A couple of years ago, I was asked to name the first five sites I visit each day. Without pause, I rattled off Metafilter, a crowdsourced blog where intelligent contributors highlight interesting things and answer each other’s questions. Metafilter has been around since 1999, and it’s been the source of countless posts on Open Culture over the years. Do a search for “via Metafilter” on our site, and you will see what I mean.
Two days ago, Metafilter’s founder Matt Haughey (see him talk about the history of Metafilter above) stunned readers when he published a post about his site’s financial situation. His post begins: “Today I need to share some unfortunate news: because of serious financial downturn, MetaFilter will be losing three of its moderators to layoffs at the end of this month.” And it ends: “We may have to make hard choices in the future as they come up, but the goal will always be towards having the best place online to share neat stuff, to ask and answer questions, and to have the kinds of thoughtful conversations that make this place what it is.”
Encouraged by its readers, Metafilter launched a fundraising campaign today. Through Paypal you can subscribe to Metafilter for $ 1, $ 2, $ 3, $ 5, $ 10, or $ 20 per month or you can make a one-time contribution. If you’re a fan of Metafilter, definitely consider giving them your support. If you’re not yet a fan, then spend some time at Metafilter and consider giving a hand once you’re hooked. I can say from firsthand experience, it’s getting tougher to run a niche web site in today’s ecosystem. Every time big players like Google and Facebook tweak their algorithms, the fortunes of small players change, often not for the better, and they can definitely use your support.
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Giving Your Support to Metafilter
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