Okay folks, I need for those of you who are coming to the LAN to please e-mail me with your confirmation of such. If you have anyone else you will be bringing (and that is SOLID for attending, not just possible), please include that in your e-mail as well. If you have more that will attend with you after you send the e-mail, please send me an update by e-mail so that I may include them into the number of attendees.
The following is in regards to the LAN/Charity fundraiser. My apologies in advance for the downer tone that this may read as.
I want to let you all know something that is disappointing for me. I had hoped to raise enough money through the fundraiser so as to pay for the LAN in its entirety and make this free, as well as raise enough to pay for HFFL’s domain renewal, and of course the most important to have a sizable donation for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh. Due to the stalled donations, I’m going to lose money on this since the fundraiser didn’t work out as well as hoped.
I had set aside money for an XBOX One so that I could play the Master Chief collection when it comes out in November (as well as Halo 5 Guardians next year), as well as continue to report on Halo via experience with the Halo Master Chief Collection. I know now that I’m going to have to use most of that money to cover the LAN and the blog’s domain renewal. This even after I receive the fee from LAN attendees. Because of this I won’t be able to get an XBOX One for some time (into next year). One consolation is that at the least, those coming to the LAN should have a good time and I’ll have the blog for another year.
This is a sacrifice I had hoped not to make, but am willing doing so for the betterment of my HFFL Halo community. The one thing this does make me question though is, how important is HFFL? Given that a total of only 10 people donated and 2 of those folks accounted for half of what was raised, this does give me great pause. Over the past few weeks, I have asked if readers would be kind enough to donate 50 cents to a dollar. That certainly isn’t much and even for cash strapped folks (like myself), would still be easy enough to donate.
I’m not sure if it’s because people didn’t like that half would go to the LAN (only up to $1,000 for HFFL)-over that all of the rest would go to the charity or that they just don’t find the blog worthy enough of even such a small donation. I’m NOT trying to make anyone feel guilty here. I am just trying to figure this out. Before E3, the blog’s daily unique visitor count was between 2,400-2,700. Since E3, RTX and now SDCC, the blog has been maintaining 3,000-3,500 daily unique visitors. I’m unsure as to why only 10 of those readers donated anything? Is it because not everyone has Paypal? Is this blog not worth the donation? Is the charity not worth the donation? Did it seem selfish of me to ask for donations for the LAN? (Even when half raised will be going to a charity-again with anything over $2,000 total would go completely to the charity). I’d like some very honest answers about this (please e-mail me, replies to this article will NOT be posted). I’d like to know what more or better can I do to improve the blog so that you all find it worthy enough to donate to.
For the record, I want to reiterate again that I’ve been unemployed for a long time now (3 years, 4 months). I do NOT get any assistance what so ever from the government. It’s only my wife’s job that keeps us afloat. You’ll note that I thank her constantly for buying me Halo merchandise. That’s because it’s 100% true. If I get something sent to me from Mega Bloks, I post that for full disclosure. The money I mentioned above for the XBOX One that will now be diverted to cover the LAN/Domain costs came from our tax refund. I’ve been holding on to that since February. It’s been 5 months that I could have spent it on other more needed things, like food or paying bills. My wife is VERY understanding though. So much credit needs to go to her for agreeing with me to have this money set aside.
In October, HFFL will be involved with the Extra Life charity campaign. I hope we do better there than what happened with the LAN/Charity fundraiser here. In 2015, (should I still be unemployed) if I have to have another fundraiser for the LAN/Charity, the result of that will let me know if I should continue the blog or not.
I treat this blog as my job while I look for actual work (of which I’ve sent out literally hundreds of resumés). I’m sure many of you have noticed how often I post articles, especially when conventions happen and have Halo related content. While I did not create this blog to gain fame or fortune, I had hoped that it would be self-sustaining by now (coming up on it’s 3 year anniversary).
Apologies if my tone is a downer, I’ve said it before that I have depression. The fundraising effort for the LAN/Charity (or lack there of) has worked on my emotions and put me into a depressive mood. So again, apologies.
I want to continue HFFL. I just need to know if you folks think it should be continued as well. Not just by comments though. I’ll never institute a fee or membership cost for HFFL as some other well known and bigger gaming sites do. However, it does make me feel down though that it seemingly is not worth even that 50 cents to a dollar for folks to donate.
Humbly and respectfully,
Sal Salerno
Owner/Blogger
HaloFanForLife.com