Tin Cup

If blogging is high school (as Julie Leung and others she links to have proposed), Ann Althouse is one of the cool kids -- the blonde at the center of that big knot of people in the corner of the cafeteria. (Julie: "[One of my high school teachers] told me that the popular kids were just as miserable as I was. I didn't believe him.") Ann's swarm of commenters are almost all friendly peers and admirers. But she seems to have blown her cool today, if the comment chorus's uncharacteristic snarkiness is any indication.

What did Ann do? She remarked on Glenn's remark that "EVERY TIME ANDREW SULLIVAN RATTLES HIS TIPJAR, I get more donations, too. Thanks!" And she dared to, basically, rattle her own tip jar: "I have donation buttons too, you know. . . ." Boy, did she get flamed ("Endowed professors panhandling? Not pretty."), to the point where she shot back a stung, "Thanks a lot, guys!"

What did she do that Andrew and Glenn don't do? Have a Comments section, for one thing, as she bitterly points out. What else? Be female? How is that the guys can panhandle with such sangfroid -- and not struggling bloggers, either, but guys who get five and six figures of hits per day and are probably raking it in (relatively speaking) from blogads?

She invited her admirers to put their money where their mouth is -- literally -- and they took offense. As if their companionship and admiration weren't enough.

Ann's painful experience has confirmed me in my paranoid avoidance of the donation button. (And if I ever did break down and have one, I'd never be able to bring myself to mention it. Like Hugh Hewitt, I'd keep it "down there." Silly, isn't it, how we now wear the fig leaf over our wallet?) God knows I could use some return on the time I squander on blogging. I don't know what's the threshold for blogads, but I'm sure I haven't even approached, much less crossed it. I'm right smack in what Shot in the Dark calls "the 150-visitor a day ghetto." (Oh, "it's not a ghetto - just a plateau.") But I cannot bring myself to sing behind my upturned cap. The relationship between blogger and reader is so free and voluntary, so discretionary and . . . affinial? Is that a word? To introduce money into it would feel like hitting up your lover in the morning. He wouldn't feel quite so much like a lover any more, would he?

But why is it like love and not like busking? What is it about writing in the dark that's more intimate than juggling on the street?

I marvel at Andrew's brazen chutzpah in blithely soliciting donations, but I think very few of us could pull it off.

- amba

P.S. Speaking of "Tin Cups," go over to Via Negativa and scroll down through Dave's "Words on the Street" cartoon series. Always the same cartoon, different captions. Here's an example.

UPDATE: Happy ending:

Ann Althouse said... . . . The people who responded positively actually made contributions. People who wanted to justify not making contributions were more likely to comment. The contributions far exceeded the negative comments, so to me the response was overwhelmingly positive. Also, the nastiest commenters here obviously just don't even like my blog -- one has even previously commented that she hates me -- so these folks wouldn't have contributed to me even if they thought that financially supporting bloggers was a good idea. So excuse me if I don't get worked up over this thread -- as I'm sure the people who don't like me would find satisfying.

-- from the comments at Althouse

UPDATE II: The Belmont Club has, I think, the wittiest donation button of all. Go see.

Comments

[Tamar]

Great post, Amba. I have so many opinions about this I dare not write one of them! Thanks.

[nappy40]

I've seen those tip jars. I had no idea people expected to be paid to blog. And from readers!

[Dan from Madison]

I was one of the commenters at Althouse. My take is this - if anyone - anyone - feels that they need or want money to blog, write or do anything else on the internet it is very easy. Just make your site membership only and let's see what happens. I think most of us would agree that total hits would decrease by 99%. Note that lots of big blogs as you mentioned have blogads and we can see some income stream from that. To rattle the tip jar to me sounds desperate and rather lame. We all know the tip jar is there and all know how to hit it and will - if we want.