Well, thank you for the generousity!

There is indeed something wrong with the who-pays-who relationship over at HuffPost, but I see it more as between me and them, and having nothing to do with the comments...

:-)

-CW

Count me in for $50 for every 50 posts I make between now and 1 Jan. So put up some good columns lol. And I will have to respond more here then on yer huffpo page.

Although with all the responses I generate on Huffpo to get your count up there you should pay me lol (just joking)

06

Ahhhh I thought it was an auto-updating thingy...

Oh well, that will be fun too.. :D

"I... am going to go home and have sex."
"Harry, yer gonna go home and throw up."
"Yea.. Well, that'll be fun too."
-SPEED

Michale...
035

Well, now, I'm certainly not going to stop you from trying!

I promise to update the meter as every donation comes in this year, as I notice them, how's that?

:-)

-CW

You realize that now, I might just throw payments your way above and beyond my per post payments, just to see how much the Donationo-Meter moves... :D

Michale.....
034

OK, thermometer has been updated, to reflect the following:

new donation arrived - woo hoo!

The numbers will double, from 0-250 (really 0-500) due to David/akadjian making an extremely generous "matching" pledge.

I'm not going to add in Michale's and LizM's numbers (both are making pledges based on number of comments between Thanksgiving and the end of the year), because calculating this would be too time consuming. Their numbers will arrive at the end, or will be added in if they make interim payments.

Michale -

$50 through PayPal should be fine, it's really only the tiny numbers that are affected. You previously stated that a few smaller $50 donations would be easier on your wallet, so feel free to do it this way. I was mainly suggesting that you didn't, say, send a PayPal every time you made a comment, as that would really have been affected. Whichever way you'd like to do it is fine.

General comment 1 -

We here at CW.com respect people's privacy. Therefore, no donation will be publicly acknowledged (ie., with a comment here thanking you) unless you specifically OK doing so. In other words, it is entirely up to you whether to "go public" or not. This policy has worked well in the past, so that's how we're going to do it this year.

General comment 2 -

I don't want to discourage anyone by the extremely generous pledges made so far. It's a tough economy, and every pledge counts. If you can only donate $5 or $10, PLEASE KNOW that your generousity will be equally welcomed and equally appreciated here. Just wanted to say that. Also, both you and your amount donated will remain private (see comment 1, above).

General comment 3 -

Woo hoo! The first official day, and we're almost at 1/4 of our goal!!

:-)

-CW

Hmmm, now you've got me thinking. "Alternate" image... there's already a way to do alternate text, which appears while an image is loading (for slow download computers). Maybe there's an easy HTML way to do an "alternate image" that's already built-in. Programmatically, this would be very easy to do.

Let me look into it...

-CW

Sounds like we have similar view of the holidays.. :D

I would be perfectly happy to go from 15 Oct to 16 Jan and skip all the stress.. :D

Michale.....
029

Assuming that Cain implodes to less than 10% I predict

Newt: 45%
Romney: 24%
Paul: 17%
All else: 14%

Assuming the "Palin Effect" holds for Cain:
Newt,Romney,Cain,Paul: 20%

We'll See in 34 days.

From Yellow Dog

Not too fond of blueberries, either.

Any other dumb questions?

Bah, Humbug

http://cutestlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kittens_heart1.jpg

Always happy to support good writing. Your articles have always been at the top of my list!

-David

Yer the sweetest... :D

Powderhound522,

The first was a simply plea to readers to turn off their ad blockers for the comic's domain.

Damn find idea...

And.....

"Welcome to the party, pal!!!"
-John McClane, DIE HARD

CW,

If you use PayPal to donate, there is one thing you should be aware of. PayPal takes a cut off the top of donations as a fee. This fee is calculated on a weird scale, which means that very small donations ($5 or less, say) get mostly eaten up in fees.

That's a good point. One I believe was also raised last year, which I forgot when I made the initial post. My apologies for not remembering..

That is an excellent suggestion, thanks. But how do you know programmatically (in PHP or HTML) whether the page displayed is on a browser with an adblocker turned on?

I don't think PH was meaning that you alter your code to address the issue. I think he was saying that you simply ask all readers to turn off their Pop Up Blockers for your site. Every browser has the ability to turn on/off PopUps for specific sites/domains..

Personally, I think that's a great idea and I have already turned off my blocker for CW.COM..

Michale
022

First off, welcome to the site! Your first comment was held for moderation, but all future comments should appear instantly (unless you put two or more links in the comment, which is held automatically to cut down on comment spam).

That is an excellent suggestion, thanks. But how do you know programmatically (in PHP or HTML) whether the page displayed is on a browser with an adblocker turned on? It seems that you'd have to set it up as an either/or display, and I'm not quite sure how I would go about doing that. If you've got more technical info, please contact me (via Email Chris page, as this likely won't interest others).

In any case, you've got me thinking about it. Maybe I can make it work. Traditionally, towards the end of the year is when I tweak the way the site looks, so if anyone else has suggestions, now's the time...

Thanks again, and welcome to the site!

-CW

OK, everything should be up and running now. So let me make a few comments.

The thermometer is currently set at only $50, but tomorrow I'll update it to reflect the "matching" pledges as well.

Matching pledges (and Michale) -

If you use PayPal to donate, there is one thing you should be aware of. PayPal takes a cut off the top of donations as a fee. This fee is calculated on a weird scale, which means that very small donations ($5 or less, say) get mostly eaten up in fees. So if you're donating over time, my advice is to save it up, calculate the total, and send it in either in one big payment at the end, or at the very least as Michale suggested, in big chunks. This way more of the funds get to us here, instead of PayPal's pockets.

This is only really germane for folks who are planning on making multiple payments. Any single payment is gratefully appreciated, no matter what the dollar amount. Even if you donate a single dollar, some of it will make it past the fee structure.

OK, on to answering the comments so far...

LizM -

Do Canucks get Doctor Who? Cool! I guess I should have figured on that. Anyone else still wondering, I would Google "Dalek" to be enlightened.

OK, the other comment I'm going to answer individually, to make it more visible. I gotta get to sleep soon...

-CW

Technically, it's only the second annual holiday fundraiser, but the third fund drive. The first was to raise money for the inauguration trip. So, no, you didn't miss one!

:-)

More later...

-CW

OK, I think the graphics should be working now, both on the main page and the single-article pages. Clicking on it should bring you to the "2011" fundraising page. I still haven't finished the text on this page yet, but the programmatic stuff should be working now.

More in a bit...

-CW

That was one rockin' holiday fundraiser kick-off and, may I say, very, very well worth the wait!

But, this is the third annual ChrisWeigant.com Holiday Fundraising Drive!? I can't believe I missed one. :(

There is simply no way that any self-respecting fan of the Doctor (or Star Trek, Michale) or anyone else for that matter could possibly hope to put up any resistance, whatsoever, in the face of all of those precious kittens. There is just no way - I will see to it!

I have a sneaky feeling that you're going to exceed your goal ... by a lot - so, let the fun begin!

P.S. It's great to hear that you're progressing well with your book. That's another important project that will be well worth the wait but I can't wait anyway! I can never read enough history, you know. :)

Michale,

You are to be commended for being our fearless leader of the comments, always ensuring a lively debate and keeping us all on the straight and narrow, by comparison. Heh.

You are certainly leading the way on the third annual ChrisWeigant.com Holiday Fundraising Drive and I like your idea of extending it through New Year's Day. Though, I don't think you'll have any problem reaching your 500 comment goal - I'll see to that, and match the contribution, too!

P.S. I'd happily pick up a six-pack or two of that blue Romulan ale for you because it's very important that you maintain your energy at high levels, especially now!

But, unfortunately, I can't even get the energy drink in my neck of the woods. Time to move to another hemisphere, or something.

You can be sure, though, that I'll be raising a glass of some equally potent beverage in your honour - for the holidays and for the success of the third (is it really the third!?) annual ChrisWeigant.com Holiday Fundraising Drive. Okole maluna!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/drinks/e779/

:D

Michale.....

Ooooooo I am gonna burn for that one... :D

Anyways, it's past my bedtime, so I'll just get on with the cut'n and a paste'n...

As ya'all have noticed, I have started numbering my posts.. Every 50 posts, I will send a PayPal payment to CW.com and annotate same on my post. Those who have pledged to match my donations might want to follow suit. It's easier (at least for me) to send a bunch of $50 payments rather than one big sum..

Also, I propose that we extend the "Holiday" Fund Drive to 1 Jan 2012, which truly marks the end of the holidays. This gives me an extra week to meet my goal of 500 posts... :D

Just a thought...

I also forgot to number my last few posts, so give me a moment here to extrapolate where I am at..

OK... 12.. add 2, carry the 1, deduct for silly post... No.. ADD 2 for silly post...

OK, I think I got it...

AND AAAAAWAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY WEEEE GOOOOOOOOOO

Michale
019