As Deadline Approaches, Imgur Pledges Matching Funds To Support Techdirt's Net Neutrality Campaign

from the helping-out dept

Mon, Jul 28th 2014 2:14pm — Mike Masnick

Final days to support our crowdfunding campaign »

Last week we gave a special thanks to Twitch and Namecheap for providing matching funds for our big crowdfunding campaign, and today we want to welcome (and thank!) the greatest photo site on the internet, Imgur, for joining the campaign as well. As the company's CEO, Alan Schaaf said:

Imgur would not have been possible without the tidal wave of innovation that net neutrality makes possible. We're stoked to support Techdirt in paving the way for a genuine, important public dialogue about these issues.

It's been great to see these three companies step up to support the campaign, but it's been you guys, our community, that has gotten us so far already. We're still a bit short of the target -- and I know that money is tight for many and that there are lots of competing offerings where you can put your money (though, if you donate money to the Potato Salad Kickstarter thing and not to us, I don't think we can be friends... because, really?), but any help that folks can give to either get us over the target or to share with others, recognizing how important this issue is, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again to all of you who have already supported it or shared it with others. With a little more help we'll be able to meet our goal, and focus that much more of our time and energy on bringing you the best reporting on the fight to keep the internet free and open. As noted earlier, our plan is to bring in additional voices on this issue, to interview key players, to dig deep into some of the more unexplored stories around this fight and much much more. But it's only possible with your help, and the deadline is rapidly approaching.

Please support our net neutrality reporting today »

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: crowdfunding, net neutrality, techdirt
Companies: floor64, imgur, techdirt

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2014 @ 2:46pm

Why don't you just kick in the last $15,000 yourself? It's like taking money out of your left pocket and putting into the right.
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- Mason Wheeler (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 3:07pm
  
  Re:
  Because the point of raising funds is so that you don't have to pay for some big expensive thing out-of-pocket.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2014 @ 3:25pm
    
    Re: Re:
    He's paying himself mostly, plus the $30,000 that evaporates if he falls short. If you have $46,000 committed and get $30,000 in matching grants you get $76,000 or zero. Not a lot (for everyone but you) to think about.
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David Cortright (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 2:49pm

4✕ match now?
So there's an anonymous donor matching, plus Twitch, Namecheap, and now Imgur. Does that mean $1 I give nets TechDirt $5?
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 3:12pm
  
  Re: 4✕ match now?
  So there's an anonymous donor matching, plus Twitch, Namecheap, and now Imgur. Does that mean $1 I give nets TechDirt $5?
  
  No, that's just who's providing the total matching funds. Each dollar donated is still matched by $1... It's just that the total amount of matching is being split between those three firms (allowing us to go a bit higher in matching funds if people keep donating...).
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2014 @ 4:07pm

It's annoying that you can't donate a set flat amount of your own choice one time.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 4:23pm
  
  Re:
  It's annoying that you can't donate a set flat amount of your own choice one time.
  
  It doesn't get the matching funds, nor does it count towards the crowdfunding campaign, but we've seen a bunch of people just do this instead, which does let you donate a flat amount:
  
  https://rtb.techdirt.com/products/friend-of-techdirt/
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  - Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2014 @ 7:39pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Can't you just funnel the money that people put into the friend-of-techdirt tip jar into this?
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Cvnk (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 4:38pm

Serious question: how does imgur make money? I never see advertising there.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 4:42pm
  
  Re:
  Serious question: how does imgur make money? I never see advertising there.
  
  Some people -- including us -- pay for a professional account, which has some advantages.
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Justin Gruenberg (profile), 28 Jul 2014 @ 7:11pm

I just donated $60.

I checked out their main page.. it's kind of annoying that I just gave them my credit card thinking I could read some of the interesting things on the main page... but... I don't get access unless TechDirt meets their goal.

So... get on it people.

If anyone knows... everything there is essentially paywalled. Does anyone know if it works with Pocket?
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2014 @ 9:22pm

Are the Net Neutrality articles only going to be available via Beacon?
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- That One Guy (profile), 29 Jul 2014 @ 12:05am
  
  Re:
  Don't believe so, I think the point of this fundraiser is so they can cover the issues more thoroughly than they otherwise would be able to, all the resulting extra articles would still be posted normally.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 29 Jul 2014 @ 10:24am
  
  Re:
  Are the Net Neutrality articles only going to be available via Beacon?
  
  No. The stories will be available on both sites, with the possibility that some of the stories will be available earlier on Beacon.
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