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10 Mar ’15
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https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/alaskan-adventure-for-two/x/10118162
We are a young, creative, energetic couple who have been searching for some time for both an advantageous piece of vacant Alaskan property, and the resources to construct our dream of living minimally in an efficient tiny house. We’re all too familiar with living in crammed quarters, as it’s pretty much what we’ve amounted to for the majority of our relationship, and we’ve come to prefer it.
Our decision of making a return to nature was born out of our desire to escape the cityscape and live deliberately as part of building a much greater relationship with the world around us. We’ve come to understand how we’d like to raise a family in the future with self-sufficiency and eco-friendly sustainability being the foundation for the lifestyle change that we are desperate for. With few strings attached to our current place of residence in Portland, Oregon, we are finally reaching a place of financial independence where this homesteading Alaskan dream might soon become a reality. We’ve really only ever considered Alaska as the place where we’d like to put down roots and, at some point, begin raising a family.
The irony of asking others for help, while trying to become self-sufficient, is something we both recognize. But unlike some of our heroes, Henry David Thoreau, Dick Proenneke, and others, we have the opportunity to share our journey with like-minded people through social media capturing step by step our successes and failures. We will be setting up a private YouTube channel with weekly updates that will show our process moving from the busy city life of Portland, Oregon to a small farmstead in remote Alaska. Once there, we will be illustrating each challenge we face and new skills we obtain. This is what we have to offer to anyone willing to help us achieve our modern day adventure (click on the link at the top to contribute). Eventually, we plan to congregate our footage to produce a documentary.
Energy efficiency, respect for the land and animals around us, as well as care and concern for the people around us, all falls under a moral concern that we share in having social accountability for how we are choosing to live. We are attempting to reduce our waste and manage our resources more thoughtfully and responsibly in our daily lives.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and hear us out!
15 Feb ’12
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@weneedhelp good luck, but I can't support this and I think you will find most of the members here won't either. Most of us have been where you are and we admire what you are trying to do, but we have put in the time, energy and commitment to get where we are. We asked for no hand out's and fully document everything we do on here for free. So why should we give you our money?
I'm not trying to be a dick, just trying to give you some sound advice. Wait another two years, get a part time job. Save the 7,000 dollars. Move to Alaska, build a homestead and then write a book. I will gladly buy it, but to have others pay for your life of self-sufficiency to show others how it is done? I'll pass.
If any of the members think I am talking out of turn let me know and I will donate 100 dollars to their cause.
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spotted-horses
6 Feb ’14
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KVR said
@weneedhelp good luck, but I can't support this and I think you will find most of the members here won't either. Most of us have been where you are and we admire what you are trying to do, but we have put in the time, energy and commitment to get where we are. We asked for no hand out's and fully document everything we do on here for free. So why should we give you our money?I'm not trying to be a dick, just trying to give you some sound advice. Wait another two years, get a part time job. Save the 7,000 dollars. Move to Alaska, build a homestead and then write a book. I will gladly buy it, but to have others pay for your life of self-sufficiency to show others how it is done? I'll pass.
If any of the members think I am talking out of turn let me know and I will donate 100 dollars to their cause.
I seriously doubt their account will ever be active beyond that one post. Not even to lurk silently.
Their post reminds me of the South Park episode "Go Fund Yourself" poking fun at Kickstarter.
18 Feb ’12
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Now, hold on, let's give this nice couple the benefit of the doubt.
To the Millers:
You must have some unique angle on living a self sufficient life. Coming onto any forum of homesteaders without any experience and truly believing we would pay to watch you live what we already love is pretty audacious....or you really have the goods.
What you've really done is insult us. In this modern times of youtube stars, selfies, and narcissism, you've copied and pasted your sales pitch in the middle of our community and didn't even have the common courtesy to give us a proper introduction. What you haven't done is commit an unforgivable sin.
REPENT!
Go to the new member forum and introduce yourselves. Lurk for a while on our forums. Read a ton of articles. Be a part of our community. Self sufficiency isn't about doing it all on your own. It's about learning what you need from the people around you and giving of yourself when others are in need. I don't know a lot, but I give of my time in my community because I get to rub shoulders with people who know and who have what I want. If you go to Alaska and think that all you need is a certain amount of money and a GoPro, you'll fail. It's the people around you that will help you succeed and truly make you rich.
I hope you at least read some of the responses because people here will genuinely welcome you and give of their knowledge to help you on your journey.
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spotted-horses
3 Nov ’12
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Well said, Ash
10 Mar ’15
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Thank you everyone for replying, even the negative ones.
Crowdfunding is tool that is meant to be used to amplify what you're able to do on your own, not leaving others solely responsible for your progress. We wake up everyday and work hard like everyone else, putting away what little money we can afford. We're in the process of selling the majority of our belongings in order to afford this transition and will be doing so regardless of what we're able to accumulate through asking for assistance. We spend literally every moment of our spare time canning food, researching the knowledge we'll need and staying motivated by listening to other peoples inspiring stories. I think the point that you're all failing to see is that we're not asking for a handout, we're asking for help (hence our name). You feel insulted because you all work hard everyday to maintain what you have and that's admirable and understandable. But, as we're nearing our moving date, we plan to use every tool at our disposal to try to make the transition a little more financially secure. The internet is a great tool to be used in this way considering many people before have proceeded to do this exact type of expose and succeeded in gaining support. I just think perhaps we posted this in the wrong place.
Thanks again.
6 Feb ’14
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Out of curiosity, I dug a little farther. I revisited their fundraising page to see if any donations had been made. As of posting this, no doations, balance $0.
My basic assumption was that they had posted an identical intro on a bunch of homesteading themed forums having participated in none. To my surprise, I only found evidence of them having posted on 3 forums. Far fewer than I would have guessed. As expected, all forums were posted to on the same day, 2 of the posts were minutes apart.
In addition to here, they posted to the two forums below...
http://www.permies.c.....ing#358307
http://www.motherear.....38;t=10677
As KVR pointed out, a paid private channel held no appeal to a community that shares information freely with each other and produces and distributes it's own content freely.
Additionally, we do not know the Millers, and do not know what skill set if any they bring. Since their premise was to offer a private channel, it begs the question, how good will the content and production values be to justify a paid channel. Do they have any expertise as videographers, hosting, presentation, editing, etc? It seems it would have been a good idea to have sample content available to show what they were capable of.
There is lots of content out there, some of which is very well produced such as the channels of farmhandscompanion or wranglerstar.
Youtube itself shares it's revenues with content producers via its Partner program. It isn't an easy way to make money as viewership is a fickle and illusive mistress, but if the Miller's content is not able to draw enough of a viewership to earn using the Partner program, why would anyone want to pay them to view a private channel?
Finally, where's the connection? They are complete strangers. We don't know them as long standing active forum participants. We don't know them from any kind of blog or social media. They have no presence. They wrote up a sales pitch full of catchphrases scraped from Mother Earth News, and posted it to 3 forums. Zero investment of effort.
I give them credit for proving me wrong by posting again (by a margin of 1 additional post) and for keeping things civil and polite, but no amount of spin doctoring is going to change the fact that yes, they were asking for a handout. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that. A well known youtuber called M13 recently reached out to his audience to ask for help. He had a very bad motorbike accident that may impact his income. He has a child to support and has shared his life for years and built a substantial following. The difference is, he is not merely taking. He has been giving in the form of entertainment for years.
The reason I drew my South Park comparison, is because I see no evidence that the Millers have ever contributed, or will ever give back. They are asking for something for nothing and rather than accept any constructive remarks from this or any other forum, they stay true to form by denying the simple truth of their motivations and character.
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