Ed Brayton and I set up freethoughtblogs as a cooperative venture. Although we did try running ads to bring in some revenue, ads proved to be intrusive and obnoxious — blog ads tend to play all kinds of stupid games to get your attention — so we gave up on that. So right now the site runs in the red, just a little bit, and that’s OK. My Patreon account covers the server cost just fine, and I’m not interested in profit.
By comparison, take a look at the financials for Truth Social.
Trump Media & Technology Group burned through a staggering $712 million last year while bringing in a mere $3.7 million in revenue, a ratio as upside-down as Trump has turned the country.
There’s no actual business here, just a megaphone for a doddering old man.
To be fair, you could also call Pharyngula “a megaphone for a doddering old man,” but at least I’m not blowing $700 million to keep it running. I suspect there’s an interesting leak in the money pipeline that is diverting donations from billionaires to inflate that budget, and that leak is spilling money into Trump’s pocket, so it’s not a real loss to him.
I’m going to have to get a few more patreon followers if it costs hundreds of millions to run a website.
Not only cheaper but better. (At the risk of damning with faint praise.)
Looking at the illustration from South Park, maybe you should bring back zombie Saddam Hussein and let him replace the techbro billionaires that pull the strings.
They are all toxic, but SH was at least marginally sane.
^ ^ ^
Also, South Park’s Satan was a cool, benevolent dude.