![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sequence:
(1) FictionAlley apply for $25K from the Pepsi Refresh project in order to keep their servers running, and send out emails to their users asking them to vote FA up.
(2) Lots of people take objection to the idea of using money that could have gone to a worthwhile charity for a fanfiction archive.
(3) Wank. (This is the usual end result for anything to do with FA.)
You can get links here if you want more details and discussion.
Yes, there do indeed appear to be many more valuable projects among the applicants that Pepsi could dole out cash to. I wouldn't be particularly miffed if they junked the entire "Arts & Culture" section, for that matter, but still -- they do have it, and presumably have money earmarked to make awards under that heading.
Personally, I'm not going to flame FA for trying their luck. I might well do if the projects they were competing against were all or mostly ones that helped people suffering serious hardship, but there's apparently no way to tell what they might be before they're all published, and anyway -- well, basically they're not: a casual glance at the list produces things like the following, all ranked higher than FA's proposal at the time I wrote this:
Look ... it's FA we're talking about here. (Disclosure FTR: I suppose I'm theoretically on-staff there as my name's on the techie mailing list, although my connection was always tenuous and they've managed to piss me off on multiple occasions.) They get bashed frequently. The top brass can be annoying and thoroughly precious, and it seems many people still haven't forgiven them for the Cassandra Claire nonsense (even though it was the best part of a decade ago and I suspect most people now in fandom probably have only the vaguest idea what it was all about). Yeah, it was probably a bad move on FA's part; but as so often with these things I really can't rouse myself to standard Fandom/Daily Mail Letters Page Strength Rage about it.
(1) FictionAlley apply for $25K from the Pepsi Refresh project in order to keep their servers running, and send out emails to their users asking them to vote FA up.
(2) Lots of people take objection to the idea of using money that could have gone to a worthwhile charity for a fanfiction archive.
(3) Wank. (This is the usual end result for anything to do with FA.)
You can get links here if you want more details and discussion.
Yes, there do indeed appear to be many more valuable projects among the applicants that Pepsi could dole out cash to. I wouldn't be particularly miffed if they junked the entire "Arts & Culture" section, for that matter, but still -- they do have it, and presumably have money earmarked to make awards under that heading.
Personally, I'm not going to flame FA for trying their luck. I might well do if the projects they were competing against were all or mostly ones that helped people suffering serious hardship, but there's apparently no way to tell what they might be before they're all published, and anyway -- well, basically they're not: a casual glance at the list produces things like the following, all ranked higher than FA's proposal at the time I wrote this:
- Build a statue/monument for Civil War General William Stark Rosecrans (who? This bloke, apparently. They're asking for $50K)
- Support Roadside Poetry in Rural Minnesota! ($25K)
- Continue How Philly Moves, a celebration of dance in Philadelphia ($50K)
- Refresh and Restore the Preston Castle ($25K)
- Save and rebuild the oldest wooden roller coaster in Florida ($250K!)
- Showcase creative-student work and enable business collaboration ($25K)
- Save the Greenville Ave St Patrick's Day Parade ($50K, mostly for police bills)
- TeachTeens Ballroom Dancing = Social Skills, Good Manners & Respect ($25K)
Look ... it's FA we're talking about here. (Disclosure FTR: I suppose I'm theoretically on-staff there as my name's on the techie mailing list, although my connection was always tenuous and they've managed to piss me off on multiple occasions.) They get bashed frequently. The top brass can be annoying and thoroughly precious, and it seems many people still haven't forgiven them for the Cassandra Claire nonsense (even though it was the best part of a decade ago and I suspect most people now in fandom probably have only the vaguest idea what it was all about). Yeah, it was probably a bad move on FA's part; but as so often with these things I really can't rouse myself to standard Fandom/Daily Mail Letters Page Strength Rage about it.
