Are u kidding or what?.You are still working in United states and u are telling that u cannot afford
200$.Any plans in the near future to start a political party!!!!!!!!.

What is your point? I can definitely afford $200 for important stuff. This is purely discretionary spending.

Hi,
I think this is a real shameful act. Asking money for discretionary spending. I totally agree with Ari. Working in the States and not having $170 to spend for a year. That is like about $14 a month. You have to be kiddng. I have worked in the States as well. People working there earn well enough to save, spend on bills as well as on “discretionary” expenditure.Please..Stop blogging and work overtime to earn that $170 instead of using your blog to ask people for money.

Superman, get over yourself. I am providing free content here to people and if I ask someone to donate a few bucks to me for that, why do you have to go all uppity about it?

I do earn well enough to spend on all I want, but this is just one time in two-and-half years I am sking my readers for anything. How is it any of your problem, really? Stop preaching.

I will stop preaching when people like you stop begging for money. Once in two and a half years or once in hundred years, a shameful act is a shameful act.

Shanthi,
I guess you could have worded your post slightly different. But - who am I to tell ya!

P.S : I seriously want to see a few ‘flames’. So don’t nip em in the bud ;)

I guess so, Nilu. It is almost like I am telling people my baby is starving without milk or something. It was just something fun I wanted and I can’t chip in all that money right now. That was all there is to it.

I am not deleting any flames - I really want to see them all come out of the woodwork :)

Nilu, Superman is back.

Superman, isn’t it shameful of you to use my bandwidth for free to insult me? From now on, you are allowed to post only if you will pay for the privilege, twit!

I am big moron! Please excuse my bile.

Shanti,
There are people who will deride others no matter what. Of course, free advice is the easiest to give and so, try to ignore them. Ignoring always works. How long can one go on yelling at a wall all by themselves? if they go on forever, they need to be in Ripley’s archives, if you know what I mean. meanwhile, chill out.

p.s: i’m broke!:(

Got a blog, Sriram? :tongue3:

Sure, visit sriramr.blogspot.com. it is not much, it is just a start. peace.

One more thing.. this is YOUR blog. why the heck should u be worried about what others think? (Hey, that’s my attitude and i’m wondering if there’s someone out there with the same ;) )

I do agree, too, that it could have been worded a bit differently, especially the update. You know, what you wrote kind of set me off in the other blog, too.

Remember that with posting/email/sending a text msg of any kind can have an negative connotation—whether you mean it or not. It happens to all of us at some time.

Hope that helps. I have just noticed that some of your comments are a little sharp. :( We are all well aware it’s your blog….but that is just my $.02.
It’s a blog, right!!!!!

Excellent experiment! i wouldn’t deride your asking for contributions as long as it is completely voluntary. Ppl who think it is a “shameful act” can simply go to some other blog.

PS. I wish I could pitch in…maybe later. :(

Sriram, I think some people just are a little too pesky and irritating - not anymore though ;)

Whitegirl, read the first few comments and you will understand why I had to put the update.

Patrix, thanks :) For now commenting is contribution enough :)

Holy shit.
Let’s get over ourselves people.
Shanti said you don’t have to.
Did it hurt your eyeballs because she put up paypal?
I don’t understand why anyone would care that she did.
Either you want to donate, or you don’t.
Seems kinda simple to me.

So have BLOGGER become BEGGERS now? First we had that chap who quit his job and has gone into full time blogging and is asking for money so that for one year he can Blog! Likes of Kiruba even donated to him.

And now we have a proud Texan begging for money. And that too for paltry couple of hundred dollars.

Considering the so-called “popularity” of your blog, are you kidding when you say you are expecting only $200? I can donate the full amount in one shot and I know many others may have done that already.

Where is the honesty here?

Whatever way you look at it, this just seems a very lame attempt to make money.

And a proud Texan eh - as they say you can take desi out of India, but can’t take the devious ways of desi out of a desi. Shame madam!

BLOGGERS = BEGGERS.

Radmila, apparently some people do have trouble reading. Who cares? Let us let the self-important rant on, shall we? :)

Ok, here’s the deal…what I think about the paypal thing…blogging is a hobby for most people, it is for me. I don’t want to spend more than brain power on my blog.
When people e-mail you asking for information, or telling you that your site doesn’t download fast enough, or some other such thing…I don’t want to pay for that out of my pocket.

If Shanti wants to make the site prettier for you the reader and asks you to donate if you feel so inclined and then tells you that if she gets more than she asks for, she’ll donate the excess to charity..what’s the fucking problem?
As far as I can see, she provides interesting information here…and she’s not threatening to take the site down if she doesn’t get the money, like some big headed bloggers have done.
She’s said it’s not going to break her, and so what if she asks?
Are we so small headed that we can’t understand what is actually being said in an entry?
Good Googly Moogly people!!!

All she is asking for is charity to run her business. The online shop. See, the specific $169.95 that you send wont be spent on dinners/movies/clothes/perfumes/computers. It will be spent only on clipart.com and American Pride. In fact the dollar bills that you send can be tagged specifically, Pay only to clipart.com. I helped one of my friends similarly. We used to have a lot of interesting conversations and he was a funny guy. Eventually he decided he wanted a subscription to Playboy magazine for 5 years. But did not want to spend the $400. Naturally, he asked us to help as he himself wasnt willing to pay more than $5. Normally we go Dutch, but considering that he had entertained us with his PJs for some time, all of us friends pooled together 20 $ each for the 5 year subscription. Way to go !!!

BTW, there are some guys who want to ban online begging. These are the same guys who want to ban begging on traffic signals in India. Shame on you guys. Let people be free !!!

Ha!Ha! You are so funny - isn’t it fun how nasty you can be when you can be totally anonymous?

“Father, can i smoke while i pray?”
“No son”
“Father, can i pray while i smoke?”
“Always my son always”

See the difference? There’s no wrong asking your friends to pitch in and i guess the online blogosphere no less an active community.

But words like “there is no way i can afford it”, “it isnt like i will starve without it”, “I am providing free content here to people and if I ask someone to donate a few bucks to me for that,” definitely dont come right off as a someone going dutch, does it?

As for the free content, writing a blog is completely your own need to express, not others peep of voyeursim into someone’s life…

I guess sanctimony wasn’t dead after all - what exactly does going dutch mean in this context anyways?

if logic appears sanctimonious…

anyways, if we would like to see your creative exploits, guess contributing money from each’s pockets shouldnt be a problem, if its help or ow. thats where i said going dutch. doesnt seem to be a real right word in this context, does it?

Kopos, your comments would apply if I were actually threatening to pull my blog down if people didn’t pay me. Nothing of that sort was ever mentioned - everything was strictly voluntary. Since your comments have the background of reading what transpired between the original post and now, I find your logic of only looking at the original post and ignoring all other comments pretty sanctimonious.

Geez…I can’t believe the places this went!!! What’s the problem people? Pitch in if you want else buzz off…!!!!

Apparently what you just pointed out was a hard concept for some to understand :)