Before there were blogs and computers, if you wanted to raise money for your cause, you would send out a hard-copy newsletter by regular mail, with a space on the back page where you would find the pitch for donations. Potential subscribers or donors would respond by filling out the form with their background information and return it via regular mail with a check or their credit card information. The whole process generally took a week or two.

Now, with computers and corporate websites that are the primary means of managing online payments for blogs and newsletters, the process takes about 6 months. When we decided to begin transitioning from free subscriptions for the Shepherd Alaska blog by providing a donation option, at first, we were pleased to find that a corporate site sets all that up for you simply by creating a donation link to the blog.

The problem lies primarily in their claim that “protecting client security is extremely important to us.” But in protecting our security, they have concocted a highly dysfunctional process that serves as a barricade to setting up donations. On the bright side (sort of), over the next 6 months, after multiple chats and phone conversations with AI and two different groups of tech support, we learned several new Gen-Z terms such as “two-factor-authentication,” “two-factor-authentication by-pass,” “authenticator app,” “account recovery,” and “identity confirmation.” Moreover, we finally managed to set up the donation button on the blog, and it actually works!

We apologize to those who have attempted to donate in the past and were frustrated by the complex technology. If you would like to donate to the blog, please click the hard-fought “Upgrade to Paid” button at the bottom of any post and complete the credit card payment form. It really works this time!

Shepherd Alaska - Monitoring Change in Extraordinary Times

We Have a Donate Button After a Long…