Tag: ads

By Thomas Holbrook II

It’s been a while since the last post, and I owe everyone here an explanation as to what’s been going on.

First of all, I have some awesome news.  I’m no longer single as a special lady has entered my life.  I’ve been busy getting things ready for when I move in with her.

She is the most amazing person I’ve ever met in my life.

I’ve also been writing for Muktware again as I need to brush up on my writing.  It needs work, but I’m not giving up.  Broadening my horizons will only help me at this point.

However, I should have been keeping up with posting here.  The website is in need of a redesign, and I also have a confession to make.  Every time I begin thinking of ways to raise money so I can keep the site up and running, I would simply stop because I’d feel guilty.

I’m of two minds in terms of alternative media.

On the one hand, I recognize and understand that expenses have to be covered in order for a venue to exist.  This requires time and money.  Unfortunately, because I have to pay bills, I lack time at the moment.

On the other hand, it bothers me on a deep personal level to sell things or ask for money.  That’s why I ask for money as the last thing on the investing page.

After all, many of us are still struggling at the moment and we want to stand on our own feet in many cases.

The problem is that I need to get over that and change my attitude.  Too many times, things with potential never realize it because those who initiate these things are too scared of themselves to try.

I’ve been too scared of myself to try, and for that, I owe all of you an apology.  I will do better, and if some are turned off by solicitations for resources, the Internet is a vast universe.

There are plenty of other sites to visit.

There are some things that need to happen, because if I don’t do them, I won’t be able to take The *Nixed Report to the next level:

1. All the digital magazines need to be converted to HTML.  While PDF is wonderful in terms of consistent look and feel, HTML is much better in terms of allowing for advertisements among other things, which brings me to the next point.
2. I need to quit being scared of asking for money.  Others do it all the time, and if I can put ads on the site, then I can very well start a crowdfunding campaign for equipment, site costs, and more.
3. In order to bring in more revenue, I’ve started freelancing at Muktware, a wonderful website that covers free and open source software.  Swapnil is an amazing editor, and he knows just when to step in and offer constructive criticism.  Another way is for me to do another initiative, Angelcoven.  Angelcoven will be a social media and online consultation group that I am forming in order to help others build and maintain an online presence; it’s been one of my dreams for a long time.

By Thomas Holbrook II

I remember the good old days of relying on Microsoft.  I used everything from Windows to Office.  I even used Visual Basic for a while.

The problem is that said software costs several hundred dollars in the U.S. alone.  Even the subscription model can get expensive after a while.

That’s why so called “software piracy” has run rampant throughout the years.  While many would love for companies and individuals to be compensated for the work done, bending them over and violating their hind quarters without so much as a happy reach around was not a good incentive to be “moral and ethical” about installing software.

Then again, this is the same organization that referred to ACTA as a treaty, when in fact it wasn’t.  Since they do tend to act like a mafia, it shouldn’t be too surprising.

So there I was on my lunch quietly scrolling through Facebook when something showed up on my feed that caused me to die a little on the inside.  The big push is for people to turn others in for cash rewards.

This reminded me of another ad that got trolled.  Instead of an actor who was blown up to look like Hercules through the magic of photo editing, we have, “Hey!  Snitch on others you know for money!  Yeah!   Money!”

Needless to say, the ad didn’t go over well.

From being called scum to being asked if they’d pay for a person’s software if they turned themselves in, is a clear demonstration that the people at the BSA are not the brightest stars in the sky.

Why in the world would they pay for an ad on Facebook?

Who knows.  Maybe they just want to throw everything out there and see what sticks.  At the end of the day, BSA is this week’s Friday Epic Fail!