| Blogging should be free, free as in beer and free as in speech. wow, that comes across as very entitled. what business do you have to tell me that i should do something for free for you? i am tempted to add a paywall to my blog just for you, while everyone else gets free access. if you had titled that: "why i don't ask you to buy me a coffee", for your own blog, then that would have sounded very different. or if you had written that you won't buy anyone a coffee because you'd rather give that money to more worthy causes, or if you said that you can't afford to support them, that would be fine too. but to tell someone: "your blog should be free. you should not ask for money." that's extremely inconsiderate. you claim to know how much $4 is. no you don't. in some countries $4 can feed a whole family for a day. maybe the author lives in such a country, or they support people that live there. you have no idea how far those $4 will go. unless of course you are talking about a specific blog and you know where the author works. but you didn't do that. you addressed the general case. blogging should be ... whatever their author wants it to be. if it is free, be grateful. if they ask for support, be tolerant. you don't know their life situation. you don't know what they do with that money, why they would need it. maybe they are in a badly paid job or even unemployed and are trying to make their life a little better. maybe they are paid well but are trying to get out of their job because they see no future in it, so they are trying to build up a second income. maybe they are trying to save up for a new computer. who knows. you can of course compare their blog to others which don't ask for money and decide that you like those better, but then please go and read the other blogs and don't bother the author of this one whose motivation for asking for that coffee you know nothing about. |