Before people gamed every post for “Content Marketing” optimization, people used blogs to converse, including expressions of gratitude. I guess I am old school, so forget Google. It’s time to thank folks for their help last week with the Punish Geoff Fundraiser for Civilination.
In all we raised almost $3,000 together for online civility. Though we came short of the $5,000 goal, but did some commendable work to change the online conversation for the better.
Unfortunately a $2,000+ shortfall does mean that we will not be “Punishing Geoff” by making me dress in drag for a full day of work. A couple of private comments did come in that suggested this punishment may be uncivil in the eyes of GLBT community, so perhaps it’s for the best.
Civilination founder Andrea Weckerle has raised more than $1,000 independently. You can still donate here, as Andrea’s larger efforts will continue for another two weeks. Before I thank folks individually, I did ask Andrea to say a few words:
“Thank you so much to everyone who participated in and contributed to Geoff’s CiviliNation’s Indiegogo campaign fundraising last week! It was wonderful to see people tweet messages, leave comments discussing the importance of creating the Academy for Online Conflict Management, and making financial donations to the campaign. Thank you so much!”
Shout Outs
So many of you donated to the fundraiser, and I greatly appreciate that. In that old school way, I’d like to offer a little link love. In alphabetical order here are our donors. Those of you that did donate $100 or more are noted with an asterisk, and will receive an autographed copy of Exodus when it is released.
David Alston*
Jay Baer*
Randy Bowden
Leslie Bradshaw*
Heather Coleman
Shaun Dakin
Kaarina Dillabough
Ric Dragon*
Paul Duning
Lisa Gerber
Kerry O’Shea Gorgone
Jason Konopinski*
Ananda Leeke
Andre Mirkine
Allison Mittlestadt*
Debbi Morello
Rogier Noort
Jess Ostroff
Ellis Pines
Tammy Portnoy*
Patrick Riccards*
Mayra Ruiz-McPherson*
Lauren Vargas*
Andrew Waber
Zena Weist*
In last Wednesday’s blog post The Waste Bin of Mindfulness I promised five commenters a copy of Andrea’s book. She has agreed to autograph and send them to the recipients. They are Joe Abusamra, Gloria Bell, Michelle Spear, Brian Vickery, and Marc Zazeela. Congratulations!
There are so many people to thank for spreading the word publicly, as well as private back channel encouragement, it’s impossible to thank them all. Needless to say, you all stood up and made a difference, and I appreciate it.
I want to thank two that shared in particular, Brian Solis and Chris Brogan. Not because they are A-Listers, but because they have been on the receiving end of so many uncivil remarks, including some from me. They deserve better. Thank you for your support, gentlemen.
And Chris, if you read this, I did want to reaffirm what I said on Twitter last week. You received a ton of grief about Google+ from me and others. Like so many early adopters, you received hell for making a bold statement, and in the end, the proof was in the pudding. Today Google+ a force to be reckoned with and a must for any content marketer, even if only for search purposes. You were right. My hat is off to you.
Thanks again to everyone who helped Civilination last week! Cheers.