OK, I know I said I wouldn't be here again but hear me out first. :)
TL;DR: I need $2,500 to cover my remaining expenses incurred as part of my role as site staff as TASVideos Ambassador (Update: and I'm spending roughly another $2.5k to cover costs to travel to
ESA); please
donate if you feel led (
direct PayPal link).
First, please don't feel any obligation to help me out, especially if you've helped me cover expenses for past GDQ's. I've endeavored to do everything I can to cover my costs on my own since AGDQ 2017 and a windfall late last year made it seem like I wouldn't have to again but life changes and we all find ourselves in paths we never expected. Such is my situation now.
In the past year I've represented TASVideos at AGDQ 2018, SGDQ 2018, GDQx TwitchCon 2018, and I've paid all of my own expenses at each event. In addition, I donated $2,345.67 at AGDQ and $1,337 each at the other two events, i.e. I've donated over $5k this year. Some of those donations were from
Twitch.tv/dwangoAC subs and bits which I promised I would give 100% of at each event through the end of GDQx (which I did) and some was out of my own pocket. I'm very glad I was able to give, and even now I'll be giving 10% of whatever I receive from the beginning of November through AGDQ 2019 at the event.
Still, I have had some substantial costs. Most recently I needed to buy a computer on par with the streaming equipment used at GDQ events because I took on streaming the Battle Bots Charity Brawl streamed from
tas.bot featuring TASVideos content during breaks. Things add up quickly - $560 for a 4-port HDMI capture card here, $450 for a solid motherboard... by the time I was done purchasing equipment my total expenses were $3,167. I have additional upcoming expenses for food, flights, and hotel for AGDQ 2019 (and to a lesser extent MAGFest) adding up to about $2k all told for a total of let's just call my total unmet expenses $5k.
Now, I've been streaming a lot on Twitch and my
Discord.TASBot.net community has been pretty amazing so I've already received a total of a bit more than $2,500 between bits, subs, and donations (of which I'll be giving 10% at AGDQ 2019 as noted). Yay, I'm halfway there!
Unfortunately, I don't have $2.5k to spare to make up the difference like I did at one point. So I'm asking here. If you think I've done a good job in my role helping people understand what Tool-Assisted Speedruns and TASVideos are all about,
please consider making a donation to help me defray my costs (
direct PayPal link). If there's something you'd like to see me do differently that puts you off from donating, please PM me and let me know as constructive feedback is always helpful. If this just isn't the right season in your life for giving your money away, don't do it - there should be no guilt here. We're all in this community with different backgrounds.
Thank you again to everyone who has donated in the past and for anyone who chooses to do so in the future. I'll try to update my signature with where I'm at progress wise and I'll provide a post mortem as I always have with a full collection of all donations that say they want to be public. TAS hard!