Hi Fellow Gay Men- Stop Asking Everyone to Crowdfund Your Crap.

I consider myself to be a very fair & balanced kind of guy, especially when seeing both sides of the story.  However, there has been a trend happening on social media lately that really “grinds my gears” in a Peter Griffin/Family Guy type style that I cannot be quiet about anymore.  And this one pertains to gay men, however it can go much deeper than that and cover all sorts of people.  The message is simple- stop asking for people to crowdfund your material possessions.  It is tacky, pathetic and stupid on your part, and if you really got your head out of your own stuck up ass for a minute, you would realize what a tool you are for asking in the first place.

I think the element of crowdfunding can actually be very beneficial to someone’s business, or if it is something personal for reasons that people should feel the need to fund (a sick loved one, raising money for a marathon of sorts, etc).  It should not go to funding your new car, vacation, or anything of that sort because you claim “you don’t have the means to do it yourself”.  News flash- not do a lot of other people, but you don’t see the volumes of people on social media repeatedly asking for material items that you should be taking care of yourself.  When you are in New York City, or really anywhere lately quite frankly, things are really expensive.  I work three jobs alone just so I can make ends meet, and don’t complain about it at all because I have built my own career with my own hard work and money.  I don’t feel the need to go all over Facebook/Twitter etc to ask my friends for a trip to California.  It is sort of the equivalent to someone who knew all the answers to the test beforehand (cheating) as opposed to someone who did their work to get the good grades.  You feel good about both end results, however one (should) leave you with a feeling of guilt, whereas the other you feel proud that you got to that point and earned that grade.

This whole issue became an epic debate on my Facebook page today, where I included that projects/businesses shouldn’t do as well as the freeloading jerks that abuse those sites, and I’ll retract my thoughts on the former.  Yes, marketing has become something so different nowadays where the “cold call” situation is out the door and businesses (like myself) are looking for unique and innovative ways to get their word out there. With crowdfunding for businesses, and if the product is something that the person believes in, then it is absolutely fine if you want to help them get to a higher echelon in building their brand.   The only issue I have with that is when the same sort of concept is asking for a high amount of money every single year.  Doing it once is fine, doing it twice is OK as well as long as there is reason for doing it a 2^nd time, but anything after that just looks bad on your part.  You should take the resources that the tons of people who believed in what you are doing and leverage it to where you don’t need to ask for it again.  Just food for thought.

Just like how Leslie Jones, Zendaya & Gabby Douglas have been treated all over Twitter as of late, crowdfunding sites really need to get better in terms of cracking down on what is really considered useful when it comes to the needs for the campaign in the first place.  These sites can be incredibly useful and have done some wonderful things in the past, I just don’t want the focus to be shifted to the point that we forget why they were up in the first place because of mindless idiots who pollute them.  Fin.