When I started this site, one of the things I wanted to have was a high-caliber, vibrant comments section. And even though it’s taken more and more effort in a world of paid and self-assigned trolls and more and more factually and analytically challenged discourse, you’ve helped us achieve that. Everyone who writes here greatly values the feedback you give, even when it comes in the form of corrections, including of our trademark typos. You give us ideas and information, and make my work and that of the other bloggers better.
This fundraiser is coming to a close on Saturday, so if you haven’t have a chance to give yet, please go to the Tip Jar, which tells you how to donate by check, credit card, or debit card. Every dollar you give now goes to fund more original reporting
Over the past few years, and especially over this past week, you have shown me that we are actually a community, a group of people who believe together in justice. Individually, you decided to put your resources on the line to make sure that we keep going, grow, and get better, that our words and ideas matter. This is essential, it’s the first step in creating a different society, where we assert our own collective dignity.
Let’s get to 1600 donors. We’ve just broken our donor target of 1450, so help us reach this new goal before the fundraiser ends. Click on the Tip Jar now.
Over the next year, I’m excited to work with all of you to continue to puncture the perceived monopoly of wisdom the Very Serious People have over economics and finance. It’s ultimately a collective endeavor to do this because ideas cannot be divorced from the networks of people who carry them. It’s remarkable that we are actually a community, as well as a website, and I’ll be thinking hard about how to make sure we manifest that going forward.
We’ve gotten input and encouragement from many of you, including some important journalists who have told us more than once that Naked Capitalism informs their work. We also have been told by professional writer regularly that they are in awe of how much high quality material we produce, week in, week out, with such a small staff.
Clive, who has become an important part of our effort, explains the level of commitment involved in producing this site:
And lest anyone think running a blog is easy, try doing it.
As a comparison, a charity which I’m trustee of produces a paper newsletter (we get continually advised by the people whom the charity serves that a newsletter, on paper, with carefully curated high-quality relevant content is far more valued than rapid-fire emails or social media, even if they are more frequent — which goes to show that the Naked Capitalism philosophy of thought-provoking long-form content is what is valuable nowadays when there’s so much dross or bought opinions in circulation) once a quarter or so. It takes the editorial team of four or five people that long to publish what usually ends up being half a dozen or so printed pages.
So this three-monthly output for four or five people equates to a couple of days of Naked Capitalism material.
And I take between four and six hours to produce an article to Naked Capitalism standards. Yves often needs to review and make editorial changes or spot where sections need re-work. It is virtually impossible to be sufficiently self-critical to evaluate your own writing. So even guest writers present a demand on editorial time and mental bandwidth.
Yet readers get almost invariably one original post a day as a minimum, usually two (or even three if it is a fast news day). So Yves’s work rate is about three or four times mine. And I am pretty quick. And you get a vetted guest post or cross posting. Oh, and the daily Links. And the weekday Water Cooler.
Keeping this show on the road is little short of a monumental effort. I’d have quit this lark years ago, if it had been me, for something less taxing and tiring. Like crocodile wrestling.
I thought I’d share a few more comments from my inbox this week:
From Harry W:
Keep up the good work. I am almost 88 and have watched NC since ur book came out. This seems to be the only aspect of democracy that still works in the USA.
And ambrit:
Times are tough!
So, we’re giving something because times like these are when sites like Naked Capitalism are needed the most.
And Scott Z
I would also like to take this opportunity to register my support for the comments section and all the hard work it takes to make it a success. New or challenging ideas cannot take hold in the mind without constructive dialog. Without dialog, only varying forms of brainwashing occur. The world is plagued with an overabundance of that sort of communication. NC provides a platform that is very rare. Thanks for your diligent work.
If you’ve already given, thanks for sending the message that this site matters, that we can create leverage in the world from our own corner. If you haven’t, there’s still time (though not that much of it), so please proceed to the Tip Jar now! I guarantee you that in a few years, you will be proud of being a part of building this community. You will have shown that there are parts of this world that believe that integrity and dignity matter.
That’s what you’ve shown me.
18 comments
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Yves, NC Staff, and commenteriat:
I love this site, especially the watercooler and the watercooler crew. Not only do I learn a ton both from the posts and the comments, the fellowship we have here is nearly unmatched on the modern day Internet. Only a handful of blogs/forums compare to the community we have here.
I’m grateful for what we have here because it’s become my only real outlet for discussing current events, public policy, and our societal ills both online and in real life. I look forward to meeting some of you at the next NC meetup in NYC and our continued discussions around the watercooler.
Truly yours,
The Kingfish
P.S. I’m about to hit the hay but will donate tomorrow.
Thank you!
Seconded on the Water Cooler – I used to scroll past the Stats Watch until I started noticing really interesting things happening there that are triggers to other events that reverberate across the political economy. Edifying stuff.
I’ve fallen in love with The Bezzle! And sheet mulching.
Donation has been made, as promised!
Dear Ms. Smith…and Mr Strether
…and Ms. Scofield and Mr. Philalithopoulos…and Clive and Richard Smith…and PlutoniumKim and Col. Smithers (gonna apologize now for my working-class brain’s substitutions of actual users names for their real user names…I trust they recognize themselves!) and RUKidding and JT and Slim and MtnMomma, and Dan and LTPrime Beef and japrogressive and NotTim and HAL…oh, and vatch and diptherio,(jesus, are you guys on top of so much..wait…are you guys? or gals? Am I sexist or have I picked that up?…See? NC will challenge every assumption!)… and fairly newbie the Rev…and the righteous marym..and Lee and flora and Hotty …so many who take the time to think and post…and hell, even Haygood (yeah, I actually think you’re right most of the time!)…
The list is long but I really want to thank everyone (especially our hosts!!!) here for their insight, their patience, their anger and their humor.
There aren’t many places to engage others without the fences being too high or too thick.
Naked Capitalism is the only site I’ve found that encourages us to be real, thoughtful participants.There’s a large responsibility not only to those those who moderate this daily meeting place (shout out Ms. Smith and Mr. Strether!!) but also to us who participate in it.
Bring your A game and be part of something that just might help us humans survive our own stupidity.
Give as you can.
Both in money and thought.
Hear , hear.
During the last fundraiser I started a monthly donation. Does that stop at some point, or does it continue on? Also When you count donors do you count the people who have monthly subscriptions? I haven’t ever seen you mention monthly subscriptions, but Perhaps I’ve missed it.
Good questions, B1whois. After making one-time donations in past years, I just bit the bullet to become a monthly subscriber at the beginning of this fundraiser, so I, too, would like to know how it works. And if we want to increase, or heaven forbid, are forced to decrease, the amount of our monthly donations, how do we do that?
My profound thanks to all–led by Yves and Lambert, now backed up by a great group–for the many years of instruction I’ve benefited from by having been a daily reader from near the beginning.
I have acquired a core understanding of how the current economy is functioning here, and am profoundly indebted to the long series of posts on the Affordable Care Act (and its aftermath), which urged me to learn more and become a single-payer supporter.
The comments section is one of the best available online; although I seldom feel knowledgeable enough to contribute, I read many of the threads in their entirety – something I think few can say of other sites.
A word on the amount of work that goes into this site: having been inspired by an open comments thread (“talk among yourselves”) last winter, I started a daily blog on policy in health, environment, justice, and education. It’s basically links + excerpts + discussion, though I try to do an original piece occasionally. The average workday to put up a decent-length, moderately comprehensive post a day is12-14 hours. I’ve been doing it for seven months – this site has been doing it for many years now – amazing, really.
P.S. I came to the NY meetup last spring, but was too awe-stricken to introduce myself. The meetups are really a wonderful idea.
dbk — what’s the name of your blog? I’d like to check it out, and maybe some other NC-ers would like to as well.
Carla – DeedSpeakOut.
Latest posts were on Illinois politics as a mirror of national politics, Janus v. AFSCME (an Illinois case now before SCOTUS), an environmental update on Puerto Rico three weeks on, and the bleak future of the ACA (where I discuss Lambert’s latest ACA post among other pieces).
Thanks much for asking.
I was actually thinking of not contributing this year for reasons and rationalizations that don’t really pass muster but just could not not do it. NC is really the best. The quality of the posts, comments, the work that goes into the site, the costs – financial, physical, emotional. I just could not not contribute, so when the first of the two for one matches was announced, I kicked in a hundred. Feel better for it.
Thank you NC. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are a beacon of reason in a world gone insane.
I would only add that I try to promote this site at every opportunity possible. I don’t know how many times I’ve shut down online arguments by posting links and original articles you provide. And I always append the following to my posts:
“If you aren’t reading naked capitalism, you aren’t reading.”
I’m fairly addicted, to checking links and WC, and comments daily. Bernie and this site made me realize I’m a progressive… and how neolib the dems are.
Thanks for all the work you guys do, I know it’s heavy lifting.
I am grateful to NC for the honorable work it is performing.
I do not agree with everything posted here, especially the MMT posts. However, this is a minor complaint. Looking at the big picture, we are under siege, and this site is one of the last bastions of intelligent thought on the English-speaking internet, though we may not agree on everything at all times. Kudos to Yves for fighting the good fight. I have donated to NC, but under a different email address than the one I use to post. How I wish that paypal would make it possible to send a message to the donee when making a donation.
I would be lost without NC. I don’t comment much, as I am not a very good critical thinker. But that’s why I’m here, to remedy that as much as can be expected with my admittedly flaccid pile of grey matter. I can be too easily led by propaganda so I come for the reality check. I’ve had a bad year – financially and other ways – but I gave as much as I could. And I promise to become a monthly subscriber, and also to lavish goodies upon the water cooler TopHat, should matters improve. And thanks all for patience with anything dumb I may have posted.
I appreciate this site more and more, as one of the few bastions of sanity available to me. Keep up the good work!