Gregory's ServerThe investigative newsroom I work for, @ProPublica, is raising money right now. We report on abuses of power in the public interest - stories like corruption on the Supreme Court. It was the first outlet to win a Pulitzer for web-first journalism. And if you donate through this link, you'll let our team know that Mastodon is an audience to pay attention to. https://give.propublica.org/give/346528/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=mstdn #journalism #fediverse #mastodon
Ben Werdmuller
63 comments
Steven Zekowski
@ben @chargrille
Ben Werdmuller
@steve_zeke @chargrille All my colleagues' work! I just help with the technology side. Thank you very very much for donating!
Steven Zekowski
@ben @chargrille
Erin Conroy
Awesome! Thank you! I saw ProPublica now has something like 115K followers on here, which is a lot for Mastodon! So I can only assume that means they have a quite large audience & a lot of support. Suspect we'd see more articles from any outlets who implement that share button! Thank you all for your support for their invaluable work, which I have used & benefited from for more years now than I'd like to count.
Chris Real
Nothing like being told it's only my money that matters. Mastodon only matters to you if it means your "team" doesn't need to work hard to fund it. Swallow your pride—sell some steak knives or whatever. The corruption of the Supreme Court is well and heavily covered by all your competitors. For free.
Ben Werdmuller
@_chris_real Hey! Our journalism is free to access. And I'm a decades-long part of the open social web movement - Mastodon is very important to me indeed. I didn't mean to offend with my framing. We're on a funding drive because it's a non-profit (like other public media outlets). Nobody pays to read what we do. And others may be covering it, but it was our investigation that broke the story. 
Anil Dash
@_chris_real Ask Marcy what she thinks of this kind of journalism — she'll tell you to support it. There is nothing noble in wanting important work to not be supported, or valuable labor to go uncompensated.
Chris Real
So I'll make a deal with you, Big Follower. You give Marcy $1000, and the next time, I'll go easier on ProPub (who really doesn't need the money—only its lower-tiered journalists do). Will you take the challenge?
Chris Real
You really go to the trouble of typing something like that, knowing it's totally ineffective? That's just lazy. There's unFollow, there's Block—USE them. That's what they're there for.
Schools are superspreaders
@_chris_real Just look at all the bullshit YOU typed. Why are you still talking, when keeping your damn mouth shut is always an option?
Chris Real
So you're the erstwhile hall monitor of Mastodon? I think, nahhh. If you need people to shut up to make you happy, maybe you should think about your dependancy issues. Nobody died and left you boss [with censorship powers]. Mastodon gave you a Block. USE it.
Schools are superspreaders
@_chris_real Consider all the shit YOU talked about ProPublica, when you could have just as easily blocked or muted the guy. You can dish it out, but you can't take it. And, you're projecting. 
Schools are superspreaders replied to Sampath Pāṇini ®
@paninid I'd be a lot better without you crapping up my mentions. Scram.
Seriously
Well, today I learned it’s “facist” to work at a non-profit and ask for donations… You’re history’s greatest monsters, ProPublica! 😅
Chris Real
Being misunderstood at the start by third parties who love to creatively expand their misunderstanding is a bottomless pit of useless typing I'd love to discus it on Pro Publica's account, but they don't deem us worthy of a presence on Mastodon . . .
Chris Real
From wikipedia: "ProPublica was the brainchild of Herbert and Marion Sandler, the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation, who have committed $10 million a year to the project. "The Sandlers hired Paul Steiger, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, to create and run the organization as editor in chief." Looks like they have private funding after all. No need to sell steak knives.
Anil Dash
@_chris_real can't tell if you're too stupid to realize how wrong you are, or if you don't know what "free" means.
Chris Real
@anildash . Your shallow opinion of those who disagree with you shouldn't be so all-encompassing as to be meaningless. But at least you can apply it to anyone, right? Stroll on . . .
Robin
@ben @ProPublica ProPublica’s work exposing Alberto Salazar and the Nike mess was my first real exposure to your invstigative journalism. I’ve been consistently impressed with the work you all do. Happy to contribute.
Steve Davidian
Hi. Just tried to donate but the site didn't let me select my state. It did take the zip and everything else. Android, older os, on an LGv30.
Ben Werdmuller
@Stegosaurus @ProPublica Thanks for trying and I’m sorry it didn’t work- I’ll share with the team. 
CaliCarol
Done. I've been so impressed with @ProPublica reporting. I've been meaning to donate for a while. Thanks for the link.
Jeri Dansky
@ben Done! I've donated most years in the past, but made a slightly larger donation just now.  
Slippery Cliff
@ben @ProPublica done. I appreciate the call to action. I value both ProPublica and Mastodon. 
Arlenecw
@ben @ProPublica I have donated. Unfortunately, Mastodon is not one of the social media choices to share that.
Arlenecw
@ben @ProPublica to be fair, I’ve never seen a Mastodon link anywhere. By the way, I love @ProPublica
Ben Werdmuller
@Arlenecw @ProPublica Thank you!! A side project of mine is to make it MUCH easier to create "share to Mastodon" buttons. Different instance domains make it a harder problem - but we need them! This is a good push for me to finish up.
Ben Werdmuller
Holy wow - the Mastodon community really came through. This is huge, and makes a massive difference for our reporting. Thank you everyone - and thank you for showing how active and engaged this network is! 
Jared White
@ben @ProPublica Pay no attention to the trolls! 🙄 We need to normalize people asking for money for journalism on Mastodon. Period. End of story. No additional preamble or context required. The End. Thanks for all you do! 👏 |
@ben
Done!
I've donated to ProPublica over the years (not as much as I ought, though!) & I strongly encourage my friends on here to donate now [use Ben's link!].
ProPublica is a great pro-democracy, anti-corruption resource here in the US & it would go a long way for them to know Mastodon is an audience aligned w/their work.
In that vein, I'd be super grateful if you guys had a Mastodon share button on your articles instead of, or in addition to, buttons for Twitter & Facebook.
@ProPublica