003 5:28 PM PDT by McLynnan
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 275 | View Replies >




To: txflake; Jim Robinson

Please .... do not do this!!!

This measly buck came from the mother of a serviceman killed in Iraq. She is unemployed at this time and apologized for this amount. IMHO any amount is appreciated.
Her family has made sacrifices for this country!!


350 posted on 10/10/2003 5:45 PM PDT by JustAmy (Praying for 7 yr old Jacquelyn and her family.)
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 275 | View Replies >

[proud patriot]

44. good grief

jim is making fun of someone who was only able
to give a dollar

[Xithras]

40. RimJob's expenses aren't too far off the mark

Bandwidth $2,700

I did a little digging and found out that he's connected through Verio (do a series of whois's on the domain names). A $2,700 monthly bill sounds about right for a pair of T1's, with the telco and Verio charges included. I don't know whether he really needs that kind of bandwidth, but I've seen FR slow down enough to believe that he probably does.

Legal Expenses 3,000

RimJob gets cease and desists all the time from the lawyers of publishers pissed over the freepers ripping off their articles and reposting them on FR. I'd assume that he has a regular lawyer to handle and respond to these.

Technical Services 4,000

This one would make sense, if not for one other issue. FreeRepublic doesn't use a hosting company, which means Rim probably has his own web server cluster, database servers, DNS servers, switches, and routers to take care of. With that kind of equipment, it's safe to assume that he needs an operations guy to take care of it, and the number looks about right. HOWEVER, according to that thread, FR supposedly has NO employees to justify that expense against, which begs the question: who maintains the hardware? Someone isn't being entirely honest here (yeah, big suprise, I know).

Administrative 7,500

Pretty much everyone at FR knows that Jim takes a paycheck from the donations, and I've seen several references to some other partner/co-owner who also develops software for him and probably gets some kind of compensation in return. The $7,500 a month number, I'd assume, reflects both of those.

Estimated Bank Fees, Insurance, Office Expenses, Maintenance and Repairs, Supplies, Travel, misc. 2,200

You can't run a T1 into a house in most areas, so FR probably has a little hole in the wall office somewhere. Insurance is a natural requirement for any business with an office, so those two probably absorb most of that $2,200.


Oh, and something tells me that Freeper's probably WOULDN'T be giving their money to Jerry's Kids is FR magically vanished one day. They'd probably give it to the NRA, to the RNC, or to some radical anti-abortion groups. Personally, I'd rather have that money going to some wheelchair bound fascist in Fresno, than going to some of the Republicans other pet "charities".

[Evil_Dewers]

42. BULLSHIT!

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=24799&Disp=All&

210. To: ANV (#206)
Welcome to LP. You don't have to worry about posting your opinion and getting banned for it here. Stick around, you'll like it alot better here and you don't even have to fund JR's new RV.

asneditor posted on 2003-10-10 21:48:46 ET Reply Trace





224. To: TLBSHOW (#0)
Considering that I was booted off of FR for daring to question how a site could cost nearly a quarter million dollars a year, I personally wouldn't mind watching the currend "donation" drive lasting until January, only to be fired up again for the next quarter. Make 'em look like the electronic forum equivalent of Amway.

Free Republic? More like RINO Republic.

-Jay

Jay D Dyson posted on 2003-10-10 22:17:45 ET Reply Trace



259. To: _Jim (#156)

We are up to 43% at FreeRepublic now!
Let's see, now. 43% of $80,000 is about $34,000. That is more than enough for the annual budget on this site. Why is Jim Robinson wasting donors' money?

I mean, a full OC-3 is about $4,000 a month, or $12,000 a quarter. An OC-3 is 45 MBps, while FR only uses 10 MBps. So, a fractional OC-3 using 10 MBps is about $1,500 a month, or $4,500 a quarter.

Where is the other $75,000 a quarter going Jim? FR isn't updated very often, the hardware sucks, the site is usually slow and down often enough, the site runs FREE Linux and Open Source software, so who is getting that other $70,000+ a quarter?


PatrioticAmerican posted on 2003-10-10 23:00:56 ET Reply Trace


264. To: PatrioticAmerican (#259)

I mean, a full OC-3 is about $4,000 a month, or $12,000 a quarter. An OC-3 is 45 MBps, while FR only uses 10 MBps. So, a fractional OC-3 using 10 MBps is about $1,500 a month, or $4,500 a quarter.
Freepers - THINK!!! Where does the money go?!

Jim Rob is like a modern day Jimmy Swaggart

Frosty posted on 2003-10-10 23:04:58 ET Reply Trace


266. To: Frosty (#264)
Damn you get the right provider you can get T1 for $500 a month.

No Thanks Jim posted on 2003-10-10 23:06:34 ET Reply Trace

[Xithras]

46. Maybe in the big cities, but not in Fresno

FYI, we recently upgraded from 3 bound T1's at work to a 15Mbit fractional OC3 w/45Mbit burst capabilities. We paid $3,200 a month for the T1's, and are paying nearly $8K a month for the OC3. And yes, I'm here in the San Joaquin valley just a little ways north of RimJob. The further you get from the major urban centers, the more expensive data connectivity gets.

Don't forget that you're also usually dealing with two bills. We write one fat check to SBC to cover the fiber optic line, and another to our service provider for our actual connectivity and partial C block. All to often when people tout numbers like "$500 a month", they're talking about connectivity and forgetting (or ignoring) the line charges.

[corarose]

45. Is he on SSD?

I wonder if JimRob's on SSD while he is making big bucks and I also wonder if the state of CA knows about his large bank roll. Hmmmmm!! I hope he pays taxes on all of his pocket money.

[Rex]

47. Freepers deserve RimJob

I hope RimJob laughs everytime he lights a cigar with a c-bill. His members should be taken to the cleaners...afterall, the voted for his hero George Bush!

[Evil_Dewers]

48. RimJob the Lying Hypocrite

To: Freedom Wins

So, it doesn't matter if he snorted coke as a youth? It was a long time ago, a youthful in-discretion? Kinda like people who frequented sneakeasies during prohibition? Kind of a cute story, eh? Well, how about all the people whose lives have been destroyed by being arrested for the felony of drug possession? What about the millions of people who are rotting away in your filthy drug infested prisons at this very moment?

Well, by God, if you people insist on electing another cokehead as President, you damned well better throw open all the prison cell doors and free every man, woman, and child you're holding on drug charges. And if you're gonna elect another drug felon as President, you'd better rescind each and every one of your unconstitutional drug laws now on the books, including all of your unconstitutional search and seizure laws, and your asset forfeiture laws, and your laws that enable your unconstitutional snooping into our bank accounts and cash transactions. Well, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. You people are sick! Conservatives my ass. You people are nothing but a bunch of non-thinking hypocrits! You're a shame and a disgrace to the Republic!

And, I, for one, am tired of taking orders from cokeheads and felons! Elect another one and I'll tell you what. I'll be ready for war! It'll be time to take up arms and run the filthy lying bastards out!

2 Posted on 08/20/1999 03:19:31 PDT by Jim Robinson






I wonder how RimJob feels about Limbaugh's drug problem.