John McDonald

FreeRepublic.com is often cited by FoxNews, not only as a source of unpaid editorial opinion, but also in sniffing out some scandals that were first broken on this major conservative social news network. FreeRepublic has been around for a long time and it sort of broke ground in this whole world of blogging and social news submissions. Users get a homepage they can edit any way they like, and they can submit stories or leave comments regarding other users’ posts. There are no “friends lists” like on newer social news networks, but there are “ping lists” where users interested in similar topics send notifications to each other if a story pops up that they think the mini-group would be particularly interested in.

Free Republic is no fly-by nite operation. This website has been around since the Clinton years and its become part of internet legal history in a landmark ruling regarding intellectual property. To this day, FR only allows excerpts from certain sources, and doesn’t allow other sites to be re-published at all. Of course, the newspapers suing FreeRepublic really missed out. Its a great way to get articles published and to the readership. Its a shame when people try to fight new technology, but in the end I think FreeRepublic wins as social networking news has spread across the internet and into every political and population demographic.

I haven’t had an account of mine own for very long. Readers who have not yet registered to participate in the discussion are often referred to as “lurkers.” I registered finally last year, and the conversations have been good. I have been able to generate more comments for my own stories too, because I’ve published a few of them here if they’re relevant to the site’s conservative theme and mission. You can find me on FreeRepublic as Underground.