Although an excellent article by Linux pundit Carla Shroder, spelling out what’s wrong with what often passes for journalism on the Internet and explaining why it’s important to support sites such as FOSS Force, gave us a much needed bump in contributions, we’re still well short of reaching our goal in our Indiegogo fundraising effort. Right now, a little over two thirds of the way through the campaign, we’ve raised a little over $1000, which is far short of our $6000 goal.
Don’t get us wrong. We appreciate the thousand bucks and it will help. We are also overwhelmed by this show of support, because thousand dollar bills don’t grow on trees. Unfortunately, however, it’s not enough. Not if we’re to expand to give you the coverage you so richly deserve.
Why should you give? Look at it this way. You enjoy reading our site — many of you, so much that you visit here every day. You appreciate the fact that we break many news stories that are important to those who use and support FOSS — whether in a business sense or as so-called “casual” users. The insights we offer on events affecting FOSS (and free tech in general) are important to you. You may not always agree with our conclusions, but you understand that we’re coming from the same place as you and that we ask the questions you want asked — and answered.
There’s no charge for visiting our site and reading the articles our writers spend hours researching and writing. It’s all free — literally “as in speech.” Those of you not using ad blocking software may think the few discrete advertisements you see on our pages pays the rent. Not true. Although ad revenues have been on a steady increase for several years now, they barely pay enough to keep our server online, keep ink in our printers and keep us our office supplied with paper, staples and pens.
If you’re using ad blocking software, then we’re not even getting the tiny amount of income we’d receive for the advertising displayed on your visits — but we don’t mind. In the spirit of FOSS, we believe in choice and would never argue with your right to choose. To us, that’s the heart of free and open source.
Your contributions will enable us to offer you more and better coverage. One hundred percent of the money you contribute will be used to pay our writers — both those who write for us now and anyone new that we bring on board. Writers deserve to be paid. They have to eat, pay rent and put gas in their cars just like everyone else. And article writing, along with the necessary research, isn’t something that can be done quickly in a few minutes time. An article that might take you five minutes to read, often takes up to four hours to write — more if much research is needed.
Rest assured, all of the money you contribute will go to our writers and none of it will be used to line management’s pockets or for administration costs. In fact, Christine Hall, FOSS Force’s publisher, will not pay herself even for the articles she contributes to the site. All of the money will be used to imporove our coverage, so we can offer you more.
Please visit our Indiegogo campaign page and contribute what you can.
Editor’s note: You can help us get the news out about our May Pledge Drive. Many of our supporters don’t know about our campaign because aggregators such as LXer, Linux Today and Tux Machines rightfully have rules against posting articles promoting fundraising efforts. Please share this article on your favorite social network and email it to your friends who use or work with FOSS.
