Quote Originally Posted by Nellasaur View Post
Hmmmm. That's a good question! I think for me, the line is drawn between receiving unsolicited donations (i.e., "If you like my blog and want to support my work, you can 'tip' me at this link") and soliciting (i.e., "I have set up this gofundme account to solicit donations towards a specific goal of getting a snake".) For some reason, that second option still doesn't feel right. I guess I just don't like the idea of asking the general public to give me money towards something that I don't need AND could get if I saved up for long enough.

On the other hand, if you ran a blog about reptiles and were blogging about your experiences with your own collection, and you set up an online donation campaign through the blog towards getting another snake, I would possibly donate to that? Because I would see it as a tip or a payment, in the sense that I enjoy your writing (or photos or vids or tutorials or whatever), so I'm giving you money to support you in continuing to do what you do. In that case, I WOULD be getting something out of it--more content on your blog!

But if your blog was just a random blog about your life, or about something completely different-- like, if you ran a blog about, IDK, basket weaving, and you were asking for donations to get a snake-- that would seem weird to me? I dunno, it's a very fine distinction, but it makes sense to me? But that could be just me.

I tend to agree with this. I think this area is where the dissent stemmed from in the first place, meaning i meant the whole thing to be as non soliciting as possible (think less asking for money, more just putting it on my blog as a "support my goal if you feel like it" type thing and not soliciting for it at all. I had this vision in mind, (probably because ive never used crowdfunding in the fisrt place and dont quite know the culture) and the other persons just had a different vision of the word crowdfunding. If someone posted on facebook and twitter and tumblr every other day etc asking for money for a new snake AND it was the same situation i would totally agree that it would be a little much. I may even harbor some type of anger or annoyance toward them (which is also where i think it stemmed from. I have never actually had an experience where someone solicited for a frivolous expense so i dont necessarily come with any bias against it. I generally feel like "i wont donate but if they make their goal, cool", but i could see where the dissension can come into play) and could think they are selfish if the situation was right. I think the general problem in this specific scenerio is that everyone has an internal feeling of "selfishness" and our lines cross at different places from any type of soliciting, to only if I appreciate them soliciting, etc. There are so many different variables coming into play from how much they need it, how much they ask for it, how much they have raised, what the platform is, how they go about doing it, who is doing it, and how they promote it, etc. that it makes this a super interesting psychological and moral issue. Like given the scenario, many of us here would probably donate a small amount of money to a friend that wants a specific morph because of inherent biases we harbor that makes us trust them. If my friend is working to save up for a GHI and i KNEW they were actually saving for it and that they could support it, and also that they were actually going to buy it instead of drug or something, I would throw them a few bones if they had some sort of donation set up and i wouldnt think twice about them being selfish. Even if they didnt specifically ask me for the money. I think the general problem is the lack of trust with cf sites, and individual perceptions of the motives of the other people.

I tooootally know what you mean about a tough to describe line though. I just KNOW when someone is being selfish, its almost like a gut intuition where you know the line but it is tough for others to see and obviously others dont share the same line.