Update: The computer’s been replaced, thanks to your support!

A few days ago I posted about the untimely death of my laptop and its inevitable negative effect on this site, Homeland Stupidity, as well as the software I work on and publish here. The response was, well, underwhelming. So instead, now I have something for you.

As I explained the other day, Homeland Stupidity, and the open source software distributed here, are user-supported. These are, as far as they can be, my full-time job, since my last employer laid everyone off and closed down its office in preparation for a merger. And while at the moment it barely brings in enough to keep up with my bills, it doesn’t yet bring in enough to allow me to recover from losing my computer.

So I appealed to my regular readers, and the response was minimal.

I like my regular readers. You are the reason I write this site in the first place. That’s one reason, for instance, that you see almost no ads on recent entries, only in the archived stuff. But I have a situation to deal with, and that’s that I can’t continue writing — not the way you expect — without a computer. The quality of Homeland Stupidity in the last week has suffered, and I haven’t been able to run several stories I would have otherwise been able to, simply due to lack of a sufficiently powerful computer. (For instance, it’s taken all day — literally — to compose this message.)

At the same time, a lot of you aren’t going to just cough up some cash without being assured of getting something back, aside from the continued existence of this site in your RSS feeds. So here’s something for you.

Your contributions, in whatever form, will help ensure that I can continue to devote time to Homeland Stupidity, Bad Behavior, WordPress, and other open source software that I contribute to regularly. Without them, I may have to stop doing this, and a voice for liberty would be silenced, and I wouldn’t be able to continue maintaining Bad Behavior and other software you rely on every day.

For every contribution you make, you have the option of getting one of the following from Homeland Stupidity (and this applies also to those of you who already contributed in the last week):

For $25.00 a month you’ll receive a sponsored link to your web site on the sidebar of Homeland Stupidity. You can change or discontinue your subscription at any time. With over 2,000 unique visitors a day, this is sure to be a boon to your own Web site. (Please note that I’ll link to you even if you have viewpoints I disagree with, but I won’t link to certain types of sites, such as those offering illegal downloads, and will refund your money if you ask me to do so.)

Make a one time contribution of at least $10.00 and I’ll create a link to your Web site on a special thank you page to be created sometime in the next few days. (You can contribute more if you want, but one link per person, please. And what I said above about certain types of Web sites applies too.) The link will remain there for as long as Homeland Stupidity remains online.

For a one time contribution of $25.00, I will subscribe to your blog for at least six months, and whenever you post something that’s of interest to readers at Homeland Stupidity, I’ll give your postings priority when choosing what to link to. This can be another great way to build up your site, especially if it’s new. (As I said before, I will link to sites whose viewpoints I disagree with. Please note this does not mean I’ll compromise the editorial integrity of the site. Don’t ask me to do so.)

If you don’t have a Web site, or don’t want a link to it, or you just want to help ensure that Homeland Stupidity remains online and active, you can make a single donation or a recurring monthly donation of any amount.

As one of my readers put it:

Bad Behaviour needs to continue to stay in development. And it’s developer has suffered a hardware setback (laptop died). So pop over and donate what you can to support development, and keep in mind, freeware doesn’t mean it can’t be supported financially. Think of it as tipping.

Indeed. If this fails, Homeland Stupidity might have to start displaying ads — and more of them — to everyone, including the regulars, just to stay online. I think the small number of ads present now is quite sufficient, once I get past this setback. But that’s a long term strategy, and right now the need is immediate. I might even have to do something morally distasteful, and I don’t want to do that either.

If you’re as bad off as I am right now, save your money. But if you can contribute, please do. Thank you again in advance for your continued support.

Update: The computer’s been replaced, thanks to your support!