Update at the end of the article.
Dear Readers, Commentators, and Supporters
You came to The Saker blog in search of coherent information in a non-coherent world, and you stayed.
That is a profound act of trust and makes you the real driver of The Saker Blog in more ways than one.
Thank you!
Now we come to you, humbly, to again ask for your financial help for this Spring Fundraiser.
Your donations and your support literally and genuinely make the difference between having a Saker blog, and not having a Saker blog.
Here is how to contribute: Go to the ‘Support The Saker’ page which has many ways that you can add to the ammo box. http://10.16.86.131/contact-and-donations/
It is time to fill up the ammo box to continue the information war. The ‘gas gauges’ on the servers are trending low. Volunteers (moderators and others) provide the hands to what makes The Saker blog great.
Without these two components, 1) financial donations 2) volunteers, (and your prayers), The Saker Blog Will Fold!
Please consider donating to keep The Saker up and running, vibrant, coherent and truthful? We are making a substantial educational difference in the sphere of the information war. We can all see that The Saker’s regular analysis is distributed widely and picked up by many other publications, and so are some of the writings by those that write for The Saker blog. I frequently see thoughtful and intelligent comments from The Saker Blog referred to in other publications. Do you also see that we are making a difference?
Our previous Fundraiser was on October 1st, 2018.
http://10.16.86.131/fall-2018-appeal-for-support-and-short-state-of-the-saker-blogs-report/
At that time we did a thorough presentation, even a strong presentation, of what The Saker does and what the mission is, and what it is not. Nothing has changed in the philosophy, but much has changed in terms of the intensity of the informational war that The Saker and you and I fight daily. Everyone will agree that in one way or another, our world is in a dangerous state.
I don’t know about you, but I want The Saker front and center doing his job of analysis when we see all hell flash up in our world.
The Saker is still basically a one-person blogger with many volunteer writers, volunteer workers and volunteer sister sites in other languages. What bears repeating, is:
- The Saker has not yet been ‘discovered’ or ‘taken-over’ or ‘paid,’ by influence peddlers or the Kremlin or even Putin himself. The Saker holds down a day-job to support himself and his family. The only income to this blog is from supporters like you.
- We still have a no-Ads policy, and this will continue. Even if you use an Ad Blocker, these ads tend to follow you around. You may not see them on your screen, but they may see you! It also takes time to manage an Ads-System. So, we do not want to add ads to follow you around, cheapen our content, or give us headaches to maintain it. We want to focus on good content only.
Many people ask how their donations will be used. Here is an older fundraiser that will give you an idea. http://10.16.86.131/saker-community-members-and-readers-i-need-your-help/
Kindly donate as generously or as small as what is comfortable for you, and if you cannot give funds, please send a simple prayer.
Here is the donations link again: http://10.16.86.131/contact-and-donations/
Please use this thread as an Open Thread for suggestions, input, and your report card on how we are doing. (Moderation rules will apply as usual).
The Saker asked me that if I had three wishes for The Saker Blog, what would they be? I have mine and at the end of this fundraiser which will be up for 2 weeks, will tell you one of those wishes.
What are your wishes for The Saker Blog?
A final note on Patreon. Patreon followed the herd and scandalously deplatformed some content creators for the ‘crime of free speech.’ This led to large scale and high profile ‘resignations’ from Patreon. So far, they have not repeated their blind error. So, we will keep Patreon until such time that there are other stable, tested and reliable solutions available that truly live a free-speech value. Many of our fraternal friends and many others are engaged in building such platforms, and we should have something that is empire resistant within the year all things being equal. Our Patreon income has decreased to only 40% of what it was. Those regular and easy donations made a huge difference to the financial health of The Saker Blog. We are keeping our eyes on the situation, but for now, we still have Patreon, and it is still a very easy donating solution that Sakerites initially requested.
Amarynth
Update
I’ve just heard that our SubscribeStar account for donations is now open. This is a little different from Patreon that people may be used to. There is a minimum donation of US$4.99. If you try this one, please let us know if it is easy or jumping through hoops. Of course this is new to us as well but we will stand by for problem solving.
https://www.subscribestar.com/the-saker
Amarynth
I’ve switched to SubscribeStar for my contribution to Dmitry Orlov’s work. Saker should switch to them too, as they haven’t shown any sign yet of doing the sort of outrageous censorship that Patreon tried on creators’ content. They – Patreon – also tried to hinder me when I requested that they unsubscribe me. Definitely not straight, it seems to me. As far as I’m concerned, Patreon is now dead.
Of course.
My small but regular donation on its way.
Katherine
Thank you so much Saker for this blog and articles and commentary par excellence
Demeaning is the word that springs to mind.
I am a bit disappointed. I wonder, there is not a single business man, an entrepreneur who has a good idea on how to solve this issue in a longer time by using the values of this blog ? I know, there is the Community Cooperative, run by Amarynth but I don’t know how much successful it is, when the cooperation is stagnating and nobody dares to ask ? I understand, this is a mainly political site and therefore culture has no much traction and everybody is happy to have a free-to-download version of this or that but hey, that way, this blog will always have difficulties, in material sense. I’m sure there are ways to make a stable financial situation for The Saker – not necessarily by advertising on this blog – but if somebody can do that on his own blog or web-page, may be a solution, a win-win solution for both sides or/and a third side who delivers its own work. Without cooperation, things will not go better. Yes, it has to do with trust; if you don’t have trust nothing will happen, so, please, give it a try. Thank you.
@ioan
Sure you can ask ioan. This is our time. The Community Cooperative sells books. We’re doing fine and are staying in the green, and The Saker Blog receives an income. But it is not huge. I’m working now with some fraternal sites to perhaps get some joint book marketing and this idea was well received by our fraternal friends. This is of course still under discussion.
I did just that for The Saker – about 3 years ago – write a business plan. It is very hard and an open an honest appeal to the members is still the best and the cleanest and the most honest way to go.
I want to stress – any answers I give here are mine and The Saker can and will speak for himself
And also, a confession, I am really nervous to handle this appeal for funds (grins). But our Saker just tossed me into the deep end! And this will of course give him time to focus more on analysis and content.
I cannot tell you how many solutions we’ve discussed, and discarded. Nobody feels good with information behind a pay wall for example.
To my mind (and to my mind only), I must bring some merchandise and swag, but that initiative is dragging – and it is dragging because I need some creative help there. You may remember a few times in the Cafe I’ve asked for help – I have the slogans, I have the art, but now I need someone who knows that business to take me by the hand to avoid any pitfalls, and someone who can design this for us.
I am truly hoping the readers overwhelm us with a bunch of suggestions as we’ve discussed most everything out there. I would be so pleased if we can become self-sufficient, but until then, an open and honest appeal to the readers and friends is the best way to go.
@Rhisiart Gwilym
Yes, we have a SubscribeStar account now but we are waiting for it to be made active.
Dear Amarynth, dear Saker,
I agree that donations are a clean way to get the funds required. Contribution incoming…
Thanks a lot,
Marcel
Dear Amarynth, you told me to ask, I did : /books-news-from-saker-community/#comment-633617
I’ll tell you what I’ve got. The orthodox calendar from community side has been downloaded well over 300 times. I quickly asked Herb if he has a download number for the main blog, but he says he does not have a download counter set. It is now at least technically too problematic to write special software to try and get a count.
I would imagine it is well into the thousands. If the count is important to you, next time we should consider to put the links from thesaker.is, to the community, where we count downloads by default. Let me know what you want here.
I get about 2-3 inquiries a month on your horses. If anything looks serious, I will of course let you know. That other fellow that we spoke about before, is still in my e-mail. He must just be a very lonely soul looking for conversation.
On the main blog, Saker.is, I know we serve anything between 2 million and 2.5 million pages a month and on the community side we are small and serve about 5,000 pages a month, mainly the book pages.
I’ve been thinking overall that we have altogether too much free stuff – just on the balance. But it is also nice to be able to give away free stuff, and I’m working on more free stuff. Uhmmm … you have me thinking now.
If you give me permission, then I can upload your other art? The Saker has now given me permission to do a regular community update in News and Announcements on the main blog. If I upload your other art, and the beautiful framed pieces, I can let people know about that specifically in my next update? I’m in your hands here.
Orthodox Calendar 2019 download March 1st. to April 25 is 2412. Download meaning request/click on link.
How many who saved the document I have no way of knowing..
Calendar 2019, requested 3835 times from Jan. 1st. to March 11 2019.
Kent
I am already paying a monthly subscription since few years now.
I just donated another USD 100.– to assist today.
Continue with the good work.
Un abrazo
Mario José Medjeral
Lavardens, France
I donated regularly until Saker endorsed Trump for president (instead of ‘neither of the abive!’), then I stopped. Nonetheless, this site has been uniquely informative, and Saker is now nearing the end of his sentence – donations may resume again shortly.
– Shyaku
Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your insights. Donation on the way
Saker, a full war chest is important. Plus: Asking for alms is a blessing because it provides us the further blessing i.e. the opportunity to give.
And your comment is also a blessing and a wisdom. I never looked at it the way you just explained and can only say, but of course. Thank-you Terranam13 and for the other kind comments.
Saker,
I’ll contribute before the end of the month
Can we have an update?
Are you getting the funds you need?
Is there a target (the good old thermometer ploy—it works)?
Katherine
Well, to be totally honest, I am afraid of looking and, besides, its way too early to tell.
But I will let everybody know how the donations drive went at the end.
Thanks for your support and concern!
Kind regards
The Saker
I did look.
Let’s just say that the start was a slow one, but that, God willing, our community will now accelerate it’s efforts to support the Saker Blog.
Right now it is a little slow, shall we say…
:-(
You asked! I did not want to look :-)
Look,
I am sure that more people will help, so please don’t worry!
Hugs and cheers and thanks
The Saker
Recently one might have noticed once vibrant online experiences that are now shadows of their former selves. For example, YouTube channels that no longer exist. Or, channels which were daring and innovative are now posting oft-mediocre content, with comments sections filled with arguing voices, many of whom are apparently happy to be paid to be there.
In an increasingly chaotic (by design) state-run/corporate information space, this site continues to post material of the highest quality, of the widest scope encompassing politics, economics, ethics, and religion.
For many, the Saker’s essays mark a turning point, of before-and-after. I wonder what the statistics would be of people who came here once, and left in superior shape intellectually or spiritually after just one article; impossible to calculate, nevertheless I imagine those higher-mental-health-rates would be very high.
The Saker continues to hit new strides as an essayist/analyst on a weekly, or even daily basis. The other writers, from all over the world, from whatever viewpoint, are always beyond competent and extremely interesting.
It was an honor to support this site a few years ago, and it’s more of an honor to support it now. Hell, strictly on the matter of rational debate in English prose, this place is a hot spot on the final frontier. I would like to see another site with original material where people still write traditional essays with logical arguments.
I remember when fundraisers featured first and foremost until the goal was reached (or something). People need to be reminded to donate (I need to be reminded).
Anyhow, dust in ammo box unacceptable! Donating to this place can create positive feedback loops of good vibrations, (it says here).
Re The Saker:
. . .
Right now it is a little slow, shall we say…
:-(
. . .
+++++++++
If a lot of people give a little with each ask, the goal will be reached.
I wish I could give more than the $25 I donate each time asked.
I also give $25 each time asked by, say, Consortium News and a few other sites that are important to me.
If 100 people give $25 that is $2500. Not a huge amount, but also not peanuts.
It might make sense to do the monthly thing. That way it is more predictable.
Here’s a “matching” idea:
I’ll do $10/month if 10 others will sign on for $10/month.
(No rule against signing on for a few bucks more /month—or less, for that matter . . . )
It would be modest, but regular.
Any takers/matchmakers????
Katherine
Is there *one* “matcher” out there?
If so, please ID yourself with a reply here, and we are good to go.
Thanks,
Katherine
Just wonderful and thank-you so much! A first SubscribeStar subscriber.
@Katherine. Thank you for your enthusiasm and help! We can really do with some enthusiasm here in the last days of this fundraiser.
I have been a massive fan of both The Saker and Dmitry Orlov for at least 5 years. Whilst I don’t always agree with everything they write, and I have never directly contributed to them, unlike some other UK, German,and American based websites, now mainly hosted in Russia or Iceland, I have bought their books, and can seriously recommend them.
Incidentally, because I live in London, and have spent most of my life going to music festivals, and both my wife and I are still very environmentally aware, and active, after you have sent The Saker a Tenner – I am sure he will accept Euros, Pounds, Dollars or even Shekels..watch this video, taken in Central London a few days ago, by a very nice young man. Whilst I have seen some of his videos before, this is excellent.
“London Blackmailed By New Age Death Cult”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX-ALc2xFgM
Tony