Thank you to all of our generous readers who made Naked Capitalism a priority when we just got back from vacation. Your quick action helped us reach our first goal for IT essentials in just over 24 hours, the best we’ve achieved in reaching our first goal since we started fundraising around Labor Day. You all moved so fast that Lambert hadn’t even set up thermometers to track our progress on each goal yet.
We currently have $210 raised towards our second goal of supporting the comments section, and we are 199 donations away from our fundraising goal of 1100 donors.
Your donation shows that you care about this community, that you want a better debate and a better society, and that you’re willing to invest in improving Naked Capitalism so that your voice can be heard even more effectively. If you haven’t had time to donate yet, To support our efforts, please visit our tip jarWhether you can donate $10 or $1,000, whatever amount you can afford will help us provide you with daily comprehensive news briefs, incisive commentary, sharp analysis, heart-warming animal photos, and a place to connect with like-minded people.
In 2021, we’ve made a significant addition to our Naked Capitalism offering with our “commentator” budget, i.e., our monthly newsletter. We love that you come to the site every day, but we also know that you all have important lives in the real world, and even if you’re interested in the site, you might have time away from us. So please salute our moderator katiebird, who is also our lead domo for the monthly newsletter.
Readers have been sending in delighted messages. From sporble:
Again, I just wanted to thank you for all that you do. Your writing, posts, analysis, biting wit, humor, and jaw-dropping attitude towards all the issues we are all trying to deal with help me hang on to the silky tentacles of my sanity.
And now you know: the $ is coming.
I wish you all the best in this super hot Berlin (really!)
And Keith H:
This check is for $250.00. Without NakedCapitalism I would definitely be in trouble. Thank you so much for your tireless efforts and the efforts of your amazing NC team.
And Mark M:
I am so grateful for NC and all the work you do. As you know, it is so hard to read or hear critical and skeptical thoughts anywhere these days. I especially appreciate that your site is for readers and not viewers. For me at least, there is a huge difference between reading and listening and what is thoughtfully absorbed. I have just started reading Tad Delay’s “Future of Denial” (what an ironic name!). So far, it looks promising. I am a retired engineer and the prevalence of denial of reality, not just about climate change but also the laws of thermodynamics and logic, is driving me crazy. The community I am fostering on NC has been so helpful…
And thanks to the hard work of katiebird and semperloquitur, comments are being released more quickly than before. But the moderators also play a key role in adjudicating cases that are usually discussed between all site administrators (Lambert and me), correcting inaccurate links, and intervening in comments. Katiebird keeps a spreadsheet of who’s in the various doghouses and why, which is extremely helpful when reviewing cases. She’s also the lead domo for the monthly newsletter, and semperloquitur is in charge of some key administrative tasks.
Pundits and many on social media believe it is to their advantage to stoke polarization, which has resulted in even more cheesy slogans and heated emotions on the web. In this media desert, it has taken more effort to keep Naked Capitalism an oasis of sanity and civility.
If you understand the value of Naked Capitalism’s comments, feel free to skip the rest of this post. Go directly to the tip jar We explain how to donate by check, credit card, or debit card. We foster stimulating, lively, informative, and often witty discussion among our commentators.
Moderating comments has always come at a cost. Lambert and I used to take charge of the process, at the expense of researching and posting. In fact, we try to tread lightly, but it really takes effort, as collective anxiety understandably often leads to excessive and overheated reactions. If anything, the cost is increasing, as we have to impose even more moderator rules. Unfortunately, this means more comments are being sent to moderation, which makes it more important than ever to respond to comments quickly.
Moderating comments doesn’t just mean managing a moderation queue and setting and tweaking various rules (which, as we all know, sometimes behave like Skynet, despite our best intentions). It also means reading comments multiple times a day, stepping in when necessary, sometimes de-escalating or acting as a referee, and sometimes clearing up misunderstandings about what is and isn’t a good post or what readers are saying.
We also spend more time responding to borderline comments than you might expect. We often discuss these decisions and review the commenter’s history to see if they’re just having a bad day, or if the comment under consideration is part of a bad pattern we’ve missed. And that’s before we get to the trolls and non-organic drive-bys. (Luckily, Skynet catches most bots.)
While this monitoring takes a significant amount of time in total, it is an important investment because it helps maintain a high level of commentary overall. Our efforts also help ensure that readers can express their opinions and provide important information, so long as they comply with guidelines that are intended to encourage high standards of accuracy and rigor as well as communication.
Proof that this approach is successful is the fact that Naked Capitalism has a genuine community where many voices can be expressed, despite a widespread perception of the decline in the quality of discourse on the web. Naked Capitalism is also held up in journalism courses as an example of the kind of engaged audience that major media outlets want (and can get if they stop pandering to the interests of big advertisers and elites). So to support these efforts, Donate nowWhether you give $5, $50 or $5,000, every penny helps us reach our goal.
We’ve set a goal of $22,000, but frankly this will only cover a portion of the total costs of comment moderation and the newsletter, so please help us out and donate now. The Tip Jar provides instructions on how to donate by check, credit card or debit cardIf you would like to send a check, please email yves@nakedcapitalism.com with “Check mailed” in the subject line and we’ll include it in our tally.
Again, invest in commentators! This goal belongs to all of us!
