Miss Manners and the "donate" button

[themaskmaker.livejournal.com]

There's a fascinating discussion about the "donate" button on Steve Brust's web site. Apparently, Steve asked Miss Manners about the etiquette of such a button, and she responded.

Comments

To rebutt Ms. Manners:

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

"They don't define busker; they don't have to. Not in Canada, not in any other
English-speaking country in the world. Only in America..." As I'll do in class, I forgot that I was speaking to anyone in particular and started raging at everyone in general. "We live," I concluded a block and a half later, "in the only country on earth where most people regard buskers as beggars with gimmicks." (http://www.hammlynn.com/history_fanfare.html)

[stonetalker.livejournal.com]

I read these comments with fascination and I agree with dulcinbradbury (having lived abroad for 25 years) that buskers are seen in a TOTALLY different light in the US than in other countries. I really miss being able to walk into a park and see street mime, or walk into a bar and see impromptu music gathering.

But my main 'ah ha' moment came with the suggestion of using the word 'patron' rather than 'donate.' What a wonderful side step!

[themaskmaker.livejournal.com]

I like calling it a "tip jar," too. It underscores the busker meaning.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

America is culturally impoverished because of how badly it treats buskers. I too enjoy hearing music while wandering through a city or park. Very few places are really busker-friendly and even those tend to charge large amounts of money for a busking license. (In America, you are nothing unless you have money to pay for everything. It's horrible.) Chicago, IL and Madison, WI have a high busker population.

Re: Yes...

[stonetalker.livejournal.com]

I was spoiled (in more ways than one) living in England. There were buskers in the subway (under road pedestrian walkway) when we shopped in Lincoln, or Nottingham, and on the boardwalk in Blackpool. There was street theater and mime in the town square. Town councils organized handbell choirs at Christmas, and 'mumming' plays, and pantomimes, and folk festivals, and music competitions.

When we lived in Fleetwood, the population was 36,000 and there were 43 bars and pubs (if my memory serves me correctly). Any night of the week you could find some kind of live music somewhere. If you were coming home from a folk festival and went into the pub carrying your guitar, chances are you would be encouraged to play. If you were any good, you probably didn't have to pay for your drinks or food, either.

To quote what is now a popular folk song, "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance forever and a day..."

I'm so starved of music here I don't even know where to begin to do something about it. I've tried a few 'open mic' nights and such, but IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

This is what I posted:

"Begging" is not linguistically applicable to the context of placing a "donate" button on a website, because a beggar requests money *without giving anything in return*. When a creative person, such as an author or artist, puts up a "donate" button, this allows the audience *to support the arts* by directing funds to someone whose work they admire so as to get more of it. It is therefore not begging, because an exchange of value occurs. The closest analog is "busking" (performing music not for a set fee but with a container for people to toss in coins or bills) and indeed the term "cyberbusking" has arisen. Other terms include "crowdfunding" and "microfunding" whereby audience members combine their efforts to fund a project that would not otherwise manifest. "Cyberfunded creativity" is a general term for online projects that are paid for by fans of the author/artist/musician.

Other crucial differences I've noticed while studying the rise of cyberfunded creativity:
1) It fills an unmet need. Many fans are annoyed that when they buy a book, the author they adore only gets a few cents. They love the idea of being able to pay creative people *directly* and have *all* that money go to the right person. Essentially it popularizes the opportunity to be a patron of the arts; this is no longer reserved for rich people who can afford to keep a *whole* artist, because a crowd of ordinary fans can combine their modest donations to support someone.
2) It is a business model. People are enthusiastically and carefully studying what makes cyberfunded creativity, crowdfunding, etc. work or fail. They try different things and discuss it with their audience. It is a serious *and collaborative* venture.
3) It *requires* a certain amount of pride in one's work. One has to consider, "Is this good enough? Does it justify people paying money for it? Can I give people their money's worth by doing what I do?" People with low confidence, lacking a sense of pride in their work, generally do not practice cyberfunded creativity. If someone sees a donation button as begging, they might have to swallow their pride to post one; but most of the folks I'm watching launch projects have to "buck up" their pride and resolve that their work is worth money before they post that button.

I think Miss Manners has forgotten more about etiquette than I've learned ... but she's working out of a very different book than most people are using today. Etiquette *changes* over generations; there are young people today doing things with electronics that drive me nuts, but I can clearly see they have their own etiquette about it, which I simply happen not to share. So too, the donation button is evolving its own rules of etiquette, regarding when and where and how it is acceptable to place one. My suspicion is that Miss Manners has not spent a great deal of time studying that phenomenon and its developing etiquette, and simply applied an existing rule to a context where people are using different rules (which are still in flux).

I invite folks to the LiveJournal community where we discuss cyberfunded creativity, crowdfunding, and all their variations:
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding

Re: Well...

[natf.livejournal.com]

I do like the term "cyberbusking". It smacks of science fiction mixed with urban fantasy and a hint of cyberpunk for good measure.

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I like "cyberbusking" for similar reasons. The main reason I don't use it more often is because "busking" has such a strong association with music, and music isn't what I do.

I love Steve dearly

[karen-wehrstein.livejournal.com]

(We were buddies back in the 80s/90s.) But he was asking for it by a) admitting that he was asking due to bad financial management on his own part leaving him in a sticky situation and b) NOT pointing out that he does provide content on his website that is not available elsewhere. With Miss Manners, you live and die by what you write her.

That said, your comment above is terrific, Ysabet. It explains what Miss Manners does not know.