FOSS Force: 2016 Fund Drive
Our Indiegogo campaign with the descriptive title “FOSS Force: 2016 Fund Drive” has begun. We’d like you to pull out your wallet and make a contribution to help us continue to supply you with all of the great content you’ve come to expect from FOSS Force. Actually, you don’t even have to go to the effort of pulling out your wallet, you can just click and pay using your PayPal account. Then again, you might need to dig for your wallet if you want to pay by credit card, unless you’ve memorized the number.
If this were an NPR outlet, right about now I’d start telling you that your contributions help pay for all of the content you read on our site. That’s true; it does. Also if this were an NPR outlet, I’d be telling you that we’re user supported (in NPR’s case listener supported) and that 90 percent of our funding comes from readers like you. That’s not true. We run ads, offer sponsorships and such. It’s just that right now that’s not enough to pay the bills — but revenues are increasing and if we keep on keeping on we’ll soon be able to stand on our own two feet. Right now, we just need some help to see us through.
Also if we were a local public radio station, with a signal serving a radius of, say, fifty miles from the transmitter site, we’d be asking for something like $250,000 (that’s a quarter of a million dollars for the math impaired) to fund us until our next fundraiser in three months or so. That’s not happening here either. We’re seeking a small fraction of that — $3,700 to be exact — which will fund us for a minimum of six months, longer if our other sources of revenue continue to increase and perhaps forever if things go as expected. Oh, and if I may be excused for comparing oranges with apples, we don’t serve a fifty mile radius either. Our readers span the globe.
If this were an NPR outlet, right about now I’d begin reminding you of all the things you enjoy about our site, while repeating the URL to where you can contribute over and over again.
I’d remind you that it costs us money to offer you the news and commentary you’ve come to expect from FOSS Force. We have to pay for our server. There’s are utility bills and computers that have to be kept operational. Oh yes…and writers who have to eat.
Since our first ever fund raising campaign ended last June, we’ve been paying our core writers. They don’t get much. Folks who write for big tech sites like ZDNet or ITworld would laugh to learn how little. But although nobody’s been able to give up their day jobs to earn a living writing for us, our writers make at least enough to keep beans on the table or to keep a bill or two paid, which is a big help. It’s also a big incentive for them to find the time necessary to keep you informed. In case you don’t know, news reporting and commentary is a time consuming task.
So, as an NPR announcer would say: Your contributions are used to pay for the news stories and features from FOSS Force upon which you’ve come to depend and that you enjoy.
Do you like our coverage of Linux and open source software? Your contributions make that possible. Do you enjoy our line-up of regular feature writers, who bring you news on everything from the Raspberry Pi, to open source gaming, to the comings and goings in the *BSD realm? Your contributions make that possible. Perhaps it’s our analysis of FOSS news, which helps you to connect the dots, our reviews of distros and open source software, or our coverage of breaking news stories that keeps you returning to FOSS Force. Your contributions make those possible as well.
Maybe it’s fun things like our polls, which are not only entertaining, they’re informative too. Or perhaps you like the fact that we keep all the latest Linux and FOSS news from across the Internet at your fingertips with our FOSS Force News Wire, which is updated every fifteen minutes. Or maybe you just like the way that Ken Starks keeps reminding us that free and open source is perhaps at its best when it’s being put in the hands of common folks. None of this would be possible without your help.
But right now, if you go to the Indiegogo campaign we just put up, you’ll see a great big ol’ goose egg under money raised. They way I see it, this isn’t good. Nobody wants to be the first to give. After all, what if they’re the only one? No, they’ll wait until some others contribute to make certain it’s a relatively sure thing and that they’ll not be wasting their contribution.
I’m asking for a few of you to seed the pot for us to help us get the ball rolling. Right now, as the NPR announcer would remind you, we’re $3,700 short of our goal. Make a contribution of $10, $20, $50 — whatever you can afford. If three or four of you do that for us now, others will follow.
The fact that you are here reading this tells me that FOSS Force means something to you. With your help we will continue to be here for you.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
Nice to see it’s at 32% already!
I went with the “Frequent Commenter Membership” perk, though I don’t comment that much lately but I always read (and sometimes share!) your articles.
I was tempted by the Bronze Subscription to have the Day Sponsor and put “I contributed to the FOSS Force fund drive and all I got was this lousy banner” or something as silly, but I’m afraid the humor might be lost so better not 🙂
Cheers and keep on rocking!
Thank you so very much for the contribution Ricardo! We’re adding another plus to the “Frequent Commenter Membership” in that when you log in, you’ll be enjoying the “advertising free” version of our site.
We’ll be in touch in the next day or so to find out what name you want to use, then will get your login credentials to you.
Again, thanks for the contribution!