Omg @aaronpk thank you
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Personally I like the idea of using Disqus on articles, along with a separate forum? I’m not against the forum, but I like having things spoon-fed to me, and would be more likely to migrate over here if Disqus were on articles.
I’m pro-ads, but I don’t want to tell you what to do and certainly wouldn’t tell you to compromise on any ethical concerns. $9 a month seems very affordable though, and I’d be happy to chip in towards that if that’s what gets the article discussions going.
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I guess the collective “goals” haven’t been a big motivator past the transcripts, which people asked for forever. I previously couldn’t afford to do transcripts since I was paying all OMD expenses out of my own pocket and working minimum-wage side jobs.
Now the patreon covers transcripts and about 80% of my other business expenses, and also pays my editor for the podcast edit of the show (works out to about $20/hr for him on top of his pay rate at the radio station). It essentially just offsets what I was putting into the business before, I think I personally have taken home $100 from the $2,500 the patreon has made total.
Estimates-wise, I’d likely need to get to $600 a month before I could alter the kind of content I’m delivering beyond my plan to run one freelance article a week and one me-created blog post per week. The video chats cost me $0 to produce and have been commonly requested, so I’m hesitant to add a different goal at $444/month that costs me anything. That being said, we’ve been up for 6 months and still haven’t changed how much the patreon makes by much, so I haven’t put too much thought into the next goal since set-up.
OMD’s main roadmap still is our workshops, in-person and online, which pay me, and we won’t lose site of our audio content, because our platform is much bigger there (we’re syndicated on broadcast radio and get about 50K-70K downloads a month). We’re also now under contract with our radio/podcast network for 2 years to produce 45 shows a year. I’d love to expand written content, but that does cost money and my uncompensated time. I don’t really want to ask anyone to work for free, as an editor/curator or as a writer.
Side note: It’s also a longshot, but I am a semi-finalist for the Echoing Green, which would pay my salary and health insurance for 2 years to work on OMD full-time. I won’t find out more until late March, but if that happens, it would RADICALLY transform my ability to deliver content - both Billfold-style content and OMD-style content. And PAY MORE PEOPLE, which would make me so happy.
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Good luck!
Thanks! Like I said, it’s a longshot. Michelle Obama was a fellow 0_0
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I think this format is actually growing on me; it’s sort of like forum structure with benefits. 
Option 2, tweaking this to suit, seems like it might work best. The ethical issues with Disqus are definitely serious enough that I would not set it up personally, and I’d have to think hard about continuing to participate using it. Not saying I wouldn’t; eventually I sucked it up and signed up for a Facebook account, after all, just it’s another piece of surveillance to add to the pile.
Hi everyone! Like so many others I will miss the community at The Billfold. I’m hoping a lot of us end up here so we can keep in touch and follow along each others journey’s, not just financially, but life in general stuff.
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What platforms to Captain Awkward and Ask a Manager use? They have threaded responses (I think I’m using these words correctly) but aren’t Disqus. They don’t look as sleek, but they have the functionality. It seems like there should be another option besides Disqus, but maybe there isn’t.
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Excellent question! I love AAM comments. Looks like both just use standard wordpress comments, which are threaded (1 level deep) these days.
Downsides: more spam fighting necessary, can’t see your backlog of old comments like Disqus.
Darlings! I am here. What a journey. I’m exhausted.
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/pats cryptolect on the back.
You got this.
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I would be okay with this!
I will miss throwing some money at my problems every month, can we do that here?
Yes please! Feel free to start the thread and get it kicked off. I already know what some of the things are on the shortlist for me this month!
Oh how I miss The Billfold. I’ll miss Logan, Nicole and Mike talking about their financial lives. I also loved when readers would write pieces. A few of my favorites are the “F off fund”, “Places I’ve lived” and of course the book club.
It is because of The Billfold that I was introduced to Oh My Dollar, Elizabeth Warren and Helaine Olen.
I found a money blog where everyday people with “regular” money could talk about money. I was exposed to a diverse group of people both in age, class, race, and nation or origin and how those things affect the way they do money.
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