every month! There are more than enough of us members that can afford to give ONE DOLLAR every month! That would eliminate the debt that exists AND more than meet the needed funds every month to keep the site online!
There are a few who do a LOT more than that every month and I salute them for how much they do! Without them, this site would have probably faded into non existence the way others have.
This site has helped more than a few, giving them a chance to exercise their talents and also a place where they can get advice, be themselves and make decisions about what to do about being trans and yet, every month, Erin has to beg for money to keep the site online and growing.
For me and others, this site has been a lifeline. A place where we can be who we truly are and enjoy literature, yes I said LITERATURE, from some amazingly talented authors.
Surely we can afford to give back one dollar for all that, can't we? Some of us donate all the proceeds from books that ERIN has helped get published! Now I know that some us us are operating on the strictest budgets known to man or woman, in fact I know that some of us don't even have a bank account that would simplify giving that dollar each month and I sympathize with those members...but most of us CAN do a monthly contribution simply and easily...but do we do it? Some do, but the majority don't, for whatever reason.
All I ask for is that ALL of us who can, do it. You can't get a cup of coffee or a pack of gum for a dollar, not even a can or bottle of soda(pop). Please, all of you who can, do it. I'm about to cover 49 of you with 50 bucks. The rest of you, please help keep the site alive? If you give a dollar, we'll all stand up and holler THANK YOU!
If paypal gives you a problem, use the following URL.
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile
Comments
Well said
If we go on the $1 per user then I have covered 1000 of you this year. $250 of the total for this month came from me because I received a refund on a cancelled holiday.
Erin should not have to get out the begging bowl every month. Can't we be better than that?
Samantha
Some Months are good, some are not.
Many of us do our best.
Monthly reminder from Erin
I agree totally with this comment. Surely everyone can make a contribution however small, because if a large number readers do this then it does not take that much from each of us to raise enough money to save Erin from having to do this every month.
Sure
This is an old issue.
A relatively small number of us (probably under 100) provide the lion's share of the donations.
When Erin is short it is likely those regular donors who stomp up the extra, letting the non-donors thinking that they can just keep behaving that way.
It's damned if you do and damned if you don't.
It would be interesting to see the statistics of how much comes from the bigger donors imho.
On youtube, the major contributors to a website at least get recognition fwiw.
Here I suspect it is a matter of 'not making the small donors feel bad'.
Patreon
I’m a Patreon member but I don’t currently have a source of income, so I can’t afford any more.
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
I am in the same boat.
Patreon member and a lack of income. :(
Thank you SO much Erin and company for doing this for us and for the readers and authors that have helped finance it.
I am sorry
I have tried & have done so a couple of times, not much but what I can.
I too am in significant debt.
Sometimes I am just like f*** it & did so, perhaps when i shouldn't have but my heart said i should. I wish I could give more often.
1$ may seem like a simple request. Which generally it is.... but more often then not i went days and sometimes weeks without a meal, because of my financial issues. I am finally starting to get back on my feet but it is a long stretch.
I cannot promise anything other then i will try.
I hope paypal is not the only payment method, I am unable to access my account it has been forever since i used it, which is under my dead name pretransition like 12+ years ago. They will not recognize my bank card because it is the same account technically, so it is registered with another, myself essentially. I have tried many times to get this straightened out, to no avail.
So I am sorry if I have been what some may see as a loiterer, waistrell or whatever you wanna call it, but I am doing my best in the best way I can given my own situations.
4-5 years ago, I likely could have done alot more, though i was not great I was more financially free, but I had to flee my home with nothing & spent several monthes in a shelter.
Being on disability makes getting back, to where i had been next to impossible, it is one of the reasons that aid in my constant thoughts of essentially euthanasia.
I am sorry, I am or at least have been unable to meet the non-mandatory but greatly encouraged, (understandably so) monetary demands.
I have been coming here a long long long time... I was in highschool technically when i first crossed it, about a year before I was forced to come out to my mum after she found my 'note'.
This site has helped more then, well I am sure many here can gather how much this site has helped each and every one of us.
I agree Erin Halfelven should by no means harbour the sole responsibility of the financial management that revolves around keeping BCTS alive.
Myself, as I am sure every damn one of us can agree with wants this site to stay alive.
I do not think Erin would ever get rid of it, but I agree it is by no way fair on her, as we all have benefitted from it in our own ways I can honestly say I will try to do my best & I will try to meet a monatary regulation within my own financial boundaries. I do understand what you are saying, but you may have forgotten especially in the current climate, 1$ could make or break an individual with like 90 or so percent of everyone without work, because of all the quarantine.
We all have lives, we all have issues, we all range from different 'social classes'. I grew up below the poverty line, i was above it for a bit & now I am even below the class in which i grew up. Fishing pitched pennies (pennies kids do this stupid game in the corner of a wall, its complicated, but they always leave pennies) helped get by.
So excuse or whatever you wanna call it, thats fine.
I will do my part in the manor in which I can afford in the time i can do so, in the methods in which are available to me.
I understand the need to help Erin, I really do.
Now regardless of how I am doing, I feel tremendously guilty & like crap for being unable to attend to the invisble obligations, in which I was under the impression were welcomed, appreciated but not mandatory.
You are right.
I do not understand the whole 'owning a website' thing, never have, likely never will.
When a site is 'free to view' I assume there is no maintanace fees, ya I am naive, that is by no means a secret.
I want to help, i like helping... I just wish I could have done more now, screw all the excuses, but what was I supposed to do? What am i supposed to do?
I dunno, but I will try, that is the closest thing to a promise in which I can authorize.
With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!
Erin Amelia Fletcher
Only do what you can.
There are many, like yourself, who are living hand to mouth and cannot even afford a dollar a month, at least not consistently. The point is not that every reader should contribute, but that there must be many who could easily afford the one dollar per month and still don't contribute. Paypal is not the only way; I use Patreon. But don't feel bad because your circumstances are such that you can't afford to contribute now. When you eventually get on your feet, don't forget BigCloset. Meanwhile, I'm glad I'm financially secure and able to help with more.
As to "owning" a Web site: while there are a few places where one can get a free Web site, they are very limited in what you can do and how much data it can use. The people who build, own, or manage server farms have major expenses and must pass the cost on to the sites they host. Additionally, there are probably license fees for the Drupal software BigCloset uses. Many of the commenters seem to have a background in IT, as do I, so we understand the problems. It's not too surprising that others don't know what goes on behind the scene.
Hon, I'm trying to reach those who CAN
but don't, for whatever reason. Believe me, I know where you're at financially and wish I could offer you more than kind words of encouragement.
Don't feel bad about yourself though. If you could, you would help and that counts too. There's a LOAD of money floating around out there from stimulus, rent and mortgage assistance, SNAP, Food stamps, even outright cash grants. Go to youtube and type in stimulus. That will show you how to go about getting your share of it.
Hoping for the best for you and for caring even you can't help right now. Your heart is in the right place. Please do the youtube thing and find the sources of money and how to apply for it. you lose nothing by trying, right?
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
The world will be a better place.
The world will be a better place when the military has to have bake sales and schools are fully funded. I know that way too many people disagree with me but I'd love to live in a world where BigCloset could be a tax exempt charity. Or better yet, funded through the endowment for the humanities.
Thanks to all who make this service possible.
Crescenda
aka
Your friend
Crash
IT HAPPENED!
It Happened about a year ago for me. I believe that SamanthaMD wrote a similar comment ( I hope I got the author of that comment correct) as to the one written here by Catherine . That comment got me questioning why was I not contributing to BC? I chose to donate by becoming a Patron, for me it was the best choice. You have complete control and making reoccurring monthly contributions easy. I suggest you give it a try. Just click on the link "Become a Patron!" located just below the pumpkin with the black cat and check it out yourself.