Monsters live in the dark
The last time we checked in on our fundraising campaign, it was going pretty well.
Does the flame still burn brightly?
Back on Valentine’s Day the total (including offsite donations from people who couldn’t get Indiegogo and/or PayPal to play nicely) stood at £14,301. Today, just past the halfway mark, our generous readers have boosted that to £19,033.
That’s an impressive 64% of the figure which would enable us to make Wings Over Scotland a full-time professional-journalism job. Over the course of the remaining 22 days we need to gather another £10,763 to reach that goal.
(That’s £489.23 a day, for any arithmetically-challenged Unionist hacks reading. We’ve added a special new £489 “perk” to the campaign to help us shoot for the target.)
But those generous readers are in fact just 2% of the site’s readership. That’s pretty good going for crowdfunding projects like this, but it still gives rise to the sobering reflection that just one person in every 50 reading the site cares enough to reach into their pocket for a single £1 to support its work.
Or to put it another way, out of our most recent audit of 33,055 readers, a dismaying 32,409 of them apparently didn’t consider Wings Over Scotland’s 100 posts that month worth a single penny, which is a pretty powerful ego-check.
So since we’re past half-time and as everyone’s just been paid, we’re rattling the tin again. Exposing the lies and busting the myths of the anti-independence campaign, which has the entire print and broadcast media on its side, is a pretty big job for one editor and a small handful of contributors. But we’ll put all the work in. All we ask of you is £1, one time, to help keep fuelling the generators.
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Just made my contribution. Keep up the great work. Thanks and well done.
I would encourage my fellow readers to join paypal for this kind of micro-payment (or greater). It’s very easy then to pay small amounts to a website like Wings Over Scotland with just a few clicks rather than having to laboriously type in the card numbers.
With the limited percentage of readers making payments it does make me wonder about the penetration of Paypal amongst independistas. Maybe there’s room in the market for a better micro payment. It might even save the press. .. Although I would not wish to save the likes of the Scotsman newspaper from it much deserved oblivion.
Ghengis
Couldn’t agree more. I remember when The Scotsman was a newspaper, not the spreader of lies and deceipt it has become.
Rev Stu said “a dismaying 32,409 of them apparently didn’t consider Wings Over Scotland’s 100 posts that month worth a single penny, which is a pretty powerful ego-check.”
Another way of looking at it is that there are an increasing number of people for whom “heating or eating” isn’t a slogan but their lived experience. I’m not saying every one of the c32k readers who haven’t contributed are in that position but a number of us are. I like your blog, it’s excellent but I’m not going to miss meals to pay for it. I hope you reach your £30k target but that’s roughly 9 years JSA.
“Another way of looking at it is that there are an increasing number of people for whom “heating or eating” isn’t a slogan but their lived experience. I’m not saying every one of the c32k readers who haven’t contributed are in that position but a number of us are. I like your blog, it’s excellent but I’m not going to miss meals to pay for it. I hope you reach your £30k target but that’s roughly 9 years JSA.”
Precisely as Morag says – the idea that anyone who couldn’t spare a quid would send one to some daft website is horrific. And in fairness to me, throughout the time the fundraiser’s been running I’ve said exactly that several times, both in public and privately. I’m only too familiar with a situation where not even £1 can be frittered away, and anyone in that situation absolutely and unequivocally shouldn’t be sending a penny of it to me.
As you suggest, though, I suspect that’s a pretty small percentage of the 98%.
(Nobody is obliged to donate anything at all, of course. But when >80% of readers are recurring readers who come back to the site regularly, it does seem that most people place some notional value on it. It doesn’t seem outrageous to ask if they might back that up with a quid one time.)
bearing in mind I reckon I hit you from 4 unique ISPs, you’ve had one payment direct. You’ll get another this month, honest
Panda Paws, I’m sure RevStu would be horrified at the idea that anyone might miss a meal to send a contribition his way. That is exactly why many of us who can afford a bit more put in a bit more.
However, I very much doubt that £1, which is all he’s actually asked for from each individual reader, is a sum that would make the difference between eating and not eating to more than a tiny fraction of people with computers and internet access.
Hi – after an initial donation I’ve just added a subscription. I hope this helps and best of luck with the fundraising.
Awww. Now I feel bad. The better half and I only made one payment, but we probably access from 6 unique IP addresses; but that is nothing new, we have been for about 12 months.
I’m a tad hesitant to pile in with a second Indiegogo donation right now, because I worry that 9% or whatever it is will disappear in commission if the total isn’t reached. I understand RevStu isn’t going to put the £3000 or so in off-system donations through Indiegogo unless they will actually take the appeal to its target, for exactly that reason.
So, while I appreciate the morale-boosting effect of seeing the counter click up, I also wonder what is the right strategy at the moment.
Proud to be a ‘patron’ a couple of times now, will do it again on the 15th when my wage comes in. I do sympathise with people who are unemployed (been there myself), they have to count every penny each day, and of course every one of their votes will count too! Keep up the great work Rev Stu and your contributors.
Morag: Thought I’d answered that already, but noticed you’d asked it in the old thread. Here’s what I said there.
“I have to say I would welcome some guidance from RevStu about now. If he doesn’t make the full near-£30,000 total, then he has to pay about 9% commission. That goes down a lot if he makes the total.
I don’t want to donate again through the Indiegogo site in case the total isn’t met. If it isn’t going to be met, then I think it would be better to donate off-system, so that the commission doesn’t take a big chunk out of it. On the other hand, if the Indiegogo total is looking realistic then I’d chip in and push it closer to that total.
We need more information here.”
The situation is that for the reasons you note, it’s better to get donations in through Indiegogo. Weirdly – and I’m not saying this is a strategy – how it works is that the money donated so far is already in my bank account. It would seem, therefore, that technically I could donate it to myself on the last day to ensure making the target, since we’re more than halfway there. Naturally I’ll have to check the small print in the T&Cs about that, won’t be doing anything fraudulent.
But in any event, even at the much-reduced pace of donations now, we’re still just about on course to hit the target anyway.
Aww man, is the £489 cumulative? I was going to chuck another £100 your way, but the video gamer in me sees a new ranking higher than “Hero” and instinctively wants it…
Happy to make it cumulative, but people will have to alert me if they’ve got there in instalments 🙂
Sorry, RevStu, I didn’t go back to the old thread after I saw you’d started a new one.
I see what you’re driving at, but I don’t see the huge advantage. For every pound you recycled in that way, you’d be paying the reduced commission twice. So from Indiegogo’s point of view, there may not be much of a hit if they allowed you to do that.
I’ll go through Indiegogo if that’s your preferred method, but the alternative of sending it off-system and not paying any commission is still a thought.
Anyway, tomorrow. I’m off Lockerbie plotting this evening, and my PayPal details are not something my office computer knows about, or is going to know about.
“I see what you’re driving at, but I don’t see the huge advantage. For every pound you recycled in that way, you’d be paying the reduced commission twice. So from Indiegogo’s point of view, there may not be much of a hit if they allowed you to do that.”
An excellent point – this is why I’m not an international fraudster. (Though that’d still mean a saving – 2×4% is less than 1×9%, plus you wouldn’t be having to put ALL of it in twice. Plus PayPal charges a commission on direct donations anyway.)
I’m just imagining you saving up the off-system donations, with the option of adding them to the Indiegogo pool if they will in fact make the total. It’s good to have options. On the other hand it’s good to see the Indiegogo total rise.
By the way, as regards the morphing WoS lion, just be careful, I beg you.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=staatsadler%20deutschland&gbv=2&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
Completely O/T (and not wanting to divert attention away from the Rev’s latest rattle of the tin, but does anyone have any thoughts on the Brenda situation?
Eh, what, I hear you say …
Just this – the old sausage-eater is taken to hospital with a tummy bug and the entire world’s media camps outside to digest (honk honk). It got me thinking …
Question – (and with absolutely no respect whatsoever to the Windsors or any of their apologists who might be reading) – when would be the best time for our glorious head of state to peg it, go to heaven and find out it’s not nearly as cushy as the life she had on Earth?
Now – and give old Chuck time to settle in and fray the threads of royalist Britishness that bind us together (sort of)?
In a year’s time and trigger a tsunami of union jackery that would make last year’s Jubilympics look like an IRA funeral?
Or not for at least a couple of years …?
I have my own thoughts.
The thing to think about is…….many Wings readers are finding it tough at the moment and can’t contribute, so I’m happy to contribute more than once and have done……BUT the people who are finding it tough just now are unlikely to see much, if any, improvement in their circumstances under the current political system. And we’re very likely to be stuck with this system well into the future if the lies, spin and propoganda of the BBC and newspapers go unchallenged. That’s why we need the Wings over Scotland site.
So, donating as little as £1.00 now, if you can afford it, could go a long way in the long run to helping improve the life circumstances of those who cannot. And it’s not as though you’ll get nothing back for it – you get a great read, a chance to voice your opinion, a chance to communicate and share concerns with like-minded, cyber pals, the opportunity to contribue to the debate, support a Yes vote and help your fellow citizens. What’s not to like? And all for £1.00!
That’s March’s contribution made and I shall continue to contribute till the battle’s won and we are independent.
Freddie, my initial feeling is that it is best the queen soldiers on a few years more, we get independence, then a decent interval after she pegs it and we can have the debate on a republic without the distraction of an indy referendum.
On the other hand the death of Diana didn’t do the 1997 Scottish Parliament campaign any harm, could a splurge of Britishness do the same for 2014?
Is the new ranking ‘Deity’???
Rev Stuart – I know you don’t have to register to be able to comment on here, so this may be a difficult question, but do you know how many people comment regularly on this site? I suspect that the total number of contributors as a percentage of the regular commenters may go some way to repairing the ego!
@Rev,
As it stands you currently have £16,151.00 of your target which you will have to pay 9% commission on of £1,453.59.
This gives you a total take home value of £14,697.41.
If you decided to pay the remaining £13,645.00 out of the existing money donated then you would pay 4% commission on the full £29,796.00 target.
That’s a value of £1,191.84. This would mean that you would be taking home the £16,151.00 you currently have (not the fictitious full value) less the £1,191.84 commission.
Or to put it another way you would get a total take home value of £14,959.16.
What I’m trying to say here is that you are ALREADY past the point where making sure you reach your target will pay off.
Another contribution made hopefully the total will be exceeded by the due date. Well done to the Rev Stu and all article contributors. Only one wee negativity in that the budgie isnae happy now that the Hootsman is know longer used in the tray for it’s droppings. Steady as she goes and victory will be assured.
32,409 Wings readers are too poor to be able to afford to donate £1.00 to keep the site going.
Makes you think.
32,409 Wings readers can afford to donate just £1.00 to help their fellow, less well-off citizens….but for some reason don’t.
Makes you think.
Danny Alexander says that independence would cost all Scots £1.00.
Makes you think.
32,409 Wings readers can afford to donate just £1.00 to help their fellow citizens but are scared they then wouldn’t be able to afford Danny Alexander’s additional £1.00 when independence comes.
Makes you think.
Money’s very tight for me just now, but I just realised that I might have some spare change floating around in my Paypal account. Sure enough, I had £3 I had completely forgotten about.
So I’ve sent it on Rev Stu, and I’m pleased that I was able to contribute something, even though it’s only a little.
Sorry that I’ve just sent it by Paypal rather than via indie-thingy..
Scott Minto (Aka Sneekyboy) says:
Is the new ranking ‘Deity’???
Who knows??, the pope has left a position open in Scotland .. 😉
RevStu, how much do you want for a smart mounted print of Hamish in the balloon, cutting away the ballast? ‘Cos I got paid last week….
“RevStu, how much do you want for a smart mounted print of Hamish in the balloon, cutting away the ballast? ‘Cos I got paid last week….”
Hamish belongs to Chris, so I’ll have to discuss that with him…
Another donation sent in on my behalf.
Rev and Morag and Jeannie
Thanks for the responses.
Jeannie – Like I said not all of the 32k are in the position they can’t afford it, but a fair number could be. I didn’t want them feeling “got at” or guilty because they can’t.
Morag – I use mainly use library computers to access the internet so you can’t assume that folks have internet because they are on online. Plus newly unemployed/disabled could still be locked into IPS contracts.
Rev – thanks for reiterating your position re those who can’t afford it but it might be helpful to put a tagline on your appeals to that effect for new readers. I think a fair number can afford it so cajole away, but you don’t want people to stop coming and/or feeling guilty if they can’t.
Oh, panda paws, I know there are cheap-to-free ways to get online all right. I merely question whether such a high proportion of the 30,000-odd readers really and truly have to choose between eating and donating £1. Some, indeed. Many – I doubt it.
@panda paws
Ferr doos. Many of us have been in a similar position at one time or another in our lives and haven’t forgotten the experience, but it never hurts to be reminded of how it felt.
Rev, did you moderate a post of mine, approxSan hour ago?
“Rev, did you moderate a post of mine, approxSan hour ago?”
Nope. Will check the spam filter.
EDIT: Nothing in there under your name. Must have been some kind of technical hitch, try it again and let me know what happens.
@ pandapaws
Consider yourself paid up. I’ve been where you are and know what it’s like. Good luck
I have to miss meals on a regular basis and
still managed to donate a quid. It doesn’t make me
a martyr; I would be missing meals anyway so a pound
is well spent here. Unlikely I will be able to do so
regularly unless my ebay sales work or I get the job
I’m after (altho with circa 400 applications last year & not
even an interview I won’t hold my breath).
Still, on the up side, at least I don’t have a spare bedroom!
“I have to miss meals on a regular basis and
still managed to donate a quid. It doesn’t make me
a martyr; I would be missing meals anyway so a pound
is well spent here. Unlikely I will be able to do so
regularly”
Geoff: it’s much appreciated, but I seriously don’t want people sending money they should be spending on food. That’s four packets of Morrisons economy tomato-and-onion pasta shells, which have been a staple of my diet more than once. (And in truth also when I wasn’t so poor, because they’re actually damn nice.)
In either event, the fundraiser is for a ONE-OFF donation of a quid, so certainly don’t be sending any more. You’ve done your bit.
I’m on Invalidity benefit, or whatever it is called now, yet I have managed to donate to Patron level. Its all a matter of priorities and what value one places on this site. The only question I would ask of those who have not yet donated, is what price would you pay to secure freedom of speech? This site may not have the power to protect basic civil liberties, but it is a least trying to help secure a future for Scotland where human rights are protected by a written constitution. A future for Scotland, where our political system is as open and democratically accountable as possible. Personally, I would also hope to see a complete reform of the banking system as well, but I would happily settle for independence and play it by ear from there. There is no hope for Scotland if it remains within a dysfunctional political union, dominated by the City of London.
Vote Yes in 2014.
Already made a wee donation and hoping to be in a position to make another before the closing date. For those who are not in a position to any donate money, there are other ways you can contribute – sharing posts on Facebook or Twitter or even forwarding a link to a good post on the site to an indy minded friend. All these help build traffic and attract donations. For those who can donate and haven’t dig deep.
@Betsy
Well said, Betsy. Everybody’s got something to offer and if we just pool our resources, whatever form they may take, we’ll get there in the end!
I’m sure if the rev visited all of the readers personally with a bucket he’d reach his total easily. Some people don’t have paypal or don’t do online banking/transitions. Anyway made a small donation into the virtual bucket.
Sorry, I hope I didn’t come across as holier than thou. I just have no major financial commitments, so am fortunate in that respect. Whatever, however people are able to help the cause, is fine by me.
I’ve donated once already and will again tomorrow.
To once and for all silence those who seek to undermine this extraordinary country and extraordinary people is a cause worthwhile.
My spontaneous response to the appeal was to subscribe monthly via Paypal. Cashflow is king for me. If just 1% of the readership here would commit to £1 per week that would really provide impetus to Wings.
Competing demands dictate that I need to hold off for a week or so before committing a lumpsum, I’ll be in before the deadline though and my monthly subscription will continue beyond.
Hamish and the balloon. I’m itching to get a T-shirt, and a mug, and and. i hope Chris is agreeable to getting some commerce going.
Completely o/t but there’s a programme starting on radio 4 at 8pm ‘documenT’ about the media and MI6 in the cold war. Might offer some insight!
I’ve given what I can. I promised to join in with the payday top up and so I’ve donated again. Hope we all get there okay. 🙂
Right, I give up. Which one of those monsters in Chris’ graphic is Margaret Curran?
@MajorBloodnok
sakes man , it’s the one next to Lament
Facepalm!
Curran, Lamont, and, wait for it…. Helen Liddel!
Liddell, aide a Maxwell. High commissar to the Antipodes. And damn, is she a dame?
Some readers here are finding it difficult to contribute to the Rev’s appeal fund and meantime, what are the collective earnings we taxpayers donate to these three? And what use are they?
Think about it. If all three fled to some convent would we be the worse for it?
And if Rev threw in the towel in despair over only 2% of readers to Wings being willing to support him? Would we be the worse for it?
Your contribution achieves two things. One, helps reach the target funding. Two indicates to the Rev that his efforts are appreciated and worthwhile.
Gone from contributor to benefactor to patron. The least I can do – worth every penny! Can’t afford to be a hero or saviour as saving for a wedding 🙁 (or 😀 to the wedding!)
The other way is just ‘not got round to it yet’ – suspect several thousands in there (self included). Patience
Wait a minute, Wait a minute!,
It is only a measly one pound the Rev is asking for, surely there is NO-ONE who
cannot spare one pound, do without that “ciggie”or two, skip that pint, and you’ve
got your pound,although I do see how for some actually paying the pound into the
fund may be difficult if they do not have “pay-pal” or the like.
my second donation will arrive shortly Rev, my lap-top has been on the operating
table for the last week, but now I have moved it into intensive care!!.
I have set up a wee monthly contribution, the voice inside my head usually says ‘put your money where your mouth is lass!’. And er yep stopped buying the M Star as was getting fed up of their biased reporting re Independence, so will donate more afore the deadline. Thanks for all the great articles, I have a habit of posting my fave’s to f’book…and sending the gems to pals not on facebook.
@ Craig P
My belated thanks to your response to my off-subject musings on the timing of the Queen’s demise. I concur – never thought I’d hear these words pass my lips but, ‘God Save the Queen’ … at least for a couple of years!
@ Craig P & Freddie
The same for Mrs. T, I wouldn’t want her to miss out on the party (hopefully I’m not counting chickens).
The running ‘indiegogo’ part of the overall total was £16,151 at midday. At 1145pm it was £16.577, an increase of £426, some £63.23 short of Stu’s daily £489.23 target.
I coughed up £10 earlier this evening. Before we go to bed tonight, let’s raise the remaining days total by at least £60 to accomplish in 12 hours what needs to be achieved every 24 hours thereafter until Rev rings our bell.
Hit it!
You have email RevStu.
(BTW, its rhetorical, but how long do we have to keep up the pretence that Hermione isn’t shonglanker trying to get a rise, even if but a stiffy go fcuk her/himaphrodite self?)
Well the Better Together bunch will have to change their mantra to “Too Wee, Too Stupid.
What is happening to the new http://www.wingsoverscotland.com web address? I’ve given it to a number of folk, but at present can only get through on the wingsland.podgamer one.
“What is happening to the new http://www.wingsoverscotland.com web address? I’ve given it to a number of folk, but at present can only get through on the wingsland.podgamer one.”
Due to an annoying and dismaying number of technical hitches and red tape, the new site still isn’t online. Am constantly harassing people and it really ought to be sorted by tomorrow morning. Would fix the holding page but I no longer actually own an HTML editing prog since Microsoft discontinued FrontPage, the twats.
Double Your Donation For Free
It was heartening to see Rev’s ‘indiegogo’ funding drive attract almost an additional £500 in the last 24hours. And I’m sure all his 30,000 or so readers – especially those you have done their bit by contributing to date – would wish to see that momentum maintained to reach his goal of £1 per head per reader.
So, to move onward and upward, I hereby pledge a total of £150 today.
But there’s a catch. The proviso is that amount is matched by other donations.
I’ll kick-off with £10 at Stage 1. When matched, I’ll double to £20 at Stage 2 and likewise £40 and £80 at Stages 3 and 4 respectively.
That would raise £300 of the £500 needed by midday tomorrow. So the aim is also to catch a £100 donor to pledge Stage 5 and once matched reach the £500 total.
I’ll see from the rising ‘indiegogo’ total when to pay up and move to the next stage, carrying any excess over into it.
To attract as much attention to today’s drive as possible, please tweet & facebook #indyref ‘Double Your Donation For Free’ or words to that effect linked to this article.
And to donate, hit the blue ‘fundraising campaign’ link in the first line of this article.
The ‘indiegogo’ running total was £16, 600 at midday. My Stage 1 pledge for £10 is now open to be matched.
Over to all of you.
Indion – matched!
Frances has swiftly matched my Stage 1 Pledge of £10, so thats £20 in all.
My Stage 2 pledge of £20 is now open to be matched.
It doesn’t have to be the whole amount: many a mickle macks the muckle that YES is all about.
Hit me people!
…..and raised……
I’ve just bunged another tenner in – was intending to do that now I’ve been paid anyway.
Redundant from the end of this month though so might not be able to do much after that 🙁
Was that a £20 Highlander?
cath, you’re a star!
(Assuming Highlander was indeed in for £20, that’s a £10 credit c/f to Stage 3)
And you’re not redundant either. Re future work, what do you do now/want to do in future if different, and where (roughly)?
Highlander, please confirm your ‘raise’ was a £20. (Its been a while since I played poker and the ‘indiegogo’ tracker lags behind payments, so holding me back from moving on soonest.)
Great tweet Rev! Request repeat with #indyref tag for r/t next time.
Finally got round to it! I figured £1 a week is nothing for this level of journalism! I’ll get myself down the docks this weekend with my Rock Horror outfit on and see if I can rustle up another pound or two ;-D
OK, Stage 2 pledge of £20 matched, so that’s £60 so far.
My Stage 3 pledge of £40 is now open to be matched. Of that, Cath has contributed £10 already, so now looking for £30 more in whole or as aggregated parts.
Double Your Donatation To WingsOverScotland At No Cost!
Tweet with #indyref tag to hit me again people!
turnip_ghost: we’ll all make a muckle in turning the tide 🙂
At £16739, ‘indiegogo’ for WoS cumulative total has now risen by £139 since midday today. That’s £1 short of twice my £70 pledged so far.
So my Stage 4 pledge of £80 is now open to be matched as it will be by the next donation of £10!
Hit me people one more time and my £150 total will be winging it’s way into the pot too!
We’re coming up to an hour away from 5pm’s peak viewing on WoS – and i need to walk the dogs again before dark.
So between now and then I need to see £10 more donated before honouring my £150 pledge in full.
This is a must do example of what should be £300 done and dusted since midday – before seeking from others joining us online the additional Stage 5 pledge of £100 and matching donations to reach the daily £500 target.
To expedite matters, the pledge could be 1x£100 or the sum of contributing parts broken down into, say 1x£10, 2x£20 and 2x£25 pledges from different folk. Whoever makes them, I’ll stick around to keep track and move things along.
It’s just gone 4pm. Lets do this and set the last stage for £500 before the dogs pee all over me!
Stage 5 of Double Your Donation To WOS At No Cost.
Congratulations everyone – especially cath – who donated pound for pound to match the total of £150 pledged and now paid in full.
Hence the ‘indiegogo’ for WoS cumulative total has risen from £16,000 at midday via the Stage 1 to 4 target total of £300 pounds to £16,930 at 5pm.
That means WoS is already £330 in the black towards reaching Rev’s daily target of £500 to remain on track for the £10,000 needed in the next 20 days and the overall target of £30,000.
So, if anyone reading this can pledge £100 – with the proviso its matched by other donations – please do so now.
Alternatively, 1x£50 + 1x£25 + 2X£10 + 1X£5, or any combination of pledges from different folk would be as welcome if not moreso from what would be more folk.
Just make your pledge below and watch those and the matching donations double-up.
To repeat, its somewhat qixotic, but as of 5pm there is already £30 awaiting match-up with a pledge or pledges.
Go ahead for it!
Back soon after the dogs’ walk!
Sorry, Indion, I don’t quite understand how your pledge, stage 1, 2, 3 works 🙂
Anyway, I went and donated £35 before I saw your pledge – for purely selfish, egoistical reasons.
Egoistical: Add today’s sum to my first donation about three weeks ago and I’m a patron! (Rev, are indiegogo donations accumulative?). Selfish, because I enjoy WoS and want it to continue to provide me with information and intelligent entertainment.
I think WoS is great value for money – it’s free and even with my donations it’s cheaper than my local/regional newspaper (200 euro/year, home delivered on the doormat before 6am six days a week, Sunday edition for free in the mailbox at the end of the building. This paper serves an area with approximately 90.000 inhabitants, weekday circulation 21.500, Sunday 52.500)
I hope I haven’t come across as some rich bitch, because I’m not. I have a below average income but just think carefully where I put my money. For instance, I spend very little on clothes or cosmetics, and my tv is a 20-yr-old castoff from my parents (and no pay channels!). I’ll forego a few pints at the local to pay for WoS. Anybody who can afford pints could abstain from one and donate that to WoS. And WoS readers and commenters who are genuinely very hard up shouldn’t feel guilty about not being able to contribute at this juncture. Just visting the site and pushing up the figures is a great thing.
Also, about three, four weeks ago, when I was being very active commenting here, one of the regular commenters (I’m sorry, I forget who it was, and I can’t be arsed to browse back) asked, in a very polite and friendly way, just out of curiosity, why I, a Finn, would comment on a Scottish political site.
I explained it once on BBC’s Blether with Brian “blog” way back when comments were open and not restricted in length, I explained it again when I moved over to NNS (before their comments were limited to 1000 characters etc.) I’ll explain it again, for the benefit of WoS readers who haven’t seen my previous explanations.
I’m a Finn, born and bred. However, I have lived many years of my life in various English-speaking countries. The US, visited Canada on several occasions, Australia, visited NZ… England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland… I haven’t been to South Africa.
I lived in Scotland in the early-mid 1990s (before devolution) and again in the 2000s. Family stuff brought me back to Finland but I’m hoping to return. I love Scotland because it’s a beautiful country (I’m a hillwalker and love the mountains) and the right to roam, wild camping, the whole mentality is the same as back home in Finland. Compared to the overcrowded English mindset of strict paths and no straying onto private land.
All the Scots I’ve ever met are friendly after an initial reserve, then they’re welcoming, and interested in my wee country. We swap scare stories about our nasty neighbours… I feel at home in Scotland, far more than I do in England. In England I’m a foreigner from a small, insignificant country – you’d be surprised how many perfectly nice, well-educated Englshmen/women aren’t even sure where Finland is! The Scots I know, know. And the Irish… When in Ireland, we talk about nasty eastern neighbours… I still think Finland wins. The Russian empire, Soviet Russia, Soviet Union, and now oligarical Putin’s Russia are not the neighbours you’d want to have. My only consolation is that Finland secured her independence in 1917, so we can be Finns, not just some obscure northwestern province of Russia (or an estern province or Sweden, like we were from around 1200 to 1809).
Sorry, bit of an essay again. I’ll get me coat… 😀
“Rev, are indiegogo donations accumulative?”
Yes, but you have to alert me, because Indiegogo doesn’t send any sort of notifications that someone’s donated more than once and there’s no way I’m going to just notice when going through close to 700 contributions… 🙂
“And you’re not redundant either.”
Ah, thanks Indion. Actually, that is one very good thing about the independence referendum. You can be unemployed and utterly skint but no one will ever be redundant over the next 18 months 🙂
@lumilumi-
In 2002 I spent six weeks in Grez-sur-Loing, just south of Paris, in the Hotel Chevillon, a kind of artists’ retreat/commune. I was the only Scot there (it was a residency called the Robert Louis Stevenson Award) – all the other residents were Swedish or Finnish.
What a wonderful experience it was, meeting these people – painters, sculptors, photographers, philosophers – they accepted me as an equal and didn’t care a jot that I was ‘working-class’ and obscure. We were all just creative folk who happened to have met in the same place for a limited period. It was a life-changing month-and-a-half for me, and I’m still in sporadic contact with some -Mika Hytti the artist, Joel and Anna Hahtella (spelling??) who was a very busy novelist. I hope they’re both household names now!
Post-independence, the contacts between our nations will grow – nothing surer. And that’s to be looked forward to greatly. (I forget what’s Finnish for ‘cheers!’)
No change since 5pm looks like getting home from work to evening meal time, as it is for me too in standing down now.
As things stand, WoS is £170 short of Rev’s daily £500 target by midnight and over the next 19 days (leaving 1 day – Mon 25 Mar – spare) during which to raise the remaining £10,000 of the overall £30,000 target.
And there is no reason why folk in funds can not continue to make pledges and so attract matching reponses to be honoured when the donation(s) have been made by keeping track of the ‘indiegogo’ for WoS cumulative total shown via the blue ‘fundraising campaign’ link in the first line of Stu’s article here.
Meanwhile, I look forward to wos.com as well.
lumilumi: see my 12:41 entry et seq and get back to me here if you have any residual questions
“As things stand, WoS is £170 short of Rev’s daily £500 target by midnight”
Actually we’ve done £1,079 in the last 32 hours.
Indion, I donated £57 so feel free to use that however you need to, to reach stages 1, 2 or 3 😀
I don’t know about Rev, I suppose he must be feeling the tension all the more so, but it really will burst me if we don’t make this after all the great progress so far!
“I don’t know about Rev, I suppose he must be feeling the tension all the more so, but it really will burst me if we don’t make this after all the great progress so far!”
Well, it’s not like a Kickstarter where if you don’t reach the target you get nothing – all the money so far is locked in, so no matter what happens now I’ll be doing this for a wee while. Try to relax… 🙂
Smashing, and at 7:55pm, still 4 hours of latest 36 hours / £750 to go, so already £329 of the £1,079 ahead.
(Apologies, I was working solely from the ‘indiegogo’ £16.600 cumulative total since midday and not the £16,150 there at midnight last night, and of course unaware of contributions via other means bar your notable, overall ‘£10,000 to go’ tweet. No matter, the sooner your remaining readers who have yet to chip-in do so, the sooner donations can be directed to help elsewhere: eg bella, nationalcollective and the Yes campaign itself.
My 8:41pm was for RevStu at 7:55pm.
[ Goal for ManU by 8:50pm. Howzat for a time travelling prediction at 8:46pm 😉 ]
Turnip_Ghost at 8:13 pm
TVM, but no need ‘cos:
a. If you donated that £57 via ingiegogo between midday and 5pm (see my 12:15 and 5:15 pm entries), then you were one of those who did help match my Stage 1, 2, 3 & 4 pledges amounting to £150 raising £300 plus an ‘extra’ £30 in total.
b. OTH, if you contributed other than via indiegogo between midday and 5pm, you nonetheless boosted WoS donations by £57.
It all adds up!
When I went to contribute it was £16,739 and after my contribution, £16,774. I don’t know what it means to indio’s pledge.
The only problem I had with the contribution was when paypal asked for my phonenumber. I gave it in the usual, international way, +358xx xxx xxxx but that was refused, so I gave my number in the domestic way (xxx-xxx xxxx) . Silly, because I’ve got all my Finnish friends as +358xx xxx xxxx and all my foreign friends as +(country code) xxx xxxx. That indiegogo website isn’t aware that contributors might come from all over the world, even outside the English-speaking world. Duh!
[ Note to set record straight: the £16,000 figure in my 5 Mar 12:14pm entry should of course been £16,600 as at my 5:16 and 8:41pm entries. ]
lumilumi at 5 Mar 10:47pm
Apologies for failing to reply properly to you last night in letting you know that the first £10 of your £35 donation was the last £10 needed to match my Stage 4 pledge of £40.
So thanks for helping me honour my Stage 1, 2, 3 & 4 pledged total of £150 in full having been matched by at least £150 of donations from others including yourself.
Regret I was unable to make or take further pledges which your remaining £25 would have helped match in whole or part to be honoured too.
Again, the main thing is that it all adds up.
Hi all –
Whilst popping over to Scot goes Pop I see cynicalHighlander has linked to this article in the Scotsman from 2002
link to scotsman.com
It’s called ‘In the grip of the Party’ and is all about the Labour Party’s very wide influence on Scottish society. Compulsory reading and should be sent to anyone doubting what is happening in today’s Scottish media.
Have now coughed up. Sorry it took so long.
Here’s my second donation of a tenner. Well worth it. Keep it up. No doubt in my mind this is one of THE best pro indy sites on the web.
Donate button still points to old site…
Still think you should be making a monthly Standin Order donation possible
It is possible. You just have to phone your bank and tell them to do it, easy as pie.
Stuart,
Having returned home after business meetings in Eastern Europe I caught up on some Newsnicht recordings.
Wednesdays GERS episode with Gordon Brewer was depressing to watch.. I dedicate my 2nd payment this time of £23 to Gordon Brewer…
You need to send him a WOS Calender and Christmas card this year !
Donated again.
Hi Frances,
Thanks for the article – I know of only one that is now on the indy camp, others here will know better.
I want to contribute to your funding appeal again but you system can’t seem to accept my attempts to do so. Is there a problem?
That’s me a fully paid up member noo.
Well, it might take a day to transfer or whatever, but ’tis done.
right, that’s the price of a fish supper for you Rev set up monthly. Get them telt! 🙂
@Juteman
“The Urban Dictionary maybe has the answer.”
The “Americanisms” of the definition couldn’t by any chance show connections to American advise?