Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

I really should read my own blog.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Calendar Update

Calendar Update

by | 65 Comments

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The interest in calendars has been lukewarm, so I need you to email [email protected] if you desire a calendar. If you have already emailed, don’t send another. Mentioning you want one in the comments DOES NOT WORK, as I am only using the tally from emails.

Additionally, I am going to hold a site fundraiser. I have received bids for a complete rebuild that will be several thousand dollars, but we just need a complete rebuild. Alain has done an amazing job patching things together, but the best course of action is starting from the ground up. When should we hold the fundraiser?

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    I think I sent an email already. Let me know if I didn’t.

    As for the fundraiser, I’m in whenever you launch it.

  3. 3.

    Yarrow

    Fundraiser timing: Might as well do it soon. It’s the holiday season, people are feeling generous and if Mueller comes through with indictments everyone will want to celebrate. Might as well celebrate by donating to the Balloon Juice Infrastructure Fund.

  5. 5.

    narya

    I’ll contribute whenever you do it! Also, if you can incorporate a subscription model, where a higher price means no ads, I would HAPPILY do that.

  6. 6.

    Haroldo

    I am very much in favor of the rebuild and will contribute whenever the fundraiser starts. I’ve spruiked for this in the past – I’m happy to see it taking flight.

    As to when, I like Barbara’s idea (Comment #4):

    Maybe the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving?

  7. 7.

    Yarrow

    @Barbara: @Haroldo: People travel after Thanksgiving and Sundays are often slow posting days here. I think a lot of people could miss that day.

    I think the fundraiser should be over several days so more people have a chance to see it.

  8. 8.

    Gelfling 545

    Sent an email.
    I have no preference on when to hold the fundraiser. As a thought, you might put the figure out there now, see how much we get, then bang the drum for the rest with a fundraiser, perhaps in early January.

  9. 9.

    Haroldo

    @Yarrow:

    I was envisioning that as a start date – I was taking it for granted that the fundraiser would extend over at least a week or so, with copious reminders posted by our tireless front pagers.

  11. 11.

    Barbara

    @Yarrow: I was thinking of that as a first day, and my assumption is that by Sunday night people would be desperate to log back in and see what they missed.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    I hope I can send you a check as in the past. Already asked for two calendars.

    I have old ones propped up all around my office, commemorating dear departed pets. These are the nicest quality calendars around.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    Is it too late to send pics for the calendar?

    Fundraiser should last a week, I’d think. Might enlist Doug! To drop daily reminders. Get it started before folks’ holiday credit card bills hit.

  17. 17.

    Middlelee

    Glad to hear about the site rebuild. Can we get some sort of fundraising arrow or whatever so we can see the target and the progress?
    I emailed calendar request.

  19. 19.

    dr. luba

    Fundraising can start whenever……but can you pin a post to the top of the page? And keep it there until the fundraising goals are met?

  20. 20.

    Raven

    I’ve always assumed the calendar was a fundraiser. As much as I love all the varmits here mine calendars get looked at one and put up. I’ll do whatever.

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    Sent my email.

    Fundraiser? I dunno. I agree with those that believe it should be a multi-day thing with a sticky post that people will continue to see at the top when coming to the site.

  26. 26.

    satby

    Agree with multiday fundraiser, pinned to the top, with some sort of goal thermometer so we can track progress. Gives everyone, even occasional lurkers, a chance to see it and contribute.

  27. 27.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’m in for the fundraiser whenever you decide to hold it. I also predict you will put it up and take it down within 3 hours after reaching your goal and then some.

    Any other predictions? LOL

  28. 28.

    Spanky

    And just to make it explicitly clear*, the calendar IS a fundraiser, but that’s for an animal rescue org. The fundraiser you (Cole) are talking about is to move Balloon Juice into the 21st century, amirite?

    (* – That’ll never happen.)

  29. 29.

    Sloane Ranger

    Happy to shell out some cash, preferably ASAP before Christmas. Agree with the idea we have a sticky or a thermometer so we can track progress towards the goal.

    Advice on how I, as a foreigner, can get my quids to you will be gratefully received.

  32. 32.

    Aleta

    Fri the 23rd – Wed. 28th (end on the blog day for gratitude).
    Post election mood still going + before we’re overwhelmed by black Fri-cyber Monday deals.
    And could you put the fun back into fundraiser. Barking dogs answering the phones.

  34. 34.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    John, is it too late to contribute pictures for next year’s calendar?

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    When should we hold the fundraiser?

    Just put one of those thermometer thingies in the upper right corner of the blog and mention it every time people complain. It’ll get filled up quickly enough.

  36. 36.

    dexwood

    In whenever it happens. Timing of the fundraiser doesn’t matter to me, but I appreciate the concerns expressed by others.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Raven:

    I’ve always assumed the calendar was a fundraiser.

    The calendar is a fundraiser for MARC, John’s favorite animal cause. He’s just generally passed the hat when it’s time for site upgrades.

  38. 38.

    henqiguai

    Fund raiser – I’m in! But make it over a few days; some of us don’t really get here every day or in a timely manner.

  41. 41.

    MazeDancer

    Nothing will get people to send in their calendar pics faster than speaking of shutting it down. (Why, yes, did just send mine…)

    Though I understand how it may be way too much work for way too little pay-out.

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: Yay for the fundraiser! I was gonna say Dec 1 through Dec 15.

    That should cover the folks who get paid on the first, or the first and the 15th, and should cover the folks who get paid once a week. Plus it gives a bit of a heads up for those of us who need to fit stuff like this into our budgets.

    It also gives us a week or two to catch our (financial) breath after many of us donated more than we could afford to the election.

  45. 45.

    ruemara

    Ugh. It’s just bad timing for me. The holidays are here and it eats up spare cash. I want to kick in to every fundraiser and I’m dropping my pennies into the bucket for recount battles. These harvest holidays seem to harvest out of my wallet.

  46. 46.

    scav

    Could also maybe just set up a standing pot for general blog maintenence that people could contribute to when convenient for them, with the expectation that excess monies say, once a year, get rolled over into pet-donations. When major rebuilds are required, send out a specific appeal and raise the limit of accumulation temporarily.

  47. 47.

    MazeDancer

    @zhena gogolia:

    I hope we can get sticky nyms!

    Ain’t too proud to admit ignorant cluelessness as to what are “sticky nyms”. But so dislike people not searching e-z search stuff, went to the Google.

    The 8th result, and the first one that actually had “sticky nyms” in it was your post.

    Balloon Juice got some fast Google bot action.

    But still clueless about what are sticky nyms. Might I inquire?

  51. 51.

    Spanky

    @efgoldman: Crank.

    @Pogonip: It used to be, in this joint, that a feller could leave his name and email in the boxes when he was-a commentin’, and they’d stay STUCK! Nowadays they disappear no matter what ya does. Daggnabbit!~

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @MazeDancer: My nym is WaterGirl. A sticky nym refers to a nym that the website remembered — so after you entered it once, your info stayed in the name, email and website fields and you never had to enter it again. (unless you cleared all your cookies or did something similar)

    Right now, our nyms don’t “stick”; you have to re-enter them much of the time.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @MazeDancer:
    Re sticky nyms:
    Once upon a time, you could fill in the Name and Email (and Website, if you had one) fields the very first time you commented, and FYWP would remember these details forever. But now, in these sad days of decline, our nyms no longer stick: FYWP forgets this information after about half an hour, so you must reenter it manually.

  54. 54.

    MazeDancer

    Dear All – except what’s his name at #48 – many thanks for excellent explanations.

    I can auto-fill now. But I clear all my cookies, everyday, when browser closes except for a few. Guess if we get sticky nyms I could “white list” BJ, too.

  57. 57.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @ruemara: Totally understandable. I think there will be plenty of funds for the rebuild – but if you use the Amazon link here to buy anything from amazon, that money gets put into the “running the blog” kitty, if that helps you any. And I think recount funds are just as important!

  59. 59.

    scav

    @chris: A) don’t use paypal and B) have never heard the specifics of how the money in that fund gets used. But that is certainly one way of contributing.

  60. 60.

    Watership

    My two cents … start the fundraiser before T-giving and run it through the end of the year. Do the new build right.

    If I gave now and the fundraiser was still open that week after Christmas, I’d probably throw in another $20. Not much, but I bet I’m not the only one that would give twice if he/she had the opportunity to space it out. Don’t crunch yourself by budgeting the new site on what you can raise in three days. And don’t start the big build (work on design and layout now to EOY) until after the 1st. Election season is going to run till after T-giving it seems, ffs.

    As for the Calendar, buck up young soldier. :) It’s a nice EOY moment for jackals. This year, I promise ( I said this last year) to send in pics of my pack (4 strong) to anchor a month.

    If the fundraiser gets out of hand, and you have way more money than you care to be a faithful steward of, you can always call it and thank everyone before the holiday.

  62. 62.

    low-tech cyclist

    Fundraiser kickoff: how about December 1?

    Why wait that long: because runoffs. We don’t want to compete with candidates in runoffs (Mike Espy 11/27, possibly Stacey Abrams 12/4) for Juicer fundraising dollars. At least, I hope we don’t.

    Once it’s too late for political contributions to make a difference in 2018 races, start the fundraiser.

  63. 63.

    henqiguai

    @efgoldman(#40):

    @henqiguai:
    some of us don’t really get here every day or in a timely manner.
    Why”

    Because I’m usually 2 to 4 days behind and only occasionally jump ahead to ‘current’ topics on weekends. And I’ve been cutting back; got too many, and growing, technical and non-fiction books waiting to be read, and a slowly growing presently literally chest-high stack (and I’m topping 6′ 1″) of sci fi/urban fantasy/horror to be read. And I do a 10+ hour workday.

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