It is time once again for us bloggers at Sepia Mutiny to extend our empty hats and ask for donations to keep this blog running for another year. Remember, every time you visit our site it costs us money (my Amex Blue is bleeding red right now). We don’t bother you guys with any money-making ads on this site, nor do we sell out to the man and write what he asks us to write for cold cash. Do you really want us to plaster marriage ads all over the blog?
Much like NPR and PBS hold an annual pledge drive, we are asking you to donate whatever you can via our Paypal link. Keep in mind that we haven’t asked for any donations in over a year. If you don’t want to use Paypal but would rather mail in a check, then write me at abhi [at] sepiamutiny dot com for a mailing address. Donations will keep our website ad-free and crap-free for a year provided we can reach our target of $1000. That shouldn’t be difficult if some of the 7-10 thousand readers we get a day send in a pittance.
In the past year we have redesigned our site and have additional tweaks in the works based on your feedback. Within 24 hours you will also see us featuring artwork by South Asian artists. We would like to continue to make improvements but can only do so with your help now.
In addition to your donations now, over the course of year you can also help us out by buying a book, music, or other item you see written about on our site through our Amazon a-Store link (we’ll soon put up a permanent link). It will give us a nominal commission on each item sold that goes toward paying the bills so as to increase the time between pledge drives. SM can also be download for your Kindle.
Thanks in advance from all of us, and let us know if you have any questions by using our “Contact” link.
Abhi: My check is in the mail. Keep up the good work, and among all your other “activities”, don’t let this one slip to the back burner!
What are you still doing up? Go to bed 🙂
Just made my donation. I love this blog, it’s at the top of my RSS feeds… 🙂 Keep up the great work! P.S. When’s the Sacramento/Davis meetup? 🙂
I hope that’s not a real homeless person. That placard makes me sad.
My donation’s in. <3 Sepia, wish I could give more but alas…unemployment benefits don’t stretch that far! Shakes fist at, well, whoever is responsible for my joblessness
Abhi, are you able to publish a weekly update on how much of the 1000 dollars has been received so far? That would help readers who are not sure about how much to donate. Alternatively you could publish the total amount collected last year. Thanks.
Yes, will do!
Just donated, a little less maybe. Should’ve asked me 18 months before, man, I was rolling in monopoly money then.
What wrong with ads though. Not those free ipod ads but simple google ads camouflaged in the page somewhere 🙂
wow.what a quiet post.
How much donation do you need? If the amount collected and aimed are posted,perhaps people will know how much to donate.
ads slow down page loads.
I believe Abhi said he is requesting $1,000 and he will be updating periodically. In past years, we’ve reached raising this amount in relatively short turnaround time. 🙂
SM’s commentariat rocks – ragin’ Rahul, libertariamaniac Manju, sufiKhoofiethustra, mysterious Mr. X, akka ak, Camille and razor Razib. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, research, humor.
And to those I haven’t named and nicknamed, I’d still pick you for my kickball team.
SM, I’m throwing quarters at you.
So, your pulling a dominant group MS. magazine move with the pic of a homeless person (minority)?
Where is all the outrage?
did it. hope we hit the $s soon.
@razib ads slow down page loads. Oh c’mon. On slowness, nobody collects stats on the DB?, posting times are outrageous.
you think? dont you know…
🙂 oh dont hate. it’s not just desi. after church service there’s a sudden rush to leav just before the usher comes out with the money basket. I’ve had this urge to hug random people and ask if they’re desi.
Oh c’mon. On slowness, nobody collects stats on the DB?, posting times are outrageous.
yeah, comment times suck. but front page loads is what i’m talking about. there are two primary issues with ads:
1) if ad network is having issues, your whole page lags (especially if the add is at the “top” of the code”)
2) contextual ads can be quite weird, and often embarrassing
Done. The mutiny must rage on. Paisa vasool, says my inner desi.
If I go in through the Amazon store but buy a laptop or somerthing, would you get some referral money? let me know coz I am planning to buy a netbook from amazon probably soon////
Thanks for your feedback. We are working on this issue.
The new headers are beautiful.
Thanks to the artists of course.
Are we there yet?
UPDATE: We are about half way there. Thanks to everyone that has given so far!
paypalified some $$. Rock on Kate
Just donated – nice blog guys – really appreciate the personal time you put into this blog. One comment on layout: I preferred the old style in general but one small change you can make to current style is that author and comment link is separated from the post by a thin line which makes it seem like the author/comment-link belong to post below. Maybe this is not a common complaint but thought I’d comment in case others felt the same way.
Sent my contribution. Thanks for all the long hours and the good work!
Yes, because they amuse me.
homely has a different connotation abroad….
I know, but it’s still funny.
Sorry, off-topic. Donations are good. Help the cause. SM rocks!
Just made a payment – first time donating to a non-charity. Which now inspires me to also head over to NPR and start a membership since I listen and learn from them everyday as well.
Ding Ding DIng! We have just reached our goal! Thank you to everyone who donated. Any money we receive above our goal will simply go toward paying our server costs for the next year (i.e., it will be more than a year before we ask for donations again). I will put up a thank you post tomorrow.