It’s time once again for our pledge drive

Dear SM Readers,

It is time once again for us bloggers at Sepia Mutiny to extend our empty cups and ask for donations to keep this website running. Remember, every time you visit our site it costs us money. We have recently purchased a dedicated server because we plan on greatly expanding our services. Just be patient a while longer and we will start to slowly roll out new features one at a time. The master plan is top secret right now but has been codenamed Operation Sepia Utopia.

Much like NPR and PBS hold an annual pledge drive, we are asking you to donate whatever you can via our Paypal link. If you don’t want to use Paypal but rather mail in a check then contact us for a mailing address. Donations will keep our website ad-free and distraction-free. The thermometer on the sidebar will disappear once we have met our goal of a $1000 for the next year of service. If enough of you give just a few dollars we might be able to meet our goal in under a week. Thanks in advance everyone! As you can see in the pictures below, we have a lot of supporters rooting for us.

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76 thoughts on “It’s time once again for our pledge drive

  1. Another thing: Yo, ya’ll don’t know how to take a joke re: #18.

    But I’m serious about adding my name to this blog and raising money on my behalf… Help a sista out!!

  2. seeing that I am part shareholder, I suggest a little makeover. How about changing to the name to “Sepia Mutiny & CAD”? Nice ring to it, no?

    Thank you so much for finding it in your student budget to give, but I still vote a firm NO on both the name change AND your valiant attempts to threadjack a charity post and make it about fundraising for you. 😉

    :+:

    By the way, on a more serious note: I’m sure I could be wrong about this, but I actually KNOW JoAT, both IRL and through someone whom I really adore, who grew up with her and I REALLY don’t think she was singling you out. As an ex-non-profit-slave, I think her concerns are 100% valid and they’ve just been echoed by another reader who agrees. Let’s not commence a petty party, shall we? Not when this post is otherwise filled with such sweetness.

  3. :starving student but how much is giving $5 for a site that we know a lot of people are addicted to :really :putting a dent in your pocket

    damn…i “over donated”. can i get some refund pleez.

  4. Enivhsay,

    I hear ya sista. I’m just sick of cheap desis who are total couture whores but won’t fork over some generosity towards a good cause. Incidentally I hate to say it but my white friends were extremely generous with zero drama and the more bling bling the more cheap people are. I’d like to donate to you. Stick a link here. You never know.

    CAD get over yourself. That’s all I got to say to you. Quit tripping yourself to assume anytime anyone has anything to say it somehow is about you. Who are you again? I don’t know you from the nail on the wall. If I have a problem with your POV(the tanning/smoking) I had no issues stating in the post it was relevant to. I don’t participate in catty unrelated sidebar bitchfests.

  5. I just wanted to say w00t SM for almost achieving the yearly goal in 48 hours! It speaks to the growth of the mutiny and the value we have for you. And thank you for keeping the space irritant-free (banners and ads and pop-ups, not so much commenting, haha)

    I’m glad my SM sponsorship dollars will go to feeding and watering Ennis, and slowly weaning him off his diet of canned spaghetti-o’s and stale makki roti.

  6. Oh shit, dudes, in case the $1000 is reached…please don’t take the paypal link off just yet, give me 2 1/2 hrs, until I get to my home comp, I don’t trust this Rajni’s box….I WANT TO PAY TO PLAY, bluds. Please please please, grovel grovel grovel.

  7. JOAT and Enivhsay – If you’re asking for “voluntary” donations for a good cause, you should not complain if someone declines to “pay up” (as long as they do not question the cause itself).

  8. JOAT and Enivhsay – If you’re asking for “voluntary” donations for a good cause, you should not complain if someone declines to “pay up” (as long as they do not question the cause itself).

    If I may, I think what they’re complaining about is poor priorities/general obnoxiousness. If you’re going to flaunt a $1500 purse at a charity event, you can obviously afford to throw more than three bucks in the pot. For heaven’s sake, you get a TAX DEDUCTION…if that doesn’t get the wealthy to part ways with their cash…

    Of course, no one HAS to donate anything…but I think it’s incredibly tacky to use such occasions to get drunk on the cheap and show fuck-all concern for the cause which got you subsidized champagne in the first place. And THEN to drop your three dollars because you’re trying to get lucky with some schwag? Wow. That’s so kind. I think it’s ALWAYS tacky to try and use a charity event/fund drive for your own purposes, whether it’s to score liquor, men, giftbags or all of the above.

    I tried to raise scholarship funds for a non-profit in ’02 and I loved getting turned down by Uncles who had just finished bragging about how rich they were, Benz keychain conspicuous. I think that’s what they’re bothered by and good for them, for it.

  9. JOAT and Enivhsay – If you’re asking for “voluntary” donations for a good cause, you should not complain if someone declines to “pay up” (as long as they do not question the cause itself).

    I understand and wouldn’t want to force someone to pay when they can’t. Please then refrain from showing up at a fundraiser with your Pradas and Monolos and strut your shyt for men and drink my alcohol and fawn over how good you feel about yourself. Thank you. 🙂 Generosity is a state of mind and a character trait. You don’t need to have oodles of dough to be generous. Queen ANNA said it better.

    Enivhsay no goodies required 🙂

  10. Please then refrain from showing up at a fundraiser with your Pradas and Monolos and strut your shyt for men and drink my alcohol and fawn over how good you feel about yourself.

    damn joat, you need to start running with a different crowd!

    rich people suck. it’s axiomatic.

  11. Finally I found the thread where I can show my appreciation for Sepia Mutiny and the people who keep it running. I really feel I should contribute but fear it will be too less for a student like me. Whats the benchmark? How do you keep it running BTW?

  12. ANNA- I like the way you work it 😉

    but seriously, it’s a fine line I suppose, asking for charitable contributions. At a former job, it was accepted that guilt and all sorts of other ill-feeling-generating tactics were employed to do almost everything except coerce employee participation in company-selected charity fundraising. I found it a bit invasive as A) they have no idea what charitable donations I give of my own free accord and B) there may be circumstances in people’s personal lives that prohibit participation at the level the company may have felt was acceptable. I think a polite no, once, should be enough in workplace fundraising situations.

    As for SM demanding pay for play, that’s totally cool, seeing as I made most of last year’s income while lurking here 😉 My only guilt is for hitting refresh 800x a day.

  13. Paypaled in some bling. It ain’t much, but hopefully it helps. A government salary, tickets to India, attending wedding of friends, and GAS prices in so. cal have drained reserves here.

  14. seriously, guys, would it be possible to keep the paypal link up for voluntary contributions over the year anyway? i’ve thought from the time i started here that it would be nice to contribute at some point. or can we just email you?..or do you only want to cover that particular cost?

  15. You’re blowing my mind, maybe in time Baby I can get you in my ride!

    Hey yo hey yo hey yo hey yo.

    Done deal, SM, you be the baddest click up on this thing.

  16. …but I still gave whatever I could to causes that meant a lot to me

    We all believe in some cause(s) or other (I HOPE) but we all also find that we have to end up choosing which to donate to in any particular year. So just because someone says in a NICE post that they cannot afford it this year … (1) that does not imply they have not donated to any cause they think vital and WITHOUT adequate donators (that last is important). (I donate generously every year to underfunded things) whether or not I can ‘afford’ it. (2) Anna, you are wonderful, but always stand up for JOAT…however, until her post all the entries were warm-spirited. I feel her post was calculated to make those who had taken the trouble to ‘explain’ their position feel cheap and bad.

  17. Anna, you are wonderful, but always stand up for JOAT…however, until her post all the entries were warm-spirited. I feel her post was calculated to make those who had taken the trouble to ‘explain’ their position feel cheap and bad.

    Ouch. I simply am not that cunning to make anything “calculated” Ms FN seriously. What you see is what you get at face value. There is no deception involved. I was simply voicing my feeling about something that popped up in my head at the time having gone thru a fundraiser for my own cause in the past two weeks. Your objection makes it sound like no one is allowed to rock the boat.

  18. JOAT,

    Perhaps the use of the word “calculated” was ill-advised. But so was insulting implications like the one below:

    I’m just sick of cheap desis who are total couture whores but won’t fork over some generosity towards a good cause.

    It was clear who you were addressing your comments to, but just because you recently worked at some fundraiser did not give you leave to demean people who said they could not currently contribute and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they never donate.

  19. Ms FN you are being sensitive. There was no malice involved towards any one or all people who didn’t want to donate. I was making a sidebar statement about cheap people and still stand by it. IMO if one has wealth, flaunts it, indulges in excesses they lose the right to complain about how they can’t donate. Those were the people I was speaking about.

  20. JoAT

    IMO if one has wealth, flaunts it, indulges in excesses they lose the right to complain about how they can’t donate.

    A 5 yr old Toshiba laptop, chellpa soap (?), haldi-besan-curd mix, wash cloth, and a desperate appeal to jumpstart “CAD fundraiser”. Talk about flaunting and indulging in excesses 🙂 j/k

  21. Anna, you…always stand up for JOAT

    No, I always stand up for what I think is right. I thought her strongly-worded comment was dead-on…

    however, until her post all the entries were warm-spirited.

    I consummately disagree. If you want me to be blunt, I think the threadjack preceding JoAT’s response is what actually inspired this unnecessary clusterfuck. Dearest Ms Fink, unless Joan is talking about you (and if you’ll pardon my assumption, I don’t think from your past comments that you are that kind of shallow, heartless, clueless…woman), why take it personally?

    I knew that my gut reaction of approval was right when another reader echoed Joan’s experience– I think it’s a common frustration for people who’ve worked with our community (hell, any community) and I was glad that they were sharing their thoughts, since the situation they were decrying was one I feel passionately about, due to my own heartache with similar efforts.

    I was at a criminally low-paying job just two months ago. I know what it’s like to think paycheck-to-paycheck is an awesome thing. That is why I said that to me, just expressing that you would donate was as good as actually doing so. I loved the intention as much as the act.