Scott Bieser

I listened to last Sunday's (1/20) podcast today and in the long discourse regarding the shitstorm over Stef's "$2 donation" lament on Facebook, he also lamented the 1-2% rate of money donors compared with podcast listeners. He compared them with the (presumably) much higher rate of donors among church-goers. As someone who is also an internet content-entrepreneur (I produce web-comics), I also tend to get a low rate of merchandise purchasers compared with readers, and it is quite frustrating. But Stefan should not feel particularly put-out, or think that his listeners are particularly cheap. That 1-2 percent is actually fairly typical for people using the free-content model on the Internet. The reasons for this could be a fit topic for a long discussion, but suffice to say that comparing donation rates to any Internet site with donations among church-goers is just not very apt. One reason for this is that in church, the majority of the donors are members of the congretation putting pocket-change or small bills in plates that are passed around during the service. In this environment there is a very strong tacit meat-space social pressure to chip in, which does not and cannot really exist for an Internet site. (Of course, a larger portion of the income churches generally receive come from a smaller group of deep-pocketed donors who usually gain some influence over church business in return for their generosity.) Also, church-goers usually believe that the Angry Sky Father is paying particularly close attention to them here, and may somehow punish them for not donating. Clearly, there is no equivalent impetus available for a purveyor of atheism. Which leaves Stef with the one impetus he did use in the podcast, the "put your money where your mouth is" argument. Yes, libertarians do often and loudly argue that "the market can solve the free-rider problem" and that "content-creators don't need intellectual property laws to earn an income." And, the low donation rate does seem to belie those arguments. It's a tricky thing, shaming thousands of strangers into being more generous, without alienating them. I hope he can find a solution, if for no other reason than I might want to use it in my own business. []