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Some of you may be aware that between December 2013 and October 2017, ASF was involved in litigation in Queensland’s Supreme Court. Some of you may also be aware that a company cannot be represented in legal proceedings by anyone other than a licensed legal practitioner. Unlike a natural person, who has the right to represent him or herself in court, a company must be represented by a legal practitioner at all times. ASF is operated by a company that I established in 2007 and for that reason it required a lawyer to represent it during those legal proceedings.
Over the course of that almost four year litigation, and in the subsequent three and a half years since then, approximately $400,000 was expended on legal fees. I’m sure that you’d agree that’s a fairly substantial sum of money. The case was successfully defended, but not one dollar of those costs has yet been recovered. Related costs are still being expended to this day as insolvency proceedings continue against those who commenced the litigation.
As everyone is aware, ASF is a website that is entirely free to use. There has never been any membership fees payable to make use of the website. However there are many expenses that go along with providing the service that ASF provides; web hosting, off site backups, software, custom coding and design work, and compensation for the person who organizes all of that, and who oversees and manages the website and community. All of those expenses are separate to the legal expenses mentioned above.
So it is clear that ASF must generate revenue in order to survive, and continue to provide the service. With no membership revenue it does this via advertising, both display advertising and email advertising. Both are necessary in order to generate the revenue required to cover all the costs outlined above. That is just to break even.
The reason that you just can’t unsubscribe from email advertising is because that would make the service ASF provides unviable. Unfortunately I am not able to fund ASF from my own resources. The fact that there is email advertising and this cannot be unsubscribed from unless you unsubscribe from the service entirely is outlined in the website Terms of Use. This Terms of Use is agreed to upon registration by checking a box. Unless this box is checked registration is not possible.
I would hope that those who come here to spend time, and hopefully learn and benefit from ASF understand and appreciate the costs involved and the necessity of revenue generation. It’s just a fact of life that cannot be avoided. I hope that you will remember that when you see display ads or receive an email advertisement. Don’t feel annoyed, feel glad that ASF is generating the revenue it needs to stay online. Every day more than a thousand people find ASF from various search engines. Some of them come looking for an answer to a question they have, others for information on a particular topic. ASF provides a service to them also. Some of them occasionally choose to register and stick around and contribute too. I’m sure that’s how most of those reading this ended up here.
Every month I pay a small donation to Michael West, a former Fairfax journalist who was given the boot years ago for ruffling too many rich and powerful feathers. He now runs his own independent journalism website where he does the same thing he did at Fairfax, exposing tax cheats, scams and corporate skullduggery. He relies – at least partially - on donations to fund his journalism and he used to have on his website, “Don’t donate so you can read it, donate so everyone can.” I agreed with that sentiment and that is part of the reason I donate. If you visit his website you will see that he doesn’t pull punches. Australia needs the likes of Michael West. It needs as much independent media as we can fund because one of the great things the internet gave us is the decentralisation of information. The Murdochs and those like them no longer get to own and completely control the airwaves like they used to. These days any old Joe Blow off the street can start a website and build an audience, or a community. ASF is just another part of that independent media landscape. Any support (or even understanding) you can offer is appreciated; even if that’s as simple as putting up with some advertising so ASF can continue to provide the service that it has for the last seventeen years.
That’s my dump for tonight. Thanks for listening.
Over the course of that almost four year litigation, and in the subsequent three and a half years since then, approximately $400,000 was expended on legal fees. I’m sure that you’d agree that’s a fairly substantial sum of money. The case was successfully defended, but not one dollar of those costs has yet been recovered. Related costs are still being expended to this day as insolvency proceedings continue against those who commenced the litigation.
As everyone is aware, ASF is a website that is entirely free to use. There has never been any membership fees payable to make use of the website. However there are many expenses that go along with providing the service that ASF provides; web hosting, off site backups, software, custom coding and design work, and compensation for the person who organizes all of that, and who oversees and manages the website and community. All of those expenses are separate to the legal expenses mentioned above.
So it is clear that ASF must generate revenue in order to survive, and continue to provide the service. With no membership revenue it does this via advertising, both display advertising and email advertising. Both are necessary in order to generate the revenue required to cover all the costs outlined above. That is just to break even.
The reason that you just can’t unsubscribe from email advertising is because that would make the service ASF provides unviable. Unfortunately I am not able to fund ASF from my own resources. The fact that there is email advertising and this cannot be unsubscribed from unless you unsubscribe from the service entirely is outlined in the website Terms of Use. This Terms of Use is agreed to upon registration by checking a box. Unless this box is checked registration is not possible.
I would hope that those who come here to spend time, and hopefully learn and benefit from ASF understand and appreciate the costs involved and the necessity of revenue generation. It’s just a fact of life that cannot be avoided. I hope that you will remember that when you see display ads or receive an email advertisement. Don’t feel annoyed, feel glad that ASF is generating the revenue it needs to stay online. Every day more than a thousand people find ASF from various search engines. Some of them come looking for an answer to a question they have, others for information on a particular topic. ASF provides a service to them also. Some of them occasionally choose to register and stick around and contribute too. I’m sure that’s how most of those reading this ended up here.
Every month I pay a small donation to Michael West, a former Fairfax journalist who was given the boot years ago for ruffling too many rich and powerful feathers. He now runs his own independent journalism website where he does the same thing he did at Fairfax, exposing tax cheats, scams and corporate skullduggery. He relies – at least partially - on donations to fund his journalism and he used to have on his website, “Don’t donate so you can read it, donate so everyone can.” I agreed with that sentiment and that is part of the reason I donate. If you visit his website you will see that he doesn’t pull punches. Australia needs the likes of Michael West. It needs as much independent media as we can fund because one of the great things the internet gave us is the decentralisation of information. The Murdochs and those like them no longer get to own and completely control the airwaves like they used to. These days any old Joe Blow off the street can start a website and build an audience, or a community. ASF is just another part of that independent media landscape. Any support (or even understanding) you can offer is appreciated; even if that’s as simple as putting up with some advertising so ASF can continue to provide the service that it has for the last seventeen years.
That’s my dump for tonight. Thanks for listening.
