Special Event: Urgent Site Fundraising Appeal: Metafilter Needs Immediate Help

November 8, 2022 3:51 PM

THIS IS NOT A DRILL: METAFILTER IS OUT OF MONEY. In the past 18 months, Metafilter has spent $57k more than it has taken in. Each month saw expenses exceed revenue. . . .the site's cash reserves were siphoned to make up the shortfall. They are now gone. Monthly operating expenses are currently about $20k per month, or a little more. Monthly income is about $14k. We need to bring in an additional $7k/month just to keep the lights on. If you would consider giving or giving more, now is the time to do that.

There are many posts on fundraising for MeFi, but they have been, until very recently, entirely within the walls of Metatalk. Because not everyone reads Metatalk fully, many of us, (including me, until today) have not been aware of how dire the situation is. Currently, people are discussing whether much bigger signs/banners throughout the site are needed to make sure our users are aware.

In the meantime, here's a post for the purple to see if we can't reach a few more eyes.

What is Metafilter worth to you? Are you donating yet? If you aren't, can you start? If you are already, can you nudge your support up a bit more? Maybe you could bid on some of the cool stuff in the auction. Or, donate $20 to have jessamyn write the fpp of your dreams.

The week 1 fundraising update is here. Another will likely be up soon.

Do what you can, friends. It's go time to save MeFi.

posted by DirtyOldTown (53 comments total)

Starting now, anyone who donates $5 can MeMail me a movie request: you tell me what genre, subgenre, general vibe, era, language, you want to see a movie in, and what services you're able/willing to watch on, and I'll find you something that fits the bill. I am very good at this.

If you hang out around FF with any regularity, you will know me as someone who watches all the movies. Horror, sure, that's my fave. But also Bollywood. And Tollywood. And old school studio melodramas. And Westerns. And Eastern European minimalism. And magical realism stuff from Spain and Latin America. And Korean dramas. And Indonesian action. And silent films. And documentaries. And 80's kitsch. And mumblecore. And blaxploitation. And sci-fi. And musicals.

You get the picture.

I don't know how much I have to offer beyond my own PayPal donations (and I've sent and am sending again), but I can do this. If you need a nudge, or just want to claim a reward for helping the site, I got you.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:03 PM on November 8, 2022 [14 favorites]

Honestly, that doesn't feel like enough, so how about this:

If you can't give right now, make a FF movie post and tag it #fund-ff. Between now and Thursday at 5 pm Central, the next 20 people who post a movie, I'll give $5 each in their name. If you can give, post a movie and add the tag and I'll add $5 to whatever you gave. I'll do this up to 20 people, for another $100 to Mefi in total.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:10 PM on November 8, 2022 [8 favorites]

Thanks for doing this, DirtyOldTown. I just donated (I mean, donated generally, not a request specifically for you -- I love your energy and am simply happy to keep reading your posts), and I'll figure out at least one movie post for FF.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:22 PM on November 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

I hate being poor—I’ve done a bit but it feels so useless. This is a great idea and I’ve been wanting an excuse to post an older movie!
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:33 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Do it! I'll send $5 in your name.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:37 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just sent $5 for cupcakeninja's post of The Vampire Bat.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:42 PM on November 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

($50 for a jessamyn post, $25 for an Eyebrows McGee post, $misc recurring for a Rhaomi post)
posted by aniola at 5:26 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sorry for the typo there!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:28 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also sent $5 for snofoam's post of The Crying Game.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:33 PM on November 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Shout out to the nice people who have made recent fundraising posts on the blue. Also a shout out to Violet Blue without whose Ask post, I might still have missed the full gravity of the ongoing situation.

I didn't make this post because I supposed I had anything to say that anybody else hadn't already said, I just wanted to spread the word on FF, because that's mostly where I spend my time these days and I hadn't seen it here yet.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:08 PM on November 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have been seeing the funding posts but also didn't realise the extent of the issue. I have now subscribed for a monthly donation. I visit Metafilter, AskMefi and Fanfare daily but it was your post DirtyOldTown that made me subscribe.

I suddenly realised I spend a lot of money on various streaming services (thought prompted by your offer to recommend a movie on whatever services I subscribe too), but the one site I visit daily and have loved for years.... nada. So I now give monthly.

A thought for regular FanFare users maybe.....
posted by Lesium at 8:39 PM on November 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

kitten kaboodle's post of Man on Fire sends another $5 to MeFi.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:18 PM on November 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this post! I just finished Enola Holmes 2 so I'll start a post for it.
posted by cendawanita at 9:28 PM on November 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this DOT. I pretty much confine myself to FF so I didn't know.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:40 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

$5 to MeFi for miss-lapin's post of Evil Dead Trap (which I've got to see!)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:00 PM on November 8, 2022

$5 for cendawanita's post of Ebola Holmes 2!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:00 PM on November 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

Man, I hate autocorrect.

Although I might watch Ebola Holmes. You never know.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:14 PM on November 8, 2022 [5 favorites]

DirtyOldTown, thanks for doing this! I will be making a(nother) donation and PMing you. (And my brain has already started generating ideas for the Ebola Holmes movie...)

Also, I think you should offer your movie-recommendation services as an ongoing business - it would definitely be better than scrolling through the Netflix catalog for an hour and then going to bed!
posted by gakiko at 10:18 PM on November 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

Although I might watch Ebola Holmes. You never know.

It was an age of exploration and dirty water, you never know!
posted by cendawanita at 10:20 PM on November 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

(though, really, to be proper London, it should be Cholera Holmes)
posted by cendawanita at 10:29 PM on November 8, 2022 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the shout DOT - I'd say to anyone who'd previously setup a recurring donation - double check it. I thought mine was still active and boy - it wasn't! Added some extra to make up for the missing time!
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:32 PM on November 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

Hey! aniola posted Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. $5 more to MeFi.

That's six slots. Fourteen left! I'm going to bed soon, but I'm still good for $5 a go 14 more times.

See you nice people in the morning!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:21 PM on November 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Couldn't sleep. Phobos the Space Potato posted Neptune Frost, so there's another $5.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:40 AM on November 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Alright, I'mma do a different thing.

I can't donate on people's behalf (I've already started a monthly subscription, and that's all I can hack) - but I can make posts for donors. I also have a Movie Blog, and I've started a conversation with DirtyOldTown about "maybe collaborating on something in the future". But - heck, the future is now.

So: Here is the list of films I'm working on for my blog. Anything with a pink hyperlink is something I've watched; if you donate anything and then tag me, pick one of the films and I'll do a post about it.

(Special note: a post about the film Judge Priest will only be available to the highest bidder, because GOOD LORD would that drive me to a baroque level of hatred I would have to suppress.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:06 AM on November 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

I suddenly realised I spend a lot of money on various streaming services (thought prompted by your offer to recommend a movie on whatever services I subscribe too), but the one site I visit daily and have loved for years.... nada. So I now give monthly.

I'm doing this as much as possible everywhere: spend my dollars where I spend my attention. (And if I don't feel good about spending dollars on it, maybe I shouldn't be spending my attention on it, either.) So I quadrupled my monthly donation to Metafilter and cancelled a couple of streaming subscriptions.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:51 AM on November 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Another $5 for EmpressCallipygos's post on Forbidden Planet!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:16 AM on November 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

That's nine slots so far. (Only eight show up under the tag, because miss-lapin had a typo there.)

Eleven left.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:21 AM on November 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Another $5 for We had a deal, Kyle's post of Locke.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:56 PM on November 9, 2022

Good news, there's paid mods. I flagged it, they added the fund-ff tag.
posted by aniola at 2:57 PM on November 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for the nudge! Mostly lurker, occasional commenter. Just increased my monthly contribution.
DirtyOldTown - I love what you do on FF! Anything you can recommend for adults and teens who love sci-fi and have seen all the obvious stuff would be amazing! (double bonus for stuff I probably saw as a teenager 40 years ago and forgot :-)
posted by chbrooks at 3:53 PM on November 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sure, chbrooks!

Here are some less obvious sci-fi films they might enjoy. not sure where we are on acceptable ratings. Some of these are R.
-Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes - Positively delightful low-budget Japanese comedy in which the staff at a cafe finds out their TV shows images from exactly two minutes into the future. Very funny and clever. Crowd pleaser.
-Miracle Mile - Anthony Edwards has a meet cute with Mare Winningham, but oversleeps their next date. Waiting at a payphone in hopes she calls back, he gets a wrong number... from a guy who says he's at a missile silo and nuclear war is on the way. Gets kind of After Hours-y from there.
-Attack the Block - Edgar Wright's writing partner Joe Cornish goes *off* with a John Carpenter-ish sci-fi action comedy movie where aliens descend on a downtrodden London block. Has John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, and Nick Frost.
-Grabbers - The residents of an Irish fishing village are under attack from aliens that turn out to be allergic to alcohol. If the entire town can stay drunk enough to see dawn, they'll be safe.
-Time Trap - The beginning looks very Canadian low rent. Stick with it until they get to the cave, where it gets awesome.
-Snowpiercer - Very R. But please watch Snowpiercer if they're up for it.
-Moon
-Upgrade
-The Vast of Night

Let me know if we hit paydirt on any of these!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:47 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Attack the Block is so much fun!
posted by miss-lapin at 7:52 AM on November 10, 2022

Another $5 for mark k's post of Metropolitan.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:53 AM on November 10, 2022

$5 more for Molesome's post of Rollerball.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:44 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh, and chbrooks, depending on your family's tolerance for chaotic gender fluidity and time travel paradoxes, Predestination is pretty fun.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:47 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

$5 more for tiny frying pan's post of Knocking.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:11 AM on November 10, 2022

Not sure if there are any left, but I did the thing.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:25 AM on November 10, 2022

$5 more to MeFi for Halloween Jack's post of the Captain America movie.

No, not that one. That one either. No, it's... listen, it's not one of the good ones. It's the other one.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:29 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think there are like six slots left now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:30 AM on November 10, 2022

Still catching up, but $5 more for ellieBOA's post of the new Black Panther film and $5 for nubs' post of Minority Report.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:31 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

chbrooks: Moon is excellent and you should watch it if you haven't yet!
posted by gakiko at 11:40 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this, DirtyOldTown! What a fantastic idea.

I've made a post for the entertainingly bad 2008 film The Happening
posted by iamkimiam at 12:09 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

$5 more! Thanks, iamkimaim.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:16 PM on November 10, 2022

$5 more for nubs post of Solaris (2002). Three more slots left.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:00 PM on November 10, 2022

$5 more for winesong's post of We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

TWO SLOTS LEFT! Do not make me keep this money. I will only spend it on movies.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:10 PM on November 10, 2022

Second to last one is kittens for breakfast's post of Demonia!

ONE MORE SLOT REMAINS!!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:24 PM on November 10, 2022

The Skatetown USA post by DiscourseMaker is the last one! I'm tapped. Thanks everybody for playing along.

However!

It's still possible to get:
-weirdly specific film recommendations for $5
-6 movie posts on the theme of your choice for $20!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:16 PM on November 10, 2022

Just memailed you and sent 25 for about 6 movies on the theme of Gargage, Trash, Waste Management, Sanitation. Am I doing this right?
posted by wowenthusiast at 3:50 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Definitely! I'll slot you in next, after katie.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:19 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just kicked in a sawbuck, and I'd like two weirdly-specific film recommendations:

-One where the movie is much, much, much better than the book, which was terrible
-One where the book was much, much, much better than the movie, which was terrible
posted by box at 5:51 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am curious to see what the contenders are for you recommendations, box.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:50 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Noted and on the list, box.

Comrade Doll let me know on Friday evening that we would be re-plastering, and painting/wallpapering our bedroom (she is a marvelously spontaneous DIY-er), so I'm running a bit behind. But I will be catching up soon.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:23 PM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Here you go, box. For the first request, some of the best ones were already on FF, including the very best one. I feel like this request called for one that isn't, so I've mention a few that were on FF, and one that was not. I'll post all the unposted ones today or tomorrow.

Your picks are:
-One where the movie is much, much, much better than the book, which was terrible

Already on FF: The Godfather. "Oh, DOT," you say, "So what if the Puzo novel was a bit pulpy. It was still a beloved bestseller." Friend, I'm gonna ask you to read that book again. Not only is it shitty and lurid, but there is a lengthy subplot thread how big Sonny Corleone's dick is. Just paragraphs and pages on Sonny C's enormous wang. How big is it? It's big enough that it destroys his girlfriend's vagina for life. She has to go to a plastic surgeon for reconstructive surgery to put her back together down there. She falls in love with the surgeon and gets married. I am not kidding about any of this. It's in the book.

Also could have gone with Starship Troopers, the novel of which is corny, fashy trash and the film of which is a fucking hilarious satire of same. But again: already on FF.

It's more well-known that it used to be, though still surprising to some that Die Hard is the adaptation of a shitty cop novel that was itself the shitty sequel to a shitty cop novel that was turned into a Frank Sinatra film. But yeah, obviously Die Hard is on FF.

So here's one that's not yet on FF: Up in the Air. What a piffleweight airport book piece of shit. And yet the film is a sharply observed take on obsolescence and jobs.

-One where the book was much, much, much better than the movie, which was terrible

So many good choices here. Personally, I hold the wildly unpopular opinion that Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick is his most underrated book. And that one got a positively cursed Jerry Lewis adaptation. A lot of people might say Battlefield Earth, but I never liked that book anyway. I nearly went with The Scarlet Letter, but at the last second I remembered Sean Penn's adaptation of All the King's Men. That's a book commonly held up as an American classic, but losing its luster some due to a lot of meatheads who focus on all of the wrong elements and take all the wrong lessons from it. And goddam if Sean Penn didn't make a movie for those dudes. It got an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes and gang, that is super duper generous.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:15 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]