I Have Insomnia
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | I Have Insomnia |
| Creator: | Mlle Elizabeth/Liz |
| Date(s): | Dec. 8th, 2004 |
| Medium: | LiveJournal post |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | I Have Insomnia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
I Have Insomnia is a 2004 post by Mlle Elizabeth.
The topic was CharityWank and fundraising by fans for Cassandra Claire.
Some Topics Discussed
- a lot of LaptopGate and CharityWank came from clumsy communication, tackiness, mistakes
- fans should be able to spend money on what they want
- Cassandra Claire, rumor has it, was going to send donors handwritten thank you notes in the mail
From the Essay
After reading all 6 pages and a lot of the associated LJ entries over two and a half days now, I'm convinced that a lot of this is a combination of misunderstanding, poor planning, lack of knowledge of proper etiquette, bad attempts to fix the messes made by those things and possibly some cultural differences. There are good things in the wank, non-wanky things in the wank, meh things in the wank, really stupid wanky things in the wank, unfortunate things in the wank and a few downright appalling things as well.
The good - fans helping other fans. Whether it's a few people getting together to help a friend (which is what it appears this started out to be) or the effort to raise money for the cancer mom. In both cases, it's a good thing. And I'm one of those who thinks the donors were not being wanky just by donating. Unless it's ill-gotten gains, it's our money to use as we please, right?
The poor planning - From what I understand, the post Heidi made was originally f-locked and she was asked to unlock it. I have really mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I understand some people thought it would be nice to get fandom at large involved and give them the opportunity to participate. What I don't understand is why the newly unlocked post didn't have comments turned off and why totals were posted rather than a "we have all we need, if you want to contribute to something the charity of your choice would be cool" post. Which leads to …
The tacky - I have knowledge concerning who contributed.
[...]
I think it's tacky to let people know you've given money to something. I can't help it. That's the way grandma raised me. That's also what I was taught at church. We had anonymous donor boxes and put our weekly offerings in little envelopes so no one could see how much anyone else gave.
That is also part of the lack of knowledge of etiquette. This thing came off far too much like people asking for money in a wedding invitation or gah! My incoherent brain just realized this is all very much like a wedding situation. You invite whoever to the wedding. They can always turn down the invite and not send a present. But you only invite the person's closest friends to the shower.
And then there is the thanking issue. It appears that Cassie intends to send written thank you notes, which is proper, but there was also speculation and discussion of thank yous in comments, and someone suggesting that this was all that was necessary, and it's not. I don't think a hand-written, snail-mailed thank you note is obligatory in this case, because she likely won't have access to snail mail addresses for all of the contributors. But that's what she should do in the cases where she's able to do so.
The bad attempts to fix messes are probably the most distressing part, because they didn't have to happen. When boatloads of money came rolling in, all Heidi had to do was say Goodness! We've got boatloads of money. Unless you email and request your money returned, we are going to contribute it to charity. The Oh-by-the-way we are donating dolls thing looks tacked on and not so right, whether it was or not.
The cultural differences - There is a very long thread in the comments, as well as additional comments here and there, about whether or not Cassie should have turned down the money. I'll start off by saying I would, and most of the people I know would and that's what I was raised to do, again both by grandmother and church. It's not a question of pride or of thinking I'm better than the contributors. It's just that I was raised to be as independent as possible and to think that there are others who probably need the money much more than I do.
There was also a lot of questioning whether or not they could afford to replace the computers, and why didn't she have insurance, and so forth. Now, I've very recently quit my job to start my own business and I have to agree with a lot of that. I took a lot of care to make sure I had fall-back money in case something happened and I've always believed in saving and having a cushion in case something happens, because yeah, bad stuff happens. And this is a bad stuff, but it's not hurricane-type catastrophic. On the other hand, I also know that a lot of people feel differently about accepting charity, and I don't want to judge people by that. It's not something I would do unless I were about to be homeless or something, and even then I'd try other options before I'd let the general public know I needed help. Still, I think that ones a cultural issue.
The appalling (at least IMO) - Bitching at donors for mentioning Cassie's fic. That was just not okay. Also, Heidi's repeated copying and pasting of the "I expect everyone here to donate blah blah blah" comment. Posted once it was bitchy, but in the usual F_W tradition, so pretty much okay with me. Posted repeatedly, it came off as appalling.
The extremely appalling - Heidi's response to cancer mum girl's comment. And I have to think that Heidi must have been so frazzled and sick of the whole thing by the time she posted that, that she didn't realize what she was saying. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt and think she honestly thought she was helping the girl with that reply. But it just doesn't come off that way, at all. I've been acquainted with Heidi for a few years from back in the old days on HP4GU and while I do occasionally find her abrasive, I've never before seen her post anything that made me think she was deliberately uncaring and thought she was above someone. Until now. And knowing that this has been going on for a while and that she's probably sick to death of it by now, I have a feeling she'll wake up in a few days and realize what she posted and feel bad about it. At least, I hope she will.