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I follow a few stories on archiveofourown.org. They needed some money for servers and some kind of legal issues. Their goal was $130,000. In a little over a week they have raised almost $100,000. Why does Erin have to work so hard to raise the pittance we need here each month. Are we doing something wrong?
She shouldn't have to work so hard, if they can raise that kind of money in a week.
Waterdog
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Reality
The reality of it is that the moment you "come out" as transgender, that has a devastating effect on your income, social connections, and relationship with your family. Your income drops as much as 90%, so you have less money to fritter away.
yup, that is true
in my own case, income of $1200/mo ( gross ) in a region where the poverty line is $2000/mo ( net )
average rent is $1000/mo+ utilities.
my only real positive, full medical benefits at no cost. this includes my meds ( thank the gods since those would total half my gross monthly income. )
doesn't leave any extra to help here out.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
As much as 90%?
It can get even worse... some of us lose our jobs and can't seem to get another. I'm living off my boyfriends income myself. I'm lucky to HAVE someone who cares enough to support me, but I don't have a single red cent of my own to support anything I care about.
Abigail Drew.
Understand that too
Lost my job at 15 days before my 60th birthday. I was an environmental engineer and a nuclear safety analyst with a clearance. 5 years and thousands of resumes later, I'm still out of work. Thinking about writing porn for money, something I never thought I'd end up doing.
Basically, we aren't.
It's society itself that's doing a grievous wrong to the people who make up the majority of this site's membership. As a transgender woman myself, I can confirm that what little employability I still had evaporated with my coming out transgender. And simply living with the severe dysphoria and depression without even knowing why, let along coming out to anyone, had already been chipping away at it over time.
Abigail Drew.
There are non-trans folks too
But we don't know how many of them kick in. There are some of us making a decent living who kick in more than the usual but sadly it is likely the majority of such folks spend there time doing other things then reading fiction and have reality to enjoy.
Tight money
I understand living on a tight budget. I reaaally do! If it weren't for the fact I have a kind sister who lets me live free w/free utilities over her garage in a small apartment she happened to have, my wife and I would be on the street.
We live on less than $2K per month, and my wife's prescription needs takes almost 1/2 of that, plus my medical insurance cost of $265/mo.
My last posting of MOTHER'S CHILD garnered nearly 2000 reads, if each one could donate $1 or $2 each month like I try to do, making up the difference would be a lot easier for Erin. She's a gem, and we all need to try to make life easier on her.
My comment was aimed at trying to help us to think outside the box to make life easier on Erin, and the rest of our dedicated staff. Maybe a companion site less tg oriented that can make more income, would help. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud here!
Enough ranting. Erin, we love and appreciate you.
Waterdog
You have to CHOOSE this life.
Frankly, in many ways I have somehow been blessed in my life as a woman, and do not face many of the painful experiences that I know some of you do. Part of it may be that I'm a very withdrawn old woman, though I do get out, but I don't engage in what I see as self destructive and dangerous activities. Is my life easier because of my faith? I don't know, and there are times when the so called faithful are very difficult and heart breaking to deal with. It is my life and I choose it.
Please do not interpret my previous words as any sort of criticism of anyone's life style.
People who insanely think they are transgender and need to become women won't get any sympathy from me because I have had the experience of having someone who came out because they thought I told them to come to me in tears or anger saying the life is too hard. So now, if people talk to me I say, don't do it, and those who do anyhow will know that it is their own life to lead.
Erin is as close to an Angel as anyone I have met, and this site has been instrumental in the saving of many lives, including mine.
Sadly
Just heard a song on the sat radio system that sums it up quite nicely for many of us. "When I Get It You'll Get It" by Craig Campbell
When I Get It
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Site visitors
If you mean... why aren't we generating $100k in a little over a week? Part of that is simply numbers... AO3 had over 119 million page hits in the first week of 2016. They have over 750,000 users... and just a couple months ago, they celebrated their first day with 15 million page views... in THAT DAY.
According to the counter at the bottom of this page, BC has received 57 million since 2005. Stories reach a couple thousand hits.
Now, I don't know all of the specific analytics that Erin might track; but I can give you a rough look on what I see at the Whateley site. In the year that we've been at the new location; we have received just over 2 million page views. We've seen 59,000 unique visitors (by IP) open 501k sessions averaging 4.14 pages per session. But of those 59,000; only about 6250 have visited within the past month, only 3460 have visited within the past two weeks, and only about 2080 have visited this week. More than a thousand of those will visit within the current 36-48 hours (we release the new content weekly on Monday evening).
So for the Whateley site, at best an announcement to funds is only hit 2-3k people over a period of two weeks... and might be seen by as many as 6k if left up for a whole month. BCTS benefits from a more spread out release rate and more new content and a larger, more diverse audience... I would expect Erin sees number 2-3 times what we do... but that is still quite small compared to AO3. And AO3 is acknowledged both by the publishing industry and the Library system (to the extent that the Library of Congress has approached them for projects), and they have a presence in the copyright lobbying. They are playing on a pretty significantly different game board than WA or BCTS.
Kristin
I'll not disagree
Tight budget is probably my biggest issue. I haven't worked regularly in the last 9 months, and before that my job was just enough to keep me in housing, not a lot to spare. Still, I do in some respects agree with Waterdog, that is if we could all figure out how to break out a dollar a month for the site, or yours neither of you would be quite so broke as you are. I'm looking at having to move into my sister's 5th wheel trailer, if she'll let me, because it seems the only regular income I have is a disability grant from the VA. Luckily enough that covers my nominal medical expenses, so if I go to work again I will be forgoing medical insurance, especially if I can find a policy that covers E-room visits. Not that I expect such a thing, but as we age such occurrences are more and more likely.