Ed Brayton and I set up freethoughtblogs as a cooperative venture. Although we did try running ads to bring in some revenue, ads proved to be intrusive and obnoxious — blog ads tend to play all kinds of stupid games to get your attention — so we gave up on that. So right now the site runs in the red, just a little bit, and that’s OK. My Patreon account covers the server cost just fine, and I’m not interested in profit.
By comparison, take a look at the financials for Truth Social.
Trump Media & Technology Group burned through a staggering $712 million last year while bringing in a mere $3.7 million in revenue, a ratio as upside-down as Trump has turned the country.
There’s no actual business here, just a megaphone for a doddering old man.
To be fair, you could also call Pharyngula “a megaphone for a doddering old man,” but at least I’m not blowing $700 million to keep it running. I suspect there’s an interesting leak in the money pipeline that is diverting donations from billionaires to inflate that budget, and that leak is spilling money into Trump’s pocket, so it’s not a real loss to him.
I’m going to have to get a few more patreon followers if it costs hundreds of millions to run a website.
Not only cheaper but better. (At the risk of damning with faint praise.)
Looking at the illustration from South Park, maybe you should bring back zombie Saddam Hussein and let him replace the techbro billionaires that pull the strings.
They are all toxic, but SH was at least marginally sane.
^ ^ ^
Also, South Park’s Satan was a cool, benevolent dude.
Imagine if America had a president whose views and opinions wouldn’t be out of step with Pharyngula, posted breaking information on his national and international policies here. That sort of thing is supposed to make the honoured website more profitable, not less.
I think some good people are breaking out, though: I look to Heather Cox Richardson for a rational perspective on national policies, for instance.
Is “burning through” money the same thing as “money laundering”? How much of that $712 million ends up in a Dumpster’s pocket, or a friend of Dumpster’s pocket? Thank you for your attention to this matter.
It takes hundreds of millions to run a corrupt website. It money to become corrupt. Too hard to be corrupt without it.
Speaking of Richardson…this is the start of her post yesterday:
So not only is Dumpster Don using war to distract the media from The Files, but he and his buddies are getting rich off the war. Naturally.
His grift extends far beyond just his war. Nearly every aspect of the presidency is for sale with proceeds going into his or his famlly’s pocket. Absolutely the most corrupt administration in us history.
It is absolutely insane that they’ve managed to burn 700 million USD running a goddamn unfederated Mastodon server.
Rob Bos @ #10 — It would be if running the server was the main thing they are doing. It’s not of course. The main thing they are doing is scamming suckers for donations and merchandise sells with the money going into grit covered as over-inflated “expenses” for the enterprise. I would bet you could find some familiar names in the roster of companies that get money from TS…which is short for “Tough Shit”.