We know that you enjoy the benefits of R World freely, but this is our week to make you self conscious about that fact. It's pledge week at R World and we're soliciting donations.
You can pledge any amount, but we suggest a minimum pledge of 50 comments a year.
Our "(I) Wonder, what was Ron thinking" club (WWWRT)"
With 50 comments a year - that's only about 1 per week - you will not only have full access to the R World blog archive, but have access to new posts as they are posted!
Our "Nodes on the Internet" club (NOTI)
If you pledge 50 comments and two links per year back to R World, you not only have all the benefits of our WWWRT club, but you will receive a link back and bit of unsolicited advice per month (could be fashion advice, could be an opinion about how you should vote, or even advice from a complete stranger).
Our "Talk Back to R World" Club (TBTRW)
If you pledge 100 comments a year, you can sign up for at least one personal email per month from blog author Ron (he says, trying to disguise his font as he writes about himself in the third person). You can choose whether you'd like the forwarded ("you've gotta read this!") joke, a rant about politics, or family news. Further, you will receive special mention in the annual "scrolling credits" post that lists important contributors to R World. And aperiodic (which is to say random) links back to your blog in posts throughout the year.
And today - through 9 PM PST - we have a matching comments program. An anonymous donor has promised to match any comments you make - attempting to refute all the points you make, but matching nonetheless - up to 100 comments year.
Our "Almost Daily Dose Into Conscious Thought" club (ADDICT)
If you pledge 300 comments a year, you will not only have all the benefits of WWWRT, NOTI, and TBTRW clubs, but we will allow access to the world wide web - great sites like google, yahoo, and the BBC - and suggest that you get outside to visit the real world as well. You will have the honor of being asked to write one guest post for R World. And, finally, you will be invited to all R World events - symposiums, book readings, creative brainstorming meetings, and editorial board meetings.
Finally, those of you who promise to comment more often than this - basically more often than I post - will be asked to leave.
Public blogging depends on your support. Without you, we would just be an on-line diary. Our operators are standing by, waiting for your comments. The future of blogging depends on your support. We know that you'll do the right thing. Thank you.
[Someone shoot me! The folks who pride themselves on being commercial free radio have been doing commercials all week, almost proud of the fact that they do such an inane job of it this so late into the age of broadcasting! Listening to their solicitations for donations is like watching boulders swim. arghh!]
R World (Ron Davison muses aloud)
Just tell me that you don't sound like Ira Glass.
ReplyDeleteThat's one.
I don't know. There's a limit to how many causes I can support, and PBS is offering a tote bag. ;)
ReplyDeleteHey! I thought WWWRT stood for dubya dubya dubya rant tirade!
ReplyDeleteWhich plan gets me the R-World glossary?
Dave,
ReplyDeleteOh no! Now I have to keep track of the comments. I really should think through these schemes.
Thomas,
I had tote bags. They were right here. They are reserved for walk-in donations, though.
Scott,
www stands for dubya dubya dubya? At last - technology that makes sense. I want your glossary so I can begin decoding this virtual world.
forget the glossary,
ReplyDeletewhich plan gets me a happy ending?
I'd just be happy for a comment reciprocated on my blog.
ReplyDeletebooyah! :-)
And the mug. Do not forget the mug. Totes and mugs are what you are supposed to give out with the shipping and handling included. What's this about having to go there to get our free stuff? Preposterous (now you got me feeling as curmudgeonly as Bernard).
ReplyDeleteBut listen, I shall settle for the embossed leather edition of the best from Rwrld in token appreciation for my more than generous donation. After all, one could say that I am a gold plated commenter on this blog. Surely more than a 100 comments a year but never in excess of what you post. ;-)
I am practically crying with empathy and recognition...nothing, nothing ruins my day faster than climbing into the car only to find it's, once again, NPR's turn to beg. I'm forced to change the station to Kiss 108 and listen to Ryan Seacrest give me the latest celebrity dirt, I think he calls it 'sleaze' and then I just feel bad about myself and the fact that I'm not Madonna and I'm not rich enough or fabulous enough to leave my husband for A-Rod and then I actually flip back to NPR, jot down the number and make a pledge in the hopes that my pledge will be the last and necessary drop in the bucket which will make the whole thing go away and usher in the return of Morning Edition which never seems to happen with the immediacy I desire. Having said all that, I look forward to being a member of your matching comments club and hope you'll refute my dissertations with respect and decency. And I can't wait to sit in on some editorial board meetings 'cause those sound like a rocking good time.
ReplyDeleteI was going to mention the tote bag, but I see somebody else did. Here's my comment: PBS doesn't advertise? What's all that blather about MobileExxon, SAIC, Archer,Daniels,Midland and that think tank corp. with the guy in the suit just before Macneil/Lehrer?
ReplyDeleteVery cool blog. Glad I found it.
See you later.
anon,
ReplyDeleteI do news commentary here - you'll find the happy endings over at the fiction section.
Pinky,
scurrying over there now to opine.
Milena,
yes indeed - your comments are generally just right: intelligent but stopping short of making me look dumb. Leather bound, eh?
cce,
the editorial board meetings have ambitious agendas (how will we facilitate the emergence of a new and better world?) but typically spiral downwards into arguments about whose turn it was to get donuts. We have great intentions.
scusteister,
you are right about the ads. I wonder how the number of ads in current day commercial free radio and TV would compare with the number of ads in the early days of commercial radio and TV? Might be scary to see how close they are.
Oh. And welcome to R World.
I knew a woman, a very accomplished woman who was born with a golden spoon in her mouth and climbed the Matterhorn in her early 20's - probably in the 1930's. She married well and could have lived a life of ease.
ReplyDeleteInstead, she committed herself to improving her community in many ways. As a leader in an era when few women were leaders, she spearheaded the effort to bring public radio to Rochester, NY. The excellent station known as WXXI is one of her legacies, and I thank her for it often.
Yes, the incessant interruptions for fund raising - three times each year - are maddening. But I can't imagine not being able to push the 1370 button and getting real news and information. So I donate every year. Please join me!
Thanks again, Alice, for using your great talents to bring something of lasting value to our community!
Ron,
ReplyDeleteWhat? No chance to win a MAC Book Air? NPR said if I donate my name's in the hopper to win a MAC. A mug's nice but I got a million of 'em from all those darn conferences I've attended in the past. And I got just as many polo shirts since this one particular vendor thought they were much better to give than mugs. But the coolest but somewhat useless freebie I've ever gotten, by far, is the coffee mug hot plate powered by the computer via a USB cable. Why is it somewhat useless? Directions say I shouldn't plug into a laptop/notebook.
Darn!
LH,
ReplyDeletepeople love to envy and/or trash the rich, but really, a great deal of what we have is the result of the acts of rich people with a sense of community. I like your story.
Allen,
USB port warmed coffee? Caffeinated computer chips might be a bigger hit - imagine chips that are faster, more alert, and talk fast too.