Wow! Met First Goal Pronto. On to the Second: Supporting the Commentariat

Thanks to our loyal readers for making Naked Capitalism a priory on a major holiday! We hit our first goal a bit over a day, despite the hindrance of a bigger target and in the middle of the Labor Day weekend.

We are 236 donations towards fundraiser target of 1100 donors. It was particularly gratifying seeing donations that the donations started coming in right as the fundraiser post went live and get strong and steady response. And we are already $405 towards our second goal, investing in the comments section.

Your donations demonstrate that you value this community and want a better debate and a better society and will to invest to have us do more to make Naked Capitalism an even more effective voice for you. If you haven’t had time to give yet, please visit our Tip Jar to support our efforts. Whatever you can give, whether $10 or $1000, helps us provide you with your daily dose of incisive commentary, analysis, news, and cute animal pictures, as well as a place to hang out with the like-minded.

Note that last year we made a big addition to Naked Capitalism’s services out of the “commentariat” budget, that of our monthly newletter. As much as we like having you come here every day, we know you have important real world lives. Things like vacations, work duties, family responsibilities, and even needing a break from the news can lead you to take some time off from us. So please take your hats off to moderator katiebird, who is also the major domo of the monthly newsletter.

Readers have been sending notes of appreciation. From Richard G

Thank you for your tireless effort, your “naked” fellows and the only commentariat worth reading.

And Hickory:

A few words of thanks: If I had to summarize Naked Capitalism in a catchphrase, it go something like, “Come for the news, stay for the sanity.” Between Covid and Ukraine, it’s easy to feel even more alienated from most of my friends and family than I used to, given how differently we see the world. And I don’t always see things the same on NC as you or other commenters, but I know essays are worth my time if the topic interests me, and your forum moderation is sharp, making that a worthwhile place to spend time too. It was so weird last year doing text-searches to see if IM-Doc had posted some new insight in comments, and reflecting that that was a significant source of insight for me into the pandemic. Thanks for everything you do to make Naked Capitalism such a special resource.

And Claire H:

NC keeps me from feeling I am alone in my take on the economy, the nation, the planet.

And speaking of the like-minded…..

Thanks to Jules Dickson’s and katibird’s, heavy lifting, not only are comments liberated more quickly, but the moderators plays an essential role in adjudicating cases, which are typically discussed among all of the site admins (as in with Lambert and me). You can also see that they clean up broken links that readers have flagged and sometimes intercedes in comments. Katiebird maintains a spreadsheet of who is in various doghouses and why, which is extremely helpful when we reconsider cases.

As a result of the seeming endless slide in the caliber of discourse across the Web, it’s taken more work to keep Naked Capitalism an oasis of sanity and civility in a media desert where turning the conflict heat even higher is seen as a path to profits. We’re thus planning to add another comments jockey soon, so we very much appreciate your financial support in making that happen

So if you appreciate the value of comments at Naked Capitalism, feel free to skip the rest of this post, go straight to the Tip Jar which tell you how to give by check, credit or debit card. Promote stimulating, vigorous, informative, and often witty debates among members of the commentariat

Managing comments has always come at a cost. Lambert and I once took care of the process at the expense of other activities. The fact that we try to be as light-touch about it as possible doesn’t change the fact that it takes real effort. If anything, the cost has been rising because we’ve had to impose even more mod rules, given how stressed many people are now, which sadly means more comments go into moderation. So getting to them quickly is even more important than ever.

Managing comments does not mean just handling the moderation queue, setting up and tweaking the various rules (that sometimes, as you also know too well, operate in a Skynet-like manner, despite our best intent). That also means reading the comments, often multiple times a day, and wading in as necessary, sometimes to de-escalate fights, sometimes to act as referees on argumentation strategies, sometimes to clear up benign- or malign-looking mischaracterizations of what the posts or readers said.

We also spend more time than you think in dealing with borderline comments. We often discuss those decisions together, and review a commenter’s history to see if he/she is just having an off day, or whether the comment under consideration is part of a not-good pattern that we’d missed. And that’s before we get to trolling and non-organic drive-bys. (Skynet catches most bots, fortunately.)

This oversight cumulatively takes a lot of time but is a critical investment, since it helps keep the comments at a generally high level. Our efforts also help assure readers that they can express their views and supply important information as long as they adhere to guidelines meant to encourage not just communication but high standards of accuracy and rigor.

The proof of the success of this approach is the fact that we have a real community at Naked Capitalism where many voices can and do express themselves, despite the widely-recognized deterioration of quality of discourse across the Web. Naked Capitalism is even cited in journalism courses as an example of the sort of engaged audience that major media outlets think they want to have (and which they could have, if they’d stop toeing the line of important advertisers and elite interests). So to support these efforts, please give now. Whether it’s $5, $50, or $5000, all help meet our goals.

We have set a target of $20,500 which frankly only partly covers the cost of comments moderation and the newsletter. So please do your part and chip in pronto! The Tip Jar tells you how to give by check, credit or debit card. And if you do send a check, please send an e-mail to yves@nakedcapitalism.com with “Check is in the mail” in the subject line so we can include it in our running tally.

Again, please invest in the commentariat! This goal is for all of us!

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16 comments

  1. Ignacio

    It is true that each commenter individually has her/his own bias. And there is some group think as well so, having diversity is good to keep sanity. Here you have, for instance, the gals and guys that defend nuclear and/or renewables for decarbonization, those that focus on conservation, the de-growth crowd, the de-population crowd etc. Any position discussing in good faith should be welcome. The moderation takes an effort and if it was left to “market forces” the site and all of us would be loosing. As an aside, I feel happy that lately Climate Change has gotten priority over Covid. The paragraph before the last one… wow! Congrats to the team!

  2. orlbucfan

    I’ll third it. :-) Mailed my donation as fast as I could. Thanks Jules, katiebird and the entire NC staff!! Godsend doesn’t begin to describe how valuable you all are!!!!

  3. Zephyrum

    Yesterday I gave a Franklin on PayPal, but Lambert says he likes all the presidents. So today it’s a Grant, Jackson, Hamilton, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington. I’d add an Obama but the US doesn’t have $3 bill yet.

      1. ambrit

        Au contraire mon ambassedeur.
        I remember seeing Dick Nixon Twee Dolla Bills back during the 1972 Republican Convention, which happened in the town I was residing in at the time.

  4. Late Introvert

    I actually wish there were less high quality comments, it takes so much time and I can’t stop reading! Wrote my check just now, that’s another thing I love about NC – y’all PREFER checks.

  5. psv

    Just sent mine – I can’t emphasize enough how valuable this site is, and try to spread the word. Thanks to our esteemed hosts and everyone who makes this place such a pleasure and refuge: a one-stop shop for analysis, commentary, and animal pix – tough combo to beat!

  6. QR

    Hearty thanks!

    Also:

    doing text-searches to see if IM-Doc had posted some new insight in comments, and reflecting that that was a significant source of insight for me

    YES. I still do this search on every Water Cooler, Links, and health-related post. Very much appreciate his thoughts.

  7. Lurker Lois

    I donated the first day I got notice the fundraiser was on. I decided the minimum I should do is a dollar for every day I check Naked Capitalism. Which equals every d@Mn day of the year! I’ve been going through a medical emergency for the last week plus, and after some successful treatment today, one of the first things I said to my husband was “I’m way behind on articles at NK!” And I always find the comments as critical a part of my daily reading as the articles themselves.

    So, while my donation probably was counted in the 1st goal, I wanted to chime in and say comments here are amazing and crucial! We should thus all chip in to fund their continuation.

  8. MarkT

    Thanks to everyone at NC, and to all the insightful commenters. You help to keep me sane in a world gone mad!

Comments are closed.