I am really getting sick and tired of this endless bashing of me by scumbags for trying to make some money off my website. It is really quite incredible.
So for now and into the future, the website will no longer be a free website. It will move to a subscription/donation model of most pay websites. However, like a lot of such sites, you will still be able to access a lot of content for free. For instance, all of the articles on the main site can be read for free forever! However, if you wish to comment on articles, there are now limits. If you become what I consider to be a regular commenter, you will have to purchase/give a minimum of $10 for a subscription/donation. After that, you can comment forever on the regular website’s thousands of articles. I will have to see if you can get access to the forums. You are certainly free to donate more than $10 if you wish, and many people do. I regularly get donations of $50, $100, $200, $250 and rarely up to $500.
People who like the site often give quite a bit of money to keep it going. I do not have a high income, as I have made ~$14,000/yr for the last several years. By donating/purchasing a subscription, you are mostly just helping me to survive.
Of course, when you go on those pay sites and read their free stuff, they hit you up to buy a subscription or buy whatever it is they are selling on a regular basis. It’s logical. Do you walk into a store and assume you are not going to buy anything? Of course not. You go into a store and the owner assumes that you may well buy something. Same at the pay sites. So you get nag screens, pop-ups, limits on free viewing, etc. pretty regularly when you access their free content. And why not? Accessing the free content is like walking into a store fully intending not to buy a thing. The nag screens, requests to donate or buy a subscription, popups are like the owner repeatedly asking you if you want to buy something. The limits on free viewing are like when you spend an hour in some store not intending to buy anything and the owner finally asks you to leave.
As this is now a pay site, it’s perfectly logical that I should have announcements or comments seeking people to purchase/donate to our services.
I am a journalist. I have a BA in Journalism from a good university. I have previously worked as an editor at a major magazine. I worked for a while as a freelance writer for money. And I am now a published author. Most authors don’t go to work for some newspaper or magazine and expect to work for free. They expect a wage or salary. Book authors don’t give their books away. No author who makes his living off writing gives his writing away for free. Why should he? Everyone else works for money. Why shouldn’t authors work for money too. Apparently my critics think I have no right to work for money! I have no right to offer my writing for sale instead of giving it away like an idiot. I am supposed to give all my material away for free and I guess starve or live on the streets and beg or something.
So if you hear, “Lindsay’s always hitting people up for donations/subscriptions, first of all this vicious lie of my crtics is not even true. I only occasionally ask for money on here. A few site services now cost money and people are told that if they wish to access that material, they must pay a fee. Second, why they Hell can’t I ask people to buy/give a subscription/donation? You go to the New York Times, Washington Post or Guardian and they hit you up for money all the time. The Times and Post only let you read a few articles for free a month, and then you are cut off. If you wish to comment on the Times or Post, you need to purchase some sort of subscription. The Guardian hits you up for donations at the end of every single article you read. And why not? Are the Times, Post, and Guardian supposed to give their product away for free? Why? How are they supposed to stay in business? How are they supposed to survive. They run a business. Why do you expect businesses to give their products away for free? They will all starve and live in the streets if that is the case.
Furthermore, why should I be any different. This is also a news site run by an accredited and experienced, and published journalist/author. He doesn’t give his writing away for free. Not exactly anyway.
It is quite amazing what you can on here for free. On the other hand, like many pay sites, to obtain full use of the site, you must make some sort of a purchase.
I am getting sick and tired of hearing idiots screeching that I ask for money. Damn right I do. This is a pay website and like the rest of them, we will hit you up for subscriptions/donations like any other news outlet on the web. Why it is outrageous that I wish to work and survive and get paid for my labor in America is beyond me. This is something I will never understand.
If you enjoy the hard work that goes into this website, please consider a contribution to support the continuation of the site. Donations are the only thing that keep the site operating.
