UPDATE: 12/14/2016: Work has started on making TMV more secure, plus a few additions to the site. Site Administrator Tyrone Steels will do a post when it’s all done. (See bottom of this post for totals on what has been raised so far).
UPDATE:Yesterday, Tuesday, TMV was down after enduring 8962 attempts to hack the site. Yes, all in one day. Clearly some folks don’t like what we are running. Site Administrator Tyrone is working on a long-range solution to the problem — and all of us who write or guest voice on TMV are now more dedicated than ever to continuing to offer what we offer. (See the bottom of the post for totals on what has been raised so far).
The Moderate Voice needs your help. We had one fundraiser to pay for totally rebuilding the site after massive attacks. Another fundraiser paid for us to retain an attorney. This fundraiser is urgent after a tempestuous year, capped by our hits going up during the campaign — then coming under intensive attacks to bring us down. The site Democratic Underground was recently brought down by a brutal attack and was down for over a week. Cagle Cartoons a few months ago was also under attack.
To find out more about attacks on read this article by the Times of San Diego on TMV, which quotes me and Site Administrator Tyrone Steels. It is a MUST read.
In October our hits went down one day as if someone had drawn a straight downward line with a ruler; this was NOT normal. And, yes, there are strong suspicions these attacks (for several years) have been politically motivated. Again, read the Times of San Diego article.
These attacks have only reinforced our determination to keep TMV going and not do a planned cutback if funds are there. Washington Post columnists were originally planned to be dropped as of January 1. Clearly, some folks want to keep our content off the internet so we intend to keep on doin’ what we’re doin’ — which means keeping the columnists as long as possible.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten numerous emails saying the site is more needed that ever. So we are hoping TMV readers will donate at a time when the center in American politics seems more fragile than ever.
Our commenter friend jdledell has said he will MATCH all contributions. Unlike past fundraisers, we are hoping to get at least $3,000 minmum or $4000.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP — and WE NEED YOUR HELP:
1. DONATE by hitting the DONATE button to the right or this link. Donations of any size are welcome. This button allows you to donate via Paypal or via credit card via paypal.
2. SPREAD THE WORD TO OTHERS WHO MAY WISH TO DONATE: Do you know of an individual or group that likes TMV and would donate? A word of warning. That will not impact the posts we use or don’t use or the views on posts one iota.
3. Think about doing what several readers have done: without our prodding, they set up a recurring monthly via paypal, which Helps in the long-run. It can be a small donationor larger. ( ALL DONATIONS HELP. If readers set up $10 a month of $25 a month via paypal, it helps.
If you want to send a check, it should be made out to the account that has been TMV’s biz account since 2004, a business account in the name of Joe Gandelman, the BoA bank account that pays for hosting, tech work, and a few special syndicated features. It’s also where all ad revenues go. Email me for the mailing address.
Why is this fundraiser important?
There is NO big bankroll or group behind TMV or that helps fund TMV regularly, or even periodically. TMV is different than many blogs that are big blogs, have big money behind them, or get huge hits and have lots of ads and donors.
With the exception of several significant and heartening instances during this site’s 12 years, TMV hasn’t had not had any really monster regular donors. Its money comes from a limited number of unsolicited donations throughout the year, fundraisers and from ads — which have been problematic as some companies TMV had as advertisers went out of business. Site administrator Tyrone Steels carefully looks into each ad request to see if we can do it, should do it, and to ensure it is legitimate.
Alas, some ad inquiry haven’t seemed legitimate and others companies want extremely intrusive ads, which we won’t do.
But the bottom line is: TMV has been under attack a lot this year. As the article notes, no, the timing does not seem to be a coincidence.
FOOTNOTE: You’ll note that TMV has added some excellent additional writers. More will be joining TMV in coming months.
If necessary, funds from this fundraiser will also be used to pay for extra protections for the website, or refining its design.
So do DONATE — and spread the word to others about TMV.
Yes, it is a cliche but: in these times, TMV is need more than ever.
TOTAL UPDATES:
–12/14/2016: Some extremely helpful donations of various sizes have come in and commenter friend jdledell has matched by doubling the amount in by donating $1,000 to TMV which puts the most recent total at around $1500. A portion has gone to Site Administrator Tyrone Steels — who has not asked for payment but is spending huge amounts of time shoring up TMV security, and will also do several other changes. GOOD NEWS: Perhaps its the new political era, but TMV is getting a wide variety of people who want to do guest voices or perhaps become cobloggers. Writers posting in 2017 will be extremely important since yours truly will be working on two book projects as of January and will do a weekly political column (plus put posts by others up).
–12/7/2016: With donations that have been made via paypal or have been or will be mailed so far, commenter friend jdledell has matched money raised so far and donated $805 which puts the total raised at around $1200. Our goal is $4,000, and to hopefully attract more legitimate advertising.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.