Compter Upgrade Fund... I hope. · 2:36am Jul 13th, 2014
Alright everypony, here's the deal. I don't exactly NEED a new computer yet, but I don't expect this one to last forever. That said, I'm kinda in a place where I really can't afford to do anything about it at the moment. I lost my job back in Feburary, and haven't been able to find another one just yet. I'm still looking around, but everything is on hold since I'm moving from Eugene, OR to Bend, OR immediately after I get back from BronyCon. (Which, for the record, I paid for completely—including my badge, hotel, and flight—when I was still making close to $25 an hour. All the arrangements are non-refundable, so I might as well go and enjoy it.) The job market up there is a bit better, so I'm hoping to have better luck finding work. It's also going to lower my living expenses a bit since I'm gonna be roommates with my friend Xepher (whom I also edit for) after the move. While finding a traditional job would be fantastic and provide me with an income that allows for a new computer in the near-ish future, it will also seriously limit my time to edit stories for people and engage in other fandom-related things.
So let me explain why I'm writing this post. I really, really love all the awesome content this fandom has inspired and sincerely want to continue helping ponies improve and polish their stories as much as possible. In order to have as much time as possible to do that, I need an income to pay the bills (and which, hopefully, will allow me to eventually get a new computer). What I'm getting at is that while I'll continue to do as much editing as I can as often as I can, I'd be extremely grateful for any donations that people want to send my way for the work I do. I'm not expecting much since I know that the stories posted here are works of fan content and not aimed at making a profit, but the reality is that even a moderately OK copy editor and proofreader would normally charge something like $20 per hour as a start. That works out to around $20 per 5,000 words give or take. As I mentioned, I'm gonna expect anything close to that. I'd be happy with $0.10 per 1,000 words (according to FimFiction's word count). That works out to about $0.50 per hour. So, if anypony is willing to donate to my efforts here, they can PM me to work something out for now.
I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to facilitate this kind of process in the long term if ponies are willing to help, and the pricing might change if I get a really good response (although I'm not expecting it), but a monthly Pateron feed might one option. I'll post more details as I think this through.
Take care, and keep up all the awesome creativity everypony.
... I'll see what I can scrounge up.