Time to launch the Patreon.
I tested it on Facebook the other day to see if I’d done it right and people started pledging right then but this is the actual launch.
I’m going back to the original B&W, with NO ADS and no fatuous people announcing that I’m a transphobe because I have my own ideas about gender. I earned a little income blogging at Freethought Blogs and I need to replace that. Think of me as like a public radio station but without voices and without the “you owe us, please call now” drives. You don’t owe me. Don’t donate unless it’s easy for you and you want to. I like doing this and I like having readers; donating is entirely voluntary.
You can do it
I think I pledged and opened an account. It looks like I did. Yup. I think I did. Looking forward to posts!
I’ve updated my browser bar quicklink button to point B&W to the ur-B&W.
A wise move!
I never deleted the old bookmark. That’s convenient.
This isn’t the resolution I was hoping to see, but at this point, I can’t blame you for leaving FTB. I’m sorry it came to this.
What about tote bags? Do you have tote bags?
Hello Ophelia,
I will be very sorry to see you leave Freethought Blogs. I only discovered your writing because of Freethought Blogs. But, because of your writing, you have made me think, reconsider my position on multiple issues, and become more aware in general.
I have followed the recent debacle and I am disgusted by the way you have been attacked. You are not one of the baddies (Mitchell and Webb reference) and by causing you to leave, Freethought Blogs and the principles it is supposed to represent will be weakened.
“Freethought” should be mean the people can take different positions on issues and be able to debate them. And this does not mean trying to have a debate when someone is being attacked.
Ophelia – I will follow you to the new location. I found you through your book, Does God Hate Women? I enjoy your writing, and look forward to reading you every day. I don’t always agree with you, but you always make me think even when I don’t, and that is more valuable than having you always agree with what I think.
To be honest, I’ve missed it. Looking forward to the return.
And thanks so much. I so appreciate having this in my head for the next few days.
Signed up, and will add your blog to my RSS feed at Dreamwidth!
I created a patreon account and then to my surprise discovered I had already done that some years ago… so now there are two of me.
Hrm. I must confess, I do fit this a bit heavy. I shall fall back, for now, on the sage advice of Randall Munroe:
(/So. It has come to this.)
I’m sorry to see you leave.
I see this as a missed learning opportunity all round. If generally thoughtful people, who agree on 99% of all issues, can’t even talk about the 1% without the conversation degenerating to a hate campaign, do we just leave society to those who are happy to bury their differences under the “capitalism and free speech” flag?
And of course many will see this as vindication of their position that you are a bad person. Maybe until they, too, fail the purity test…
Anyway, best of luck at the once and future B&W. See you there.
AJ Milne@11:
Bwahahaha! Love it.
I appreciate that you set it up on a monthly basis, Ophelia. There’s something just conceptually cleaner about saying “I’m going to pay this person this much per month to do whatever she wants to do, blogging-wise”. In my thinking, that’s what a patron should do: give total latitude for the writer to do what they want, rather than tying the support to the quantity of their output.
Ophelia – the original B&W was the first blog I started reading regularly, and you remain the first thing I read every morning. You always remind me that there are crazy things in the world, that there are beautiful things in the world, and that we should keep on asking questions about both. I hope you keep asking questions for a long time to come, happy to support you.
Patreon lets you auto-tweet when you’ve supported someone, which I did.
Now I get angry tweets from people I don’t know who are monitoring closely. Innat cute?
Doubled my monthly contribution in their honor.
Sad to hear this. Will follow you to your new blog. Pity its come to this.
OK. I donated. It appears to have gone through. Thank you Ophelia.
Jafafa Hots @16, How grim. These self righteous fucks fail self awareness.
Congratulations! I will continue to read you every day. When we disagree about complex issues, I promise not to make any hyperemotional accusations, write numerous posts and tweets and Facebook comments about how very wrong and bad you are, or obsessively peruse everything you’ve ever written everywhere in a desperate attempt to prove that I’m right, damn it, and you deserve it.
Lady Mondegreen @20, just what are you trying to prove? That nuance and understanding and charitable readings and lack of cruelty and not being an asshole are good things? C’mon!
To me, this is a microcosm of the “atheist movement”: a lot of pissing on eachother’s feet and navel-gazing. I’m using this as an opportunity to find some other way to fill my morning coffee-drinking period.
Good luck over at Patreon! Good luck, FTB.
Glad to see you have an RSS feed on you old site. I’ve subscribed.