Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

somafm.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 21 posts

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#11

Post by Mz »

fourstar wrote: post #8
Mz wrote: post #2

Yeah, and I need about $1200 to pay my taxes from last year. And I'm homeless, deeply in debt, and trying to declare bankruptcy. So? Why is this begathon posted here?

Care to be a little less heartless? SOMA FM is great and helps many of us get through the day at our jobs.

Care to be a little less heartless. SOMA-FM is great and helps many of us get through the day at our jobs.

That's an extremely funny (ironic) remark to make to someone who is in the kind of deep doo doo I am in through no fault of my own. My debts are due to getting myself well when the rest of the world not only said it could not be done but actively tried to hinder my efforts. I could, instead, be using many thousands of dollars per year (or even month) of medical care at taxpayer expense. No one cares that I am saving them money and very few people care that my situation is incredibly unjust.

Peace and carry on, Mr. (or Ms.) Big Hearted.

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#12

Post by douglasisshiny »

hbeaver wrote: post #9

I didn't realize they were that short, so I donated, again. As a listener (as I type this), I appreciate the post.

As a very new listener (as of like 15 minutes ago), I was happy to chip in a bit. Already hooked to the ambient station.

Even though it seems they'd prefer never to have ads, I wouldn't mind them having a few advertisements at the top of every hour, or some similar arrangement. I wonder how much sparse ad placement would help.

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#14

Post by mappu »

I listen to DI.FM at work. The free streams are ad-supported, but the only ads i ever get are tasteful ones for their own premium service (which lets you listen ad-free in higher quality), seems like a pretty sustainable model.

Oh, they've been running ads for AlienVPS recently, which is actually kind of relevant to my work. : )

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#16

Post by Mz »

wiwillia wrote: post #5
Mz wrote: post #2

Yeah, and I need about $1200 to pay my taxes from last year. And I'm homeless, deeply in debt, and trying to declare bankruptcy. So? Why is this begathon posted here?

Because we love soma.fm - it's a free service that many of us enjoy

I have gone to lunch and come back. It was amusing to watch the upvotes and downvotes for my remarks before I left. That seems to still be going on.

I appreciate that you love it. But that is exactly why they don't need a begathon and shouldn't have one. They could post their donation goal for the month on the site (at the beginning of the month) and post regular updates as to how much they have gotten so far. If it is looking to be a shortfall, an email to their subscribers would be appropriate. No begging required. They offer something of value and they need something of value in return to keep it going. That requires communication, not begging.

And, frankly, with an established audience and relatively highish monthly inflow, at this point they should be hiring someone with experience to help them raise and manage an endowment so one slow month doesn't threaten to take them off the air. Their begathon loudly announces that their business model needs work as it isn't being handled very professionally or responsibly.

I did a lot of volunteer work over the years and I have studied how Not-For-Profit models work. I am not just talking out my ass here.

Peace and carry on.

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#17

Post by bmelton »

Mz wrote: post #10
bmelton wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound glib, but it sounds like you need to work on your business model. Soma has been 'in business' as a community supported operation for over 10 years now. They have the occasional shortfall, wherein they blast to the community and usually make it up. It should probably be pointed out that they have more than one employee, and donations aren't their only source of revenue, and they're still able to operate t…

I am working on my business model (and not posting a begathon). That's why I feel entitled to say they should work on theirs. I don't begrudge them continued success. I just don't think this is the appropriate way to go about it.

Their appeal is that they are community supported, which allows the radio programming to be commercial free and basically allows them to play whatever they think is good. It's a vast departure from mainstream radio programming.

That it seems offensive to you is frankly baffling me, but to each their own I suppose. Regardless, this is exactly the model that's worked for them for the past however many years and assuming this isn't a harbinger of things to come, will hopefully continue to work for them.

They provide a service that they could easily charge for (as evidenced by their success for this long) but choose to allow their service to run as cheap or free as they can get away with. They obviously aren't in it for the money, and knowing that, I should think it would take some of the distastefulness away.

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#18

Post by Mz »

bmelton wrote: post #17
Mz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am working on my business model (and not posting a begathon). That's why I feel entitled to say they should work on theirs. I don't begrudge them continued success. I just don't think this is the appropriate way to go about it.

Their appeal is that they are community supported, which allows the radio programming to be commercial free and basically allows them to play whatever they think is good. It's a vast departure from mainstream radio programming. That it seems offensive to you is frankly baffling me, but to each their own I suppose. Regardless, this is exactly the model that's worked for them for the past however many years and assumin…

Maybe you missed this comment of mine explaining my view (which posted about 15 minutes before yours):

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050388

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#19

Post by bmelton »

Mz wrote: post #18
bmelton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their appeal is that they are community supported, which allows the radio programming to be commercial free and basically allows them to play whatever they think is good. It's a vast departure from mainstream radio programming. That it seems offensive to you is frankly baffling me, but to each their own I suppose. Regardless, this is exactly the model that's worked for them for the past however many years and assumin…

Maybe you missed this comment of mine explaining my view (which posted about 15 minutes before yours): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050388

I had missed it, but I don't know that it changes the gist of my response in any meaningful way.

You see this as somehow distasteful, or as 'begging', which just seems to me to be sour grapes that they're doing what you seem to be unable to. I don't mean that as intentionally mean, but again, this is the 'business model' that's worked for them for years, and apparently the same business model that hasn't worked for you.

Could they be doing it better? Sure. There's always room for improvement, but they deliver a quality product. In return for that, they occasionally solicit for donations. It's quite possible that they do all the things you've suggested. It's quite possible that they ordinarily run at a surplus, but haven't been raising actively, or haven't been receiving donations. It's possible that they've already sent an email to their user base and gotten a less-than-ideal response.

They're moving data centers, so it's possible that they ate up some of that surplus in the migration effort, which tends to get costly.

Either way, I don't personally see this as begging, and they've already hit their goal, which should help to reinforce how valuable the service is. That they aren't homeless, in debt or trying to file for bankruptcy shouldn't count against them.

Re: We still need to raise $1,599 this month. In less than 24 hours

#20

Post by Mz »

bmelton wrote: post #19
Mz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you missed this comment of mine explaining my view (which posted about 15 minutes before yours): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050388

I had missed it, but I don't know that it changes the gist of my response in any meaningful way. You see this as somehow distasteful, or as 'begging', which just seems to me to be sour grapes that they're doing what you seem to be unable to. I don't mean that as intentionally mean, but again, this is the 'business model' that's worked for them for years, and apparently the same business model that hasn't worked for y…

I think you missed my point somewhere. I don't know how else to respond to this in a communicative way rather than combative. So I am just going to go back to my writing project for now.

Peace.

Post reply on HN