Does anyone have a handle on why it takes $320,000/year.....

[Aviation Pro]

...to maintain a 1992 Mosaic standard web site like Jim Robinson's FreeRepublic? Are Republicants that fucking stupid with their money in addition to everyone elses?

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. What's it cost DU to operate?

[LynneSin]

2. Probably about the same but at least DU has a functional website

so it's worth the investment

[Aviation Pro]

4. Don' know. Ask Skinner.

.....

[flvegan]

3. Maybe JimRob can apply for Shitty Website Bailout money from Congress.

[Kindigger]

14. A hit the other day

on amazon mechanical turk: submit a link to a really badly designed website. Yes I did.

[Donnachaidh]

5. where did you find that figure?

Just nosey -- doesn't seem like the freeper guy would want that to be common knowledge.

[Aviation Pro]

6. Four fantastic Freepaflock drives per year times $80,000....

....

[DontTreadOnMe]

7. oh c'mon

The logo design cost $100K alone. You must not be familiar with current costs of web development.
They charge by the pixel.

(did you know in America you can cheat on your taxes, and just make up business expenses?)

[Aviation Pro]

10. So why doesn't Jim Robinson outsource his work to India....

...like any good bad Republicant. That way he could lower his costs to maintain its current level of shitiness.

[YOY]

8. That's about 32 million more than it's worth.

n.t.

[SacredCow]

9. It's probably run inefficiently.....

Just like the government they support....

[Aviation Pro]

11. You forgot the other I word - incompetently....

....

[SacredCow]

12. True dat.... n/t

[KharmaTrain]

13. The Lawyer Gets A Nice Chunk...

Knowing it's a freeper, they probably use "Dewey, Cheathum & Howe" Attornies. Plus, have you notice how much it costs now to rent a port-a-potty?

[alfredo]

17. Jeff Gannon is a paid "advisor."

[Xenotime]

15. FR sucks. I'm surprised trolls still go to that site.

[Posteritatis]

16. High-traffic websites add up costs quickly

Hosting/colo, bandwidth (very bandwidth!), the physical servers (often less of a "one-time cost" than you'd think), software for same, support for same (either in terms of updates or of paying someone to do maintenance) most decent-sized forums are going to have at least part of a lawyer on hand, backups, various insurance situations, etc etc etc.

The mere look of a website has nothing to do with its operating costs. Chrome costs next to nothing; keeping a high-traffic site designed to manage five or six digits' worth of users really, really does. All the real costs of most websites that don't have really obvious hi-I'm-a-bandwidth-hog issues - streaming video, lots of high-resolution images, etc - are going to be invisible to the users.

(And, of course, I'd assume at least some of the fundraising drives go to political contributions. DU works the same way, doesn't it?)

[Aviation Pro]

18. True but has anyone analyzed the bandwidth or traffic.....

...going through that essentially text only piece 'o shit?

[Posteritatis]

19. Ask anyone who's dealt with Usenet; even plaintext adds up fast (nt)