Let's at least gather some going away money!

Let's at least gather some going away money!

I like the idea from an earlier comment, where the poster (fiber_guy?) suggested a pledge challenge. He put in $100, some others put in a $100 to match it.

I'm ready to put in $100 also. But we all need to understand that this money is a going-away present. All the talk about trimming costs by removing whitespace from the pages? I'm only guessing, but that's probably not the real problem.

Liz, Jon, et al. deserve to make a living. Not many of us would do what they do for the pay they get. Unless we can get enough money to make this job at least not suck from a pay perspective, then we're just insulting them. "I'm addicted to your wonderful writing, please continue going broke so I can get my fix" ain't gonna hack it.

And unfortunately, this would be serious moola. Let's say we'd like to pay Liz and Jon each 1/2 of a livable wage. With taxes, we're probably talking $100k/year. That means we need 1,000 people to match the pledge.

I hope it happens. Still, I also hope that people will cough up some money either way, whether it is a going-away present or an attempt to keep them afloat.

I haven't put my money in yet. I'm going to wait and see if Liz and Jon want to try to buy some time from the donations, at which point I'll sign up for a recurring charge on my card (rather than a one-time payment).