Hey, there's a fundraiser going on!

September 13, 2024 7:59 AM

Help Fund Metafilter! In its typical low-key style, this middle-aged online community launched its annual fundraiser last month. You can contribute to a cookbook, set up a recurring contribution, or donate via GoFundMe.

The site and the mods have been really busy the last month, and little things like raising money to keep the lights on might have slipped your mind. (It did slip mine.) But it's never too late. Please donate to keep the bits flipping, the electrons flying, and the conversations rolling along.

posted by Winnie the Proust (32 comments total)

middle-aged? quarter-life crisis maybe [medium]
posted by HearHere at 8:08 AM on September 13

Methuselah in internet years
posted by gwint at 8:11 AM on September 13 [3 favorites]

I was looking at the original real-time 9/11 post a couple of days ago. It had popped up in my Blue Sky feed. It's an amazing historical record.

But as I was looking at it, I was really struck by the fact that Metafilter is a veritable Ship of Theseus. I didn't recognize any of the user names. But the quality of the conversation was the same as it is today. And the care the users expressed for each other was also so familiar. (It even had some of the same derails!)

Metafilter is still Metafilter, even if all the members and change and even though the codebase is about to change. And that is a good thing to support.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:37 AM on September 13 [11 favorites]

I didn't recognize any of the user names.

Hey!

And thank you everyone.
posted by jessamyn at 8:55 AM on September 13 [13 favorites]

I stand corrected!
posted by Winnie the Proust at 9:00 AM on September 13

just chipped in, proudly if modestly.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:07 AM on September 13

I stand corrected!

Well, that’s just, like, A User’s opinion, man.
posted by Huggiesbear at 9:07 AM on September 13 [12 favorites]

(My correction was in response to Jessamyn's continued presence, not Hippybear's concern about the site. No time to comment more on that right now.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 9:07 AM on September 13 [1 favorite]

hippybear, nice seeing you! even momentarily :)
posted by HearHere at 9:13 AM on September 13 [2 favorites]

I'm waiting to see a reason to reengage with this supposed community but in the months I've been silently reading what is posted here, I can't see any reason to support this any longer.

Is this about that scrollbars FPP from this morning? Because I know it made us all mad but I think the shared anger brought us closer together.
posted by mittens at 9:20 AM on September 13 [5 favorites]

I quit interacting with this site, but not reading it, a while back. And what I've seen is a horrible mess of people hating each other and pretending they are friends.

No offense but not everyone reads the site the same way and people remain because they don't see it this way? It sucks that's all you see here - I'm sorry to hear that.
posted by Glinn at 9:31 AM on September 13 [6 favorites]

I know it made us all mad but I think the shared anger brought us closer together

mittens, how dare you assume that? i wasn't mad. i am now though!

*logs off*
posted by HearHere at 9:44 AM on September 13 [2 favorites]

More than one person in the ol' I/P Meta talk thread did threaten to (or in fact did) button or suspend their contributions over the lack of any clear addressing of the questions raised in there. I've been checking back and that hasn't changed in any way I can discover.

I've been essentially waiting for any words about those issues to appear before I start back up my contributions. I guess this could be a principled stance on the part of the transitioning leadership to not respond to monetary incentives, but even if it were that saying so would be nice.

So, I guess, for whatever value I get from this place, that $5 is gonna have to amortize across a few more months.

I'm still looking for a place that has the high highs I've experienced here without the heartbreaking, exhaustingly avoidable lows.
posted by Lenie Clarke at 10:28 AM on September 13

Mod note: Several comments derailing comments removed. Hippybear, you're going to have knock off castigating others about what case they start your username with. Further derails about that subject may result in you being given the day off.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 10:32 AM on September 13 [12 favorites]

Metafilter: "That $5 is gonna have to amortize across a few more months."
posted by riverlife at 10:49 AM on September 13 [2 favorites]

My participation has dropped off a lot over the last couple years and I seem to have avoided whatever drama is being alluded to here. I keep contributing though because I don't want to see Reddit consume every site of it's kind (and someday I'll have spare time again).
posted by JaredSeth at 11:27 AM on September 13 [5 favorites]

I think MF has gotten more popular. Or at least it seems like a lot of new names are checking it out. For good reasons *and* bad. It's a struggle. Though I don't know if the statistics support that.
posted by aleph at 11:31 AM on September 13 [2 favorites]

I still find Metafilter to be a great place to discover new parts of the web and new insight into topics I thought I already knew.

I don't interact much, but I appreciate the contributions of FPPs.

Donated to keep that type of open knowledge sharing going.

Thanks, all.
posted by Apollo's Favorite Mistake at 11:42 AM on September 13 [12 favorites]

I checked out a fair bit over the early pandemic years, but I've been enjoying the site more again recently. I've still kept my automatic payments going the whole time, and I still tell new people about the site when it seems relevant to their interests. MetaFilter remains important in my life (and I'm glad it's becoming a nonprofit)!
posted by limeonaire at 12:12 PM on September 13 [6 favorites]

One thing I mentioned before. If the fundraising gets "urgent" please make up some simple graphic that contains what is currently raised and what is needed. It would help me. And hopefully, others.
posted by aleph at 12:12 PM on September 13 [7 favorites]

If the fundraising gets "urgent"

Yeah, to me it looks like the fundraising effort is completely dead on arrival. This seems like a huge problem? But I don't see any alarm, so I don't know.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 12:45 PM on September 13 [4 favorites]

This old fashioned web site is so much better than it used to be. Much less anger, bitterness and snark. Not to mention no toleration of old school misogyny. I read something interesting and informative every week and the comments are even better. I've learned so much from this community. That's why I didn't just watch this fundraiser out of curiosity but instead invested in the outcome. I won't say how much but I'm a "top donor" Thank you Metafilter!
posted by Alcedinidae at 1:33 PM on September 13 [9 favorites]

"... I don't see any alarm, so I don't know."

Naah. Last time it was real obvious about the need. From this effort, unless they're acting very different, seems like normal fundraising stuff. The ongoing constant need stuff.
posted by aleph at 1:51 PM on September 13

I just gave via the direct to mefi link. It's hard to know what that is bringing in via the highly-visible GoFundMe cash-o-meter.

This place has been my internet center of gravity for, like, 22 years, and I think it's worth contributing to.
posted by german_bight at 5:31 PM on September 13 [9 favorites]

I gave at the start of the fundraiser. We all know this place has its problems, but the upcoming changes of ownership, governance and design will at least give more chance of solving them. So much of online conversation is grimly corporate now that anywhere independent is valuable. In the meantime let's keep this ancient Model T rattling down the road another few miles!
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:32 AM on September 14 [6 favorites]

This comment from the fundraising thread in Metatalk gave me a short sharp shock:

This whole thing is just a heartbreaker to watch, I will never understand why admin here burned up all the goodwill and energy that was behind this site just two short years ago. $1100 raised so far in the GoFundMe? In 2022 the steering committee put in a Herculean effort and raised $78,000 for the site. It's just been such a bummer to watch this unfold. Surely there has to be something in between "volunteers working 80 hours a week to save the site" and "posting a GoFundMe and hoping something happens."

I've learned so much here for so long, and keep meaning to post occasionally to the blue, which desperately needs all of us to do more of that, but the inexplicable and occasionally just plain disrespectful behavior of some of the paid staff to the membership in Metatalk has really soured me on the place to the point that I'll be happy to resume donations once the new user-run structure of the site is in place. I figure that'll be in 2026 sometime.
posted by mediareport at 5:19 AM on September 14 [7 favorites]

Ugh, I'm already regretting posting the above. I still find so much to love at this damn site, but to quote part of what I sent to a mod asking for more details:

...the way the site has been managed since the dissolving of the steering committee (and before, but certainly after) has felt so haphazard and unplanned that I pulled back considerably on my emotional investment in the place, fully expecting it not to survive much longer.

I very much hope I'm wrong about that.
posted by mediareport at 6:33 AM on September 14 [3 favorites]

I’m no longer active here as a poster. I’m a lot more circumspect about what I post online now that I’m a gentleman of a certain age.

But I still read every day. It’s my first, best place to find links to interesting things and to hear about news slightly outside of my internet bubble.

I find most comments to be good spirited, fun, insightful, or useful. If a comment sucks, oh well. It’s easy to ignore. If a post is not relevant to me, I skip it. Metafilter at its very worst is better than all the rest.

I’m happy to chip in a few clams, ducats, or shekels to keep this place online.
posted by device55 at 5:51 PM on September 14 [3 favorites]

I am happy to contribute to this fundraiser. I joined Metafilter years and years ago and mostly lurk. Even though I don't actively post or comment, MeFi is always one of my go to places for thoughtful and informed commentary and I have discovered so many interesting things over the years here. Thank you all!
posted by chupacabra at 4:29 PM on September 15

Thank you to everyone who's donate, offered constructive criticism, shared your love for the site, and wished it well. It is great to hear and see all that and it is deeply appreciated!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:36 PM on September 15 [1 favorite]

FYI, Mods. I used my bank's bill pay feature, so please look out for an INCOMING PAPER CHECK in your mail.
posted by mikelieman at 5:55 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

Well, that’s just, like, A User’s opinion, man.

Please leave me out of it.
posted by A User at 6:26 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]