my fellow alum Skins slams freerepublic; gears up for fund-raiser

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6327845

Oh my.

It doesn't seem to occur to my fellow alum that freerepublic's fund-raising goals are, uh, somewhat more ambitious than his.

Skinner ADMIN  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-17-09 01:46 PM
Original message
 
On Free Republic, their quarterly fund drives last for two months. 

I'm not kidding. There are only 12 months in a year, and Free Republic spends eight of them asking for money. Their current fund drive started on July 1. It's still going on today -- six and a half weeks later -- and they are 20% below their goal. Can you imagine if DU fund drives lasted for two months out of every three month quarter?

Here on DU, we have never held a fund drive that lasted longer than a week.

Even the one time when we didn't reach our goal, we ended the fund drive after a week. Because people don't come to DU for the fund drives -- you come for the discussion. And the discussions are much more satisfying when you don't have to watch the admins begging for money all the time. I wish we didn't have to hold fund drives at all. But we do.

I know that times are tough right now. If you don't have any money to spare, please do not donate to Democratic Underground. For your sake, I hope that the economy starts to get better soon.

But if you have a few extra bucks, we would really appreciate it if you could donate to DU. It only takes a minute, and you'll feel good about supporting this amazing community of progressives. Plus, if you donate at least $10, you'll get to post a sticky note GrovelBot's Big Board.

And you can take comfort knowing that a week from now, this fund drive will be history.

Thank you to everyone who has donated. And thank you for being part of this community.

David Allen
"Skinner"
DU Administrator

YOY  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-17-09 01:52 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. Bad timing Skinner Old Bean.

Morale is low here...to state the obvious.

I'll see what I can do personally...

Say, doesn't FR get twice the hits we do but only rakes in that much that fast? Cheap bastards...

Mrs. Overall  (1000+ posts)       Mon Aug-17-09 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
27. Really? Twice the hits as DU?

I'm surprised.

Their site is so simplistic and rudimentary (the interface), but perhaps the majority of the hits are just people who check-in to see what the crazies are up to.

The sparkling husband primitive:

Stinky The Clown  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-17-09 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
 
21. I'm betting it is their lack of the Unrec "feature"

I'm kidding, Skinner ..... just kidding.

[djones520]

Here at CC, we have NEVER held a fundraiser.  So if DU is better then FreeRepublic for only doing it one week a quarter, what's that make us?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Mrs. Overall  (1000+ posts)       Mon Aug-17-09 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
27. Really? Twice the hits as DU?

I'm surprised.

Their site is so simplistic and rudimentary (the interface), but perhaps the majority of the hits are just people who check-in to see what the crazies are up to.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't FR get something like 10 times the hits that DU does?

[The Village Idiot]

FR is one of the top political forums online. DU doesn't even come close.

DU might as well be DemocratUnderground.proboards.com or DU.freeboards.com

[franksolich]

I'm not sure how to do this, and I don't want to deal with photobucket, so here's the link to freerepublic traffic:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/freerepublic.com

And then:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/democraticunderground.com

Incidentally, for whatever it's worth, alexa rates freerepublic's "loading time" as "fast," and Skins's island's "loading time" as "very slow."

[crockspot]

I'm not sure how to do this, and I don't want to deal with photobucket, so here's the link to freerepublic traffic:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/freerepublic.com

And then:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/democraticunderground.com

Incidentally, for whatever it's worth, alexa rates freerepublic's "loading time" as "fast," and Skins's island's "loading time" as "very slow."

Yeah, but if you factor in how many hours a day each unique DUmmy spends frothing at the mouth on the DUmp, it probably evens out.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yeah, but if you factor in how many hours a day each unique DUmmy spends frothing at the mouth on the DUmp, it probably evens out.

Good point.

Someone tried to explain once (very vociferously) that the Alexa rankings aren't actually very accurate for some reason.

EDIT - I don't remember the rationale for the explanation, but someone else might.

[Chris_]

Average Load Time for Democraticunderground.com
Very Slow (8.64 Seconds), 94% of sites are faster.

You mean the mighty $kammer has slow servers? Even after all the money he has scammed from DUmmies over the years..shame, shame $kammer.

[The Village Idiot]

You mean the mighty $kammer has slow servers? Even after all the money he has scammed from DUmmies over the years..shame, shame $kammer.

When I first went online I had a 33.6K modem "The Communicator" or something that I bought and installed in my 25mhz Tandy computer with 200 MB Hard drive. I used Netscape 1.22.

I stuck to Free Republic after finding it because it loaded fast for me.Once in a while I downloaed those huge huge midi files.

[TheSarge]

David Allen...what a petty jealous little b*tch

[formerlurker]

The last two FR's freepathons have been unusually long.   I think it has more to do with their recent purge of members (read temper tantrum) more than the economy. 

[delilahmused]

Skinners just jealous because he can't even get a good DUAC going while JimRob is actually planning a Tea Party/Conference which people will actually attend.

Cindie