So I had this idea, that I thought was nice and sweet.
Turns out it was a really bad idea, and I’ve really turned some people off.
I’m super sorry.
To those of you who also thought it was a good idea, and contributed, thank you. We’ll be having a nice dinner. To those of you who felt the need to attack me about it, I appreciate your honesty, even if your words stung a bit.
I’m totally at a loss for words.
I just…well…I’m sorry, everyone.
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Crap, man. Suddenly, *I* feel bad.
I’d keep the card idea, though.
I PayPal’ed just as you were yanking the request I guess.
I decided to do it despites being of 2 minds. 🙂
This was never intended to replace “romance” or anything…I sincerely thought that people who had been here from the beginning may want to say “thank you”, that’s all.
I thought it was a nice way to do that, and I fear that I’ve pissed off so many people.
I guess this is the moment all the haters have been waiting for…so they can say “See! We were right about him all along! Yay! We hate him!”
dang.
I don’t get it- what was the problem? I thought it was a nice idea! I mean, seriously, if you didn’t want to pay, you could have just ignored it. What’s the big deal?
*rolling eyes at people who gripe about everything*
K
We don’t hate you, Wil! 🙂 I still love your site.
And I promise to come and give you a hug at SD Comicon!
You did the right thing Wil.
I too, am sorry for going on about it. If I hurt your feelings then I am very sorry.
There’s a lot of new people coming in here as a result of the Bloggies, too…people who want to take a lazy, punk-ass swipe at a celeb just to ruin a stranger’s day.
It was an ask. Crap, man, I bought one of the “posse” t-shirts and used it in my latest play. Giving five bucks to feel good about something doesn’t seem like that big a leap.
I wonder if Spudnuts donated.
Uh, don’t answer that, Spudnuts. Wil’s had enough blunt honesty for one day.
Wil,
Don’t get bent about this. At least it was a novel idea, and the most interesting thread on here in days. Somebody called you a “wacky husband” … hey, there’s worse things!
damn you nikole, its all your fault, i know it
wil, you should leave a hidden button for us to donate 🙂 come on, you know you want to
What were people’s problems with it?
I personally thought it was a creative, unique idea and something that could have been pretty cool.
I’m glad that you are going ahead with the dinner out. I know how it can feel to be spurned for technology 😉 And it takes a special kind of patience and trust and confidence to be cool with it.
Three cheers to your wife!
>>
What the hell is the big deal? This is Wil’s site and he can do what he wants with it.
It pisses me off that people feel that they can run their mouths off about what so-and-so is doing with their site and how they don’t approve and what-not. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, LEAVE.
There. I feel better now. 🙁
I’m sorry that it didn’t work out. I can see that your intentions were in the right place..
Listen, I don’t think that anyone should attack anyone about this, regardless of what side you come down on.
People expressed their opinions, and that’s what humanity should be about…funny thing is, I let people say things to me that I would never let them say to other people. But I think I sort of asked for it. I didn’t think that I was “begging for money”, and maybe it would have been better to just say “here, would you mind kicking in 5 bucks to support the site”, and then using whatever came in to take her out. I just thought it was…well, I just didn’t think it through enough, and I missed the last two pages in the soapbox, which, if I had read, would have made me not do this, at all.
I continue to apologize, and hope that people who are so pissed at me, and the people who contributed, will see my good intentions for what they were.
I wasn’t trying to do anything un-cool, I swear.
Wil, the haters are exactly that — the haters… I think of them and remember one of my fav songs (by Billy Joel no less)…. “An Angry Young Man”, remembering one of the last lines: “And he goes to the grave as an angry old man….”. Reminds me why I never want to decend into that pit of anger and hatred.
Do you have an “official” snail mail address? (Heaven forbid your home addy ever got out)…. I’d like to send a card.
-J
Wil,
sorry all those people ragged on you. You were just trying to do something nice and I am sure it was done with the best intentions. Don’t let those who choose to be jerks hurt you. Please don’t let those few turn you off to the rest of us who think you are a swell guy! I hope you and you wife have a very enjoyable and Happy Valentine’s Day.
Take care and keep up the good work!
Wil,
I personaly thought it was a very sweet and thoughtful idea. I donated and went to click home to donate again and I found this! I am sorry you felt you had to take it down. It is such a shame that the people opposed to the idea couldn’t just ignore it. Well I hope you and your wife have a lovely V-Day and don’t let the negative responders put a damper on your date:) Enjoy!
Huh? Who? What? Where? .. I haven’t been following closely enough perhaps…. Oh BTW, Wil, you’re HUMAN, sad but true. 😉
Yeah, so I log on to the site, and this apology’s there.
So apparently, I missed the fiasco.
Could somebody give me a Cliff Notes version of the craziness that went on (either posted here or emailed to me)?
Thanks!
Dont feel bad Wil! There was nothing wrong with your asking. PBS probly doesn’t feel bad about their campaigns. Hey, did any of you people danate to PBS? How was Wil’s request any different? Geez! You’d think somebody had asked you to cut your arms off! Anyway, is it to late to donate?
Hey, Wil – It was a lovely idea, maybe just not to everyone’s taste (but yes, they can leave if it bothers them so much). I hope you have a great time going out with your wife. And please remember, everyone really does (cliche as it sounds) make some minor “mistakes” or misjudgements along the way. In this case, I think it has to do with the implied intimacy of the web – we think we know the people we write to every day, but it’s not the same as face to face relationships.
Like the idea of a place to donate to keep your site going – that might really work.
Keep the good stuff happening here – this is truly one of the more interesting places to visit that I’ve seen in a long time!
Cheers,
The Duchess
Wil,
You DO realize that part of this site’s charm is that you give a shit what we think, right?
I just found your site and started reading the apology so I looked further…people really need to get a grip on things. The idea was sweet and romantic and I’m not really sure if people just were looking to attack that day or what, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to apologize…it was your idea…if they didn’t like it…they should have just moved on and not been, well, brutal enough to cause you to apologize…sheesh…
Well, the thing that just makes me sick, is my wife, who is the single greatest and most important person in my life, has gotten mixed up in it, and she doesn’t even know what’s going on!
Maybe I’ll take what was sent in, and she and I will give it to a charity, in the name of WWDN?
Wil…
You already know what I think, so who cares?
Besides, if anyone got soooo pissed-off at you…and you’ve done so much to be so completely, obviously human about everything–you know, admitting you’re wrong, re-liking the Shat, etc.–and someone wants to tear into you or the idea in a very non-constructive fashion…
Well, I’ve got to believe they were simply waiting for a reason.
The Cheese says Fuck ’em. Unless, of course, they were merely attempting to kindly disagree with you in a constructive (or Spudnuts) fashion.
Wil, I don’t think you have to appologize for anything here. You thought you had a good idea, and others didn’t and told you so. That’s what this site is all about isn’t it?
That being said, I think the donation button is a great idea if you remove the Valentine part of it. Many people here really appreciate this site and would like to help keep it going. As you said before, not everyone can afford a $20 T-Shirt ($32 Canadian 8-p), but some of us might like to give a few bucks once in a while…
Cheer up and feel the love 😉
I suspect that because she knows exactly what you’re like, she would probably laugh really hard, Wil. You should tell her sometime.
Wil, don’t let it get to you. You didn’t do anything wrong. If people give you crap for it, well, they’re pricks with nothing better to do than project their own self-loathing onto you. Screw them.
All is forgiven.
Advertising; Personally, as long as the banner ad doesn’t blink, they don’t bother me at all. Go for it. What do other reader here think?
Just heard about your site the other day and I’m tickled to see that you did this site for all the right reasons that I’ve always wanted to see a celeb do. Ben Affleck & Kevin Smith posting occasionally on their boards is close but this is more what I envisioned.
Guess it took a geek who happened to be a celeb to do it!!
Anyways, I really think that your idea was a neat, experimental, innovative way of trying to bridge some of the gaps between the things in your life, namely your wife and your devotion to your fans (which is why you spend so much time on this project, never mind that it’s so much FUN sometimes too)
As for all the bitchers, you ALWAYS have them no matter what and pretty much you have to ignore them. If they’re here and reading your site everyday… you’re definently doing something right.
Oh yea.. I agree with Rob’s sentiment about the charm of your site though I’ve not had the time to delve into the soapbox. I’m wasting enough time these days having fun getting into blogging myself!
Hey, doesn’t donating money to take your wife out count as the same things as “donating to the site”? I mean, I’m sure that if your wife got annoyed with the site, Wil, she’d make you stop. 😉
It would be nice to have a button for donations for those of us who appreciate wil’s site and want to show our support.
Wil,
No need for a sorry (especially a super sorry).
It was a sweet idea, and I hope you still take your wife out to dinner on us. This was to let her (and you!) know how much you are appreicated. I hope the message came through loud and clear, despite a few dissenters.
Enjoy your us-free V-Day, and no need to appologize for being such a good husband and sweet guy.
-Amy
Noooooooo don’t give it to charity. You do with it what you had planned in the first place or *I* will get pissed. Every single one of us who sent you money sent it for you to have a nice dinner with NOT to donate it to charity, dammit. Don’t let the haters take away what I thought was a great plan. I’m thrilled to know that I was one of the few people who managed to donate.
I will pissed too, so take her out and enjoy the evening.
-Amy
Wil – I thought it was a great idea, but I can see how some people could dislike it.
I wouldn’t mind a general donate button to donate to the expenses you’re incurring to keep this site up and learn as much as you’re learning to make it fresh and cool. I can only imagine how much bandwidth you eat. Owie.
Anyway, I hope you and Anne have a fabulous Valentine’s Day, no matter how you spend it. 🙂
I’m lost… I’ve been reading the entries and all… but *what* exactly happened?
Hey Wil…
Your original proposal rubbed me the wrong way, and I almost wrote to you about it. Since you seem upset, I thought about why I didn’t like the idea, and it came down to this: it seems like you would probably take your wife to dinner on V-Day anyway. Because of that, it’s hard to see your plan as anything other than a way to get other people to pay for your dinner. In other words, we’re saving YOU a few bicks, not giving something to your wife.
I’ll bet if you put a permanent button on your site that said “Send Flowers to My Wife”, it would get plenty of hits all year long. Make it for a buck or two, and she gets a dozen roses for every 25 or 50 hits. It sounds better because it’s almost tongue-in-cheek, and it’s seen as going to her and not you. I’ll bet you’d get enough overflow to be able to make a trip to the local hospital or old folks home every few weeks.
If you like my idea, I accept paypal 😉
You reading from that World Socialist Web Site there Will? Hell why don’t you join the communist party and blow up troop trains.
Wil-
I didn’t give you cash so you could give it to charity, I gave it to you so you could have a nice night with your wife. Go do that. Seriously. IT was a good idea.
-s
Thanks for the completely relevant comment, Jeremy.
Another thought from the newbie…
Another part of the charm of this site as that it enables us to get “close” to you and also really get to know the REAL you.
When you put forth the suggestion today, you gave us all a chance to be involved in your life directly by helping put together an interesting surprise for your wife. You treated us all as YOUR FRIENDS and that means a lot to me and I’m sure exponentially so to your regulars.
Why let the eternal whiners ruin that experience for the rest of your friends and yourself?
I think you should actually put back the link for those who weren’t able to read the site in the hours that it was up there.
It’s kinda like the abortion debate in a way in the sense that you’re gonna have people on either side bitterly and endlessly debating the merits and really it’s all gonna go nowhere cause you think that one side’s gonna change the other’s mind? heck no… it’s called the individual human experience.
Anyways, I hope you have a great time whatever you do that weekend.
Myself, I’m excited my SO’s coming to visit that weekend… I got a great giggle today when I heard about the SF Zoo’s Valentine’s Day Sex Tours!! I’m actually thinking about doing it. It ought to be fun though no zoo can compare to the SD Wild Animal Park.
http://www.sfzoo.org/events.htm
I don’t think you should let what a handful of people thought. I personally thought it was a cool idea, and if I had the money to give I would have. I’ve only been visiting WWDN for a few months now, but from what I saw on the soapbox was just a bunch of newer visitors that don’t really know what you put into WWDN. In other words, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. And in the end, it’s all small stuff!!
How about I just take you and your wife to dinner?
Perhaps we can get readers to pay for the flight to Chicago?
(ouch)
What happened was Wil gave us the option to send $ 0r $5 to him to take his wife out to dinner… on us (as a thank you from us to her for allowing him to make her a net widow). Of course, it was completely up to us if ANY of us wanted to do it and he even put the idea up in the soapbox for reactions. Since it was quite positive, he put the donation button up for all of what seemed to be a few minutes. Shortly there after he took it down. And now this.
Frankly, I think those who didn’t want to donate were cordially invited to NOT click the button instead of ruining what we thought was a great idea. Bastos!
Wil,
There is absolutely no need to apologize. You never forced any of us to contribute. As with all things, some liked this idea others did not
Ahhhh ok, I get it now. I just had to wait fer more comments to piece it together.
You know, this is the first (ok second… if you count my ealier post)time I’ve posted to a website like this. Most of the time I find it lame and irrelevant to do so, but this site is fun, so I’ll revel in joining the lameness.
Hell, she puts up with this website, I think people who can afford it should donate to the “Keep the wife happy” fund. Keep her happy, and Willie keeps us entertained.
umm… I’m soooooooooo lost. what happened? Someone clue me in.
Hey Scratch-
Thank you!! You totally hit it on the head. I couldn’t understand why people got so angry, but that’s totally it.
I guess I should have made something else clear: I take my wife out all the time…she takes me out, when she’s working more than I am. We take each other out, because we like to get out of our messy house from time to time.
I *did* sincerely think that it would be “dinner on WWDN”, and I did think that that was going to be a nice thing. I wasn’t, really, really wasn’t, trying to stick it anyone. I mean that. 🙁
Roughy, who I’ve never met in person, but increasingly wish lived in my hometown, made a good point: I don’t see myself as a celebrity, but lots of people still do, and they can’t see me as a normal human being, so I’m judged differently than a normal person would be. I need to keep remembering that, and not take anything for granted.
Oh, and, based on the wishes expressed above, I will go ahead and take her to dinner, on WWDN, and I hope that everyone who contributed will “sign” the page which I’ll make, and I’ll give that to her, along with the construction paper card I give her each year. 🙂
Ahhh. I was wondering where that piece went. Saw it this morning, then came back and it was gone. Ooooof.
It’s funny: when I saw it, I was thinking of this company I used to work for. The company gave Christmas bonuses not just to the staff, but to spouses (!) whose generosity allowed the staff to work all those horrible long hours. I thought it was a really nice idea.
I guess it could have looked like you were just going for cash. Remember, to some people you’re a guy with a website they enjoy reading: a fellow Netizen. To others, you’re Wil F****** Wheaton, to coin a phrase, and not really a “real” person at all, and sometimes things just are interpreted differently when your pal says ’em vs. when a “celebrity” says ’em. Maybe you got hit with that. 🙂
Well, ain’t that the way it goes though? Sometimes you’ll have what you thought was a good idea, or say something you think is funny, only to find out that you really upset someone. At that time, there is, of course, nothing left to do but cringe and hope you get over it. Lol!
Don’t worry about it, Wil. These things happen. heheh