Studio711.com – Ben Martens

I’ve said this enough that you probably know it by now, but even though people think about rain when they think of Seattle, we actually get less rain than most other major cities in the country. That being said, 2014 has ben WET. At this point, we’ve already received the amount of rain that we normally get by Halloween! Last Saturday was the second rainiest day in May ever. Even if we got no more rain for the rest of the year, it still wouldn’t be the driest year on record.

The long range forecast says we’re heading toward an El Nino weather swing which generally means drier weather for the Pacific Northwest so we’ll see if this keeps up. But for now, our umbrellas are getting a lot more use than normal. [source]

I let my NRA membership lapse. I had it for a year because it was a requirement for joining the gun range. It was a tough call because overall, I generally agree with the things that the NRA supports. I started off in their corner but they turned me off.

1. As soon as you join, you’re automatically signed up for more junk mail (both electronic and physical) than you can imagine. You have to unsubscribe one by one and it takes forever.
2. There’s a non-stop call for more money. The world is going to end and Obama is going to personally come to your house and take your guns if you don’t give them money NOW.
3. They don’t come off as a level-headed organization. Just because the anti-gun lobby is whacko and illogical, that doesn’t mean that the NRA should go to the other extreme and scream just as loud. Why can’t they provide calm, logical arguments? It seems like that would go over a lot better with the public. Just being louder doesn’t mean you’re right.

If you thought that you got a lot of mail when you were a member, wait until you try to quit. It keeps coming and so do the phone calls. Finally one of the callers started the conversation with, “Is this a good number to call you at?” I replied, “No, this is a bad number. Please don’t ever call it again.” So far that seems to have been the end of it.

So while I still agree with most of their stances, I’m out. I know some of you are lifetime members and that’s great. I’m probably going overboard, but I have better things to spend my money on right now. If it was free I guess I might still have my name attached.

The Internet has enabled anyone to become a content creator. Quality content isn’t common, but there are more than a few people producing incredible content. The trick has been for these Internet shows to get enough money to support their high production values. Enter a website called Patreon.com. Patreon provides an easy way for viewers to give money to the people producing the content. Some content producers balk at this and view it as begging for money. I think the opposite is true: if Internet content gives me value, I want to give them money so they can keep doing what they are doing. We both benefit from the relationship.

The general format is that users say they will give $X for each episode but they can also set a monthly limit. So I might say that I’ll give you $1 per episode but I’ll limit it to $2/month. If you make three episodes in one month, you won’t get any money from me for that third one. So when you see total donation amounts per episode, remember that’s only guaranteed for the first episode of the month. It will probably drop down a bit for any episodes after that.

It has been quite successful for a couple of my favorite shows.

• Cordkillers has 1761 patrons giving them roughly $2300 per episode.
• Smarter Every Day has 1022 patrons giving him roughly $3600 per episode.

I’m hoping that some of the other web content I enjoy moves to this model so I can help support them and keep them “on the air.” The whole idea is a throwback to the middle ages when the wealthy would pay musicians and artists. The difference is that now we can crowdfund these and make it all happen with a tiny amount of money from a large number of people. I’d much rather give money directly to these independent creators than the huge chunk of money that goes to the cable company every month.