Stay Up Late … Make a Difference!

I am now live at the Blogathon site, ready to take donations for my cause the Denver Dumb Friends League.

What’s a Blogathon, Dave? 

Along the line of various other charity “-athon” types of events, the Blogathon lets me blog for 24 hours (with one post ever 30 minutes) in exchange for your sponsorship of me, promising to donate to my selected cause.

You can also read the online FAQ.

You’re going to blog for 24 hours? Inconceivable! 

Nope. Done it before (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007). The Blogathon itself has been running since 2001.

When is the Blogathon? 

Saturday, 25 July, starting at 6 a.m. PDT (so 7 a.m. here in Denver). A new post is due from each blogger every 30 minutes.

Does that mean I have to stay up 24 hours to read you? 

Nope. You can send me emails and IMs and tweets of support for as long as you want, but the cool thing about the Blogathon is … all the results show up in my blog, suitable for reading the next morning.

So what are you blogging about? 

Once you have a successful shtick, stick to it. So, along the lines of previous Blogathons, I’ll be posting about comic books — mostly review, and mostly of graphic novels (I do have a few years to catch up on). I’ll be telling you what I’ve been reading, what I think of it, and maybe help you figure out whether you should buy (or borrow) it to read for yourself.

But I don’t care about comics, Dave. Why should I sponsor you? 

Because I’m blogging for a neat organization.

Who’s that? 

I’m blogging for the Denver Dumb Friends League. They are a local animal shelter / animal adoption organization. We got our last two cats from them, and we think they do a really nifty job. I’ll be blogging more about them later, and during the ‘Thon.

How did you choose them? 

I’ve blogged on behalf of several other organizations previously — the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Episcopal Relief & Development Fund (ERD) — but we’ve interacted with the Denver Dumb Friends League, and I decided that’s who I wanted to go with (though the others are all very worthy causes, and I continue to donate to them personally).

So who are these Blogathon people, and why I am sending them money? 

You’re not. None of the money ever, ever goes to the Blogathon folks. They are merely facilitating the event. You go to their site, you find a blog (or three) you want to sponsor, you sign up with a pledge, and then after the Blogathon, they send you an email with a link (provided by those blogs) to go directly to the charity organization’s website. There you do all the normal web contribution stuff. (Most charities have online forms you can download, too, in case you want to do it the old-fashioned way.)

Again, the Blogathon folks never get your money, never see your credit card, etc. They just hook you up, via me, to the charity of my choice (ditto for other ‘Thonners).

So I send the money to you? 

No! I mean, if you want to send me money, I won’t turn it down, but for the Blogathon, you’ll be sending it directly to the charity.

Sounds spiffy, Dave! What should I do? 

1. Go here. Once there, find a blog you want to sponsor and click on “Sponsor this blogger!” 
2. Assuming you want to sponsor me, you can actually skip the above step and just go here.
3. If you don’t already have an account (this year) with the Blogathon, you’ll be given a chance to create one. You do have to create an account, so that there’s a record of your email address to send reminders to. (That also makes it easier to sponsor more people.)
4. Choose your sponsorship amount — this can be a lump sum, or an hourly amount (just in case I crap out midway through).
5. Decide if you want to have your name visible to me or the site, or be anonymous to one or te other or both. Your email is never published. (Read the Blogathon privacy policy.)

That’s it. You’ll get an acknowledgment of your sponsorship, and then a reminder right after the ‘Thon, and another a bit after that. And, of course, you’re welcome to come read what I post during and after the ‘Thon, and chuckle over my Wee Hours Incoherence.

What happens if I change my mind or forget afterwards? Will thugs hired by the Blogathon come to my house and rough me up? 

Nope. It’s all on your conscience. The ‘Thon will send you an automatic email, reminding you of your pledge, and I’ll send you a thanks-for-the-sponsorship note … but if you never give the money, they (and I) will never know. 

But God will, and He’ll getcha! 

But, Dave, I don’t have a computer! And, when I borrowed one, I couldn’t figure out that complicated website! What do I do? 

Let me know, and I can enter in a proxy pledge for you.

What if I have other questions? What do I do? 

You can go to the Blogathon forum, but it’s probably just as easy to leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you.

Thanks!