Thanks to our generous first responders who made getting the fundraiser off to a running start a priority. Your prompt action helped us meet our first target, for our IT essentials, in a smidge over 24 hours. You turned this around so quickly that katiebird’s thermometer is behind where we are.
We are now $2510 towards our second goal, of supporting the comments section. We are also 159 donations towards the fundraiser target of 1100 donors.
Your donations prove that you value this community and want a better debate and a better society. You are willing to invest to have us improve Naked Capitalism so it can be 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, enables us to provide your daily dose of of extensive news overviews, compelling commentary, prescient analysis, and heart-warming animal pictures, as well as a digital watering hole where you can hang out with the like-minded.
In 2021, we made a big addition to Naked Capitalism’s services out of the “commentariat” budget, that of our monthly newsletter. As much as we like having you come here every day, we know you have busy real world lives and might take some time off from us. And this year, we went to twice a month to make to easier to stay current. So please take your hats off to moderator katiebird, who is also the major domo of the monthly newsletter and of our fundraiser support.
Readers have been sending gratifying messages, particularly about how much they value the comments section. From Jess H:
I am such a fan of Naked Capitalism and figure I get the lowdown on current events, untainted by extreme bias, or outright conscious propaganda when I read NC’s articles. Then I get the personal and local experiences of the readership by reading the comments. Just sent 100.00 as a donation. I support monthly as well. Keep up the wonderful, good work. You are needed now more than ever!😊🇨🇦
And Ben Panga:
NC is an oasis of sanity and rationality in a desert of lies and idiocy. I value Yves’ and all the other writers’ work hugely. So often a post appears which gives detailed, referenced analysis of topics I am curious but ignorant about.
The comments section here is the only place on the internet I engage in. Despite the depressing things we discuss, NC is a place of hope for me. So many of us wanting and trying to find a way to a better world, talking with respect and often care for each other.
Thank you so much all of you!
And joe muprhy:
Thanks to NC and all!
I did a quick estimate of how many comments I’ve read at NC through the years. The number is absolutely mind boggling. I only now have realized the work involved with a moderated comment section.
And our first donor in this fundraiser, Pete W:
The contribution represents a mere fraction of the value received. Honest, principled, no-agenda commentary is vanishingly rare.
And John M:
Happy to support! I have been a long time reader (since about 2008). I am glad the site has continued to thrive and grow :)
Look forward to continued reading!
Thank to katiebird’s, and semper loquitur’s (who also does double duty now with the new Sunday movie feature) heavy lifting, comments are freed faster than in the past. But the moderators also play an essential role in adjudicating cases, which are typically discussed among all of the site admins. They also correct inaccurate links and sometimes intercede in comments. Katiebird maintains a spreadsheet of who is in various doghouses and why, which is extremely helpful when we reconsider cases. As we mentioned, she also prepares our twice-monthly newsletter and semper loquitur handles some key administrative tasks
With algo-stoked polarization becoming even more intense as Trump tries to implement his counter-revolution as break-neck speed, the result is more cheap sloganeering and open anger s across the Web. It’s taken more work to keep Naked Capitalism an oasis of sanity and civility in a media wasteland.
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 research and posting. We actually do try to light-touch but with so much understandable collective anxiety regularly producing overhasty and overheated reactions, it takes real effort. If anything, the cost has been rising because we’ve had to impose even more mod rules, 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, multiple times a day, and wading in as necessary, sometimes to de-escalate or act as referees, 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.
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 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 $26,000 which frankly only partly covers the total 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!
