You can buy us love

6 posts / 0 new

Mon, 2012-02-13 20:37

duncan cameron

You can buy us love

“You can buy us love” is what the banner reads on the rabble.ca site. It is our way of asking for financial support from our readers.

I am babbler 44. I signed up to post on the site when rabble.ca was launched because of my interest in politics, and my desire to see Canada become a better country.

It is not original to me that democracy is first about open debate and discussion. Elections matter, obviously. Without debate and discussion leading to a substantial body of informed opinion, party politics becomes impoverished, and elections, rituals, easily ignored, most here would agree I think.

Over the years babble has contributed to my political education, and I like to imagine that of others. I remember when Stéphane Dion was under attack for his French citizenship. A babbler somehow found, and posted, an English language version of the French citizenship act. No mainstream journalist was quoting the act, and I doubt many had thought they needed it before writing their stories.

We could do better in welcoming others, and restraining our tempers, and I miss those who have departed in anger, or gone off to other places. I want them drawn back as babblers, regular, and recent. So let us by all means raise the level of debate on the boards, challenging ourselves to give a little more, and showing off our better sides (O.K. if, and when the occasion warrants it).

In the meantime, I will laugh, and be surprised, irritated and provoked, and expect all to improve my day, just through you being here on babble.

Overall, not many more than 15 people are paid to work at rabble.ca. I want the budget to double, so hours can be increased. People now work one day, or two, on the site, and volunteer for more.

This is a request for you to contribute, and a thank-you to those who have already contributed, or plan to contribute.

Join up on site, put a monthly amount on a credit card, or sign up for a bank withdrawal. The suggested amounts are here:

https://secure.rabble.ca/membership/signup.php

This is the Valentine’s Day drive. Give babble a valentine.

Thank you for (thinking of) financial support for rabble.ca.

My best wishes to you for Valentines Day, and after.

Duncan Cameron

Issues Pages:

Media Matters

Regions:

Mon, 2012-02-13 23:56

Fidel

"So baby if you want me
You've got to $how me love" - Robin S "Luv 4 Luv", 1993

Tue, 2012-02-14 08:13

Caissa

I encourage all fellow Babblers if they can to become supporters of Rabble. One of the best decisions I ever made.

Wed, 2012-02-15 02:36

duncan cameron

Thanks so much Caissa for your support. Fidel you have the heart of a poet. Well done.

Fri, 2012-02-17 15:46

Catchfire

Thanks for this plea, duncan. All the staff of rabble appreciate it. To reiterate what I said at the beginning of this funding drive here, let me quote myself about how babblers specifically relate to the site as a whole:

Catchfire wrote:
So: you love, rabble, right?

rabble.ca has an operating budget of $200 000 per year. $200 000 per year. That includes the salaries of almost twenty employees, tech support, domain and website hosting, events and administration. For comparison, The Tyee, a strictly regional publication, has a budget of $600 000 per year and mainstream papers have budgets which figure in the billions.

The point here is that rabble.ca makes every dollar count.

Now think about how much money you give to mainstream media every month: newspaper and magazine subscriptions, internet and cable costs, phone and data plans, etc. Why not consider redirecting a fraction of that money rabble's way? We promise we'll make the best of it.

It's almost a ritual to say that rabble.ca is a non-profit, progressive, independent news website, but take a moment to think about what that actually means:

It means we have to work harder for each dollar, because most advertisers won't touch us, or we won't touch them. It means that we have to designate a large portion of our work hours (already at a premium! See above!) to chasing major donor partners year after year to renew their subscription because we can't rely on a third-party equity partner, for-profit motives or other traditional sources of funding.

It means that we're dedicated to providing left-wing, progressive perspectives: something not even The Tyee will do. We don't give right-wing, anti-democratic positions a platform to offer some false notion of "fairness." We want to expand leftist political thought in this country--and that's quite limiting when you're looking for money.

It means that we rely heavily on our readers' good will to support us, because we don't want to rely on a larger corporation or organization whose intentions with the news might not suit ours.

All this on a measly $200 000 a year! So we're asking babblers, some of our most dedicated readers, to consider supporting rabble through a monthly donation. We promise we'll make it worth your while. Here's something that is perhaps not as well-known as it should be: Rebecca and I sit in on two staff and editorial meetings each month and we regularly report on thoughts and recommendations of babblers there--which are thoughtfully considered by the rest of the staff, and especially by our publisher Kim Elliott. So you have a direct voice to how rabble is governed and run.

So please consider donating--think about how much you give mainstream media, who hates you, each month and then consider how much rabble.ca loves you.

Here is a link to our latest fundraising drive, with information about some prizes you can win.

And here is a direct link to our donation page.

Keep us going. Match your media!

Sat, 2012-02-18 20:30

duncan cameron

We want our babblers to know we appreciate their continued support.