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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I’ve only been coming here for about a week and this is my first post. I just felt I had to say something having read all the previous comments. Maintaining a website is hard enough for professionals, I think it’s only fitting that Wil asks for donations, whether for personal or site upkeep reasons. Set up a paypal account or good old fasioned snail mail PO Box, and I’d chip in for upkeep.
Keep up the good work.
Hey, text ads. Unobtrusive. Very cool. Then I could pimp my book and t-shirts. New word for me. Pimp. Heh. I’ll quit using it in a week or so.
Wil, dude, take a few quiet ads. Cheap ones so I can pimp myself.
Wil, people are strange, and fickle. We can’t go through life walking on egg shells, in fear of not pleasing everyone or angering others. It’s too bad some people didn’t get what you posted, but life will go on. Let people like you for who you are, and approve of you for who you are. There will always be people that don’t like you, just as there will always be people that don’t like me. We can’t appease them all, nor can we win them all over. To even attempt would be foolish. Let me ask this: Given the events of the last few days…would you do that again? Exactly as before? I’ll bet your answer is no, which I’ll dare say is a shame. Here’s why….you’ve reacted to others reactions to something you did. (You did nothing wrong, you did not harm them in any way, you didn’t hold a gun to their head and force them to read) That something you did was inspired by the true Wil Wheaton, no alterior motives, nothing evil lurking in the corner, it was a spur of the moment (ran by the soapbox) inspiration. If you answered no, to the above question, the only one harmed here is you. Of even more harm to you, though, is the amount of second guessing you will encounter on your next moment of inspiration. (Will this offend someone or not, maybe if I change this or change that) Pretty soon, your inspiration is no longer your inspiration but rather someone else’s expectation. Guess what? There will be people that won’t like that too. We don’t need to go through life appologizing for who we are. We apologize when we wrong someone.
wil, it’s fine. really. really fine.
there’s no reason to feel sick about it at all. you had an idea, and it was an interesting idea, if a little flawed.
some people disagreed, and said so. how many times in a lifetime is that scenario going to play out? hopefully, a lot.
it’s okay to take a risk.
when i saw the invitation to donate this morning, i confess i had a few different responses:
firstly, i wondered if anne would really enjoy this? if she was feeling at all (and perhaps justifiably) resentful of the website, would a valentine’s gift from the posse make her more so? as though the posse were infringing further upon her relationship?
and then i thought: well, she’s wil’s wife, and if anyone can guess how she’s going to respond to this, it sure ain’t gonna be me. it’s a gonna be a him.
plus, if you look at the way blogging communities work, this is not such an unusual idea – celebrity factor or no. actually, i liked the idea a lot, because in a very real way, it was exactly what wil said it was – an opportunity for the posse to thank anne for the indulgences that make it possible for the site to exist. i don’t have a credit card – so the point is moot for me, to some extent – but i’d have liked to chip in. i hang out here a lot, and can only guess at the time and money that goes into creating a space like this.
so, wil, the idea that you were somehow ‘scamming’ the posse didn’t even occur to me.
your intentions seem pretty transparent. and that’s a good thing.
Well this comment will probably get lost in a sea of “f*ck the trolls and haters” posts, but here goes.
You don’t have to feel sorry for trying to be thoughtful and nice. There will always be people out there who are mad at the world, and especially mad at those who are kind, generous, benevolent, happy, and/or caring. Who knows why; maybe those qualities are just foreign in the haters, and it’s that much easier to hate something foreign. Maybe they get thrills taking potshots at people who probably won’t hit back, so to speak. Maybe they like making people miserable because they enjoy having company.
We knew you weren’t trying to pull a fast one. Enjoy your Valentine’s day, and think not of the ‘tards trying pull you down.
Go for it Wil It’s your idea, if you feel it’ll make her happy, do it! You have my $5. If people don’t agree with the idea they can choose not to donate. Don’t let a bunch of online wallies determine your thinking. If you let them think they can manipulate you, next thing you know they’ll be demanding public access to your bathroom 🙂
vanna would like to donate some of her old hooks.
they’re dented a little (that letter ‘H’ can be a real bitch to turn around), but they’re still good.
Awww Chief… nothing with your idea was wrong (to me anyways). I’m glad that I and some others to contribute something to make your valentines day a little sweeter.
Molly
If your coming to chicago to visit roughy, get a big place and invite the chicago fans. I’d go. i’d even pay an entrance fee to help cover the costs.
I think it’s a sweet idea, Wil. If I had a gal, I’d try the same thing. BTW, I’d love to donate, but I am severely broke at this moment. I’ll send you money once I get some or my firstborn (whichever comes first).
It WAS a good idea, dude. I was gunna donate some money….the thing is, I wouldn’t be able to since I have no credit cards, and you don’t have a PO-box set-up for money-orders. Anyway, I guess all that is moot now.
~Mental Note~ : I think that’s the first time I ever used 3 hyphen’s in one sentence. yay. 🙂
wil, I may have inadvertantly given you the Idea for the Pay Pal thing with this post I did a couple of days ago:
“Jerry,
I didnt read your whole page that you linked but I got a kick out of the Ending:
“I do not ask for anything in making this publication available to you, yet I know there may be some of you who appreciate it enough to make a monetary offering as a gift of appreciation. You may contact me via the email address above for my postal address information if you wish to send a monetary gift (in US Dollars) to me .”
I did kind of glance at it and thought it would make a good sequal to the Book “Baby Steps” in the Movie “What about Bob”
If you would like to send me something (Money Order or Pay Pal)for giving my feedback, you can contact me through my Email Address.
Thanks.
Posted by bluesman at February 4, 2002 10:26 PM
Also, I do want to thank you.
My wife was sick as a dog today and I took most of the day off. At one point I went in and woke her up and said “I cant believe this, Wil Wheaton did an update and he is asking for money”
She had a pretty bad headache and It hurt her to laugh but I think it was good for her anyway.
Thanks again wil
Oh man…
Like some others whose comments I read, I knew what was going on, but I last visited when I was at work (around noon Eastern Time). I kinda saw at that time some people were reacting a little negatively, but hey, that happens.
I came back to check on things now (11:45 PM my time) and do the Pay Pal thing, and find that quite a bit has happened.
Wow.
Wil, I can only echo most of the sentiments I’ve already read. There are certainly a lot of us that understood your intentions and didn’t really think anything else of it.
I still hope there’s some way we can let your wife know that she is appreciated by us for putting up with the time you spend on creating all this.
It’s cliche, but hey, a couple of weeks from now, we’ll all look back on this as one of the “Moments in WWDN history” and laugh it off. The sting will go away soon and we’ll still be there to laugh and debate with ya!
on the other hand, its all jerrys fault
I think it’s a cute idea… and LOTS of people put donate buttons on their site, because running a site costs a lot of money. We know you ain’t getting rich on it. Feel the love Wil!
All right, well you’ve earned my respect. I was one of the people who thought this was a dumbass idea and said so. However, having the balls to retract it with an apology shows me that you are a lot more like me than I expected. Still not gonna send you money, but I think you’re a decent guy.
You know what?
This whole Wil Wheaton website thing was a bad idea.
Wil Wheaton Grill?
Good idea.
Hook Week on Wheel of Fortune?
Good idea.
Wil Wheaton website?
Bad idea.
But you know what ELSE?
…
…
…
I got nowhere else to go!
Don’t apologize for an idea intended to make someone smile! There are those that like to cry over the littlest things, just to have something to cry about. Ignore them Wil, they are miserable people.
I’d send you money, Wil, but you have to send me Roughy. I’ll accept Spudnuts as a booby prize…ooh, she said booby…
Keerist.
Buck up, little camper.
There’s no crying in Hollywood.
There’s NO CRYING in Hollywood!
My two cents (which looks a whole lot like many others’ two cents): It was a neat idea, and I never ever thought you had bad intentions. I didn’t contribute, due to lack of credit card, but I hope you and your wife have a lovely dinner. Can we still send a message even if we didn’t contribute?
Okay.
MAYBE at Pauly Shore’s house…
But that’s it.
Okay.
And.
Vanna’s trailer.
But that’s ALL.
Has anyone else noticed that Spudnuts
writes
like
Shatner
?
Oh, there you are, Spudnuts *sigh of relief*
Can I suggest an idea that you just put up a “donate paypal” icon button up and leave it at that? Or make a webpage explaining in detail why you have that button up? Some folks like me would be willing to help donate for the cause of WWDN to help fray the cost of bandwidth.
Bandwidth is very expensive for anyone to pay for that has a very popular website. All that traffic can rack up a major bill to pay for.
All I can say is we love you Wil Wheaton and we think you rock!
If 9,000 visitors can donate one dollar per month, that’s nine grand per month to cover everything you need, get a better server, better softwares, better hardware to help keep WWDN alive and kicking. Use it just exclusively for WWDN and maybe even start your own server and host your Radio Free Burrito there everyday.
One buck a month from 9,000 fans per day is chicken feed.
In all seriousness, I was gonna give five bucks.
Reason I didn’t was because I had just withdrawn like $400 from my PayPal account so I had jack shit in there.
I didn’t really care about the Wil’s wife thing. I just figured I use my fair share of bandwidth (ya think?) so I’d toss five bills in there. When I listen to street musicians, I toss a couple in the hat/can as well.
It’s just the regular American thing to do.
If he spent it on his wife, or chili fries at Fatburger, it’s all the same to me.
As for the ad thing, I say why not have ads? Sure, I hate ’em, but I think there’s an opportunity for some humor if done right. I think a George Foreman Grill banner at the top of the page enhances the funny, not detracts.
See.
Sucky ads suck.
But non-sucky ads suck slightly less.
So put some ads up.
I don’t have a problem with that.
I wanna see more Wil Wheaton celebrity endorsements, not less.
But…
Be smart.
Danny Bonaduce creeps me out.
I thought the idea was just fine.
But, if people’s comments about it sting, I suggest resisting the temptation to click on the related comment button at Fark. Those people can be really, really mean.
Walk it off! Walk it off!
People are gonna take a swipe at you for no other reason than you’re a “celebrity.” No matter what you do. You could donate money to the Red Cross, you could volunteer at soup kitchens, you could heal the lame and cure the sick by laying on hands and people would still slag you. Because you’re someone famous who is accessible. “Hey, I totally ragged on Wesley Crusher because he loves his wife!” Go you!
I thought it was very sweet and endearing and kinda goofy in a sitcommy way:
INT. NICE RESTAURANT. NIGHT.
Candles flicker on the table as WIL and ANNE gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes.
WIL: I love you, pumpkin.
ANNE: I love you, schnookums. And this restaurant is so lovely, and my foie gras is delicious! Even the wine is a step up from our usual selection of Muscatel! But surely we can’t afford such a lavish meal, me being a simple hairdresser and you having all your Star Trek residuals tied up in Enron!
WIL: Don’t worry, dear. The good readers of my web site are covering this one!
ANNE: What?
WIL: Yeah! I thought it would be a good idea for them to show how much they appreciate the time you let me have with them if they helped me to take you out to dinner.
ANNE: They’re paying for the dinner? A bunch of FARK readers are paying for my dinner? Oh, WIL…
(Insert comical foghorn here. Laugh track. Dissolve to PATRICK STEWART’s loveshack.)
PATRICK: (to Thai whore) Make it so.
I should probably stop now.
Ok Spud now you may be on to something.
What we need is a special bash Wil website.
WilWheatonGRILL.com is good.
SpareChange4WilWheaton.0rg
WIlWheatonSafety.Net
Oh, and when you post, a $1.00 per word donation will be applied to the Flowers for Mrs Wheaton Fund automatically deducted from your bank account. Neat huh?
(Any advocats for a little non obtrusive advertising on this site to help pay the bills?)
Jeez, Wil, you really had me frightened for a moment.
After reading your apology I thought you had done something REALLY BAD.
A ‘Donate Money’ button on your site (particularly one for such a noble cause) is not ‘really bad’. In fact, it is not bad at all.
Don’t let the bastards get you down (the Latin escapes me at the moment… 🙂
Now,
I can’t help but wonder about the most obvious question…
And be amazed that noone has asked it yet…
What would TGPDPTOWFSB have had to say about this whole situation?
I mean, really, people.
Ok, I’ve finally read enough of the comments to know what’s going on. This is where opinions go, right? Ok, here’s mine:
I’m married, and just a little younger than you, Wil. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, with two young kids, so I know how important it is to give her some time off, and take her out. That said, I think your idea was an excellent one. Give the lady a fine night out!
About the reason for the donation: (Now, I hope everyone taketh this the right way, but flame if you must.) I’ve been coming here for about a month, and I think the site is golden. You do a terrific job with it, and I’ll keep coming back as long as it’s up. But, don’t spend too much time on it (not that I think you are.) I saw you list your priorities somewhere before, and you’ve got your act together. But, (and please consider this coming from a friend) don’t let your wife and kids get shined on our behalf. Don’t let the day come when you look back and wish you had spent less time here, and more time with them.
I love the content, and especially the Trek stories, but I’ll always be happy to find out you let us down for the sake of the fam.
OMG! Farkers at http://www.fark.com is starting to give Wil a bad name.
Wil needs to contact fb- or Drew and get that link removed ASAP!!!!!!
Everyone send Wil a email to get his attention to send fb a email to have it removed before more damage is done.
Sigh… the Haters try and ruin something wonderful again.
I hail from a net board that deals with the vermin known as haters daily. Unfortuanately we haven’t pulled enough money together to have two stoners from Jersey go around beating up these punks.
We at http://www.soulcracker.com have survived deatthreats, pics of corpses, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, and even a song about my very own tits (first stop on SB and Jay’s list I swear to the Goddess).
All because they thought it would be brillant to do a rock n roll survivor game show called “Bands on the Run”.
At the end of the day.. we forget about them (mostly ^_~ keeping a list.. checking it twice..). We don’t give a damn. And neither should you Uncle Willy.
Take your wife out and have a wonderful time on us. You deserve it.
Okay, I’m a long time listener, first time caller.
I don’t normally post on messageboards, so you’ll have to just deal with my lack of smilieys and bullshit.
Wil had a really simple, thoughtful idea. He was open and honest about it, and clearly thought it out beforehand, and thought that the regulars here would like to do a nice thing.
He was right. The regulars here were interested in doing a nice thing. But it seems that a bunch of assholes who I have never seen before (and I’ve been here since the site was linked from slashdot) decided to come in here, and bitch Wil and everyone else out.
So Wil apologizes, and takes it down. Where are all the “haters” now? Where are the “nay-sayers” now? Those fuckers are happy to flame away, and then, when Wil gives out the apology, where are they? Nowhere. Probably arguing with their loser friends about who they’d nail first: Britney or Mandy Moore. Like they have a chance.
Fuck em, Wil. You said it yourself on you warning page: “I don’t take myself seriously, and neither should you” So why do you care what these fucking idiots think? You know how many of them came back to accept your apology?
ONE. Exactly ONE.
So, I’ll say it again. Fuck them. I gave you a dollar, and I’d do it again, anytime.
Okay.
Better idea than just having a “donate to Wil” button which, given the tight economy might strike some as a bit… odd, since… well… I mean how BAD can things really be financially at the Wheaton Estate (don’t answer that)?
How about selling sponsorships or tiny banner ads for those looking to publicize their blog/site?
I mean not a day goes by that some poster does not mention their blog/site (Lakerboard) oh-so-casually in the comments, so why not give them some real exposure and make a little jing at the same time?
Put a tasteful HTML (no trashy, splashy graphics) header which says “WWDN brought to you this week by http://www.someguysblog.com.”
And by the letter G.
Charge like… $25.
That way you’re not holding out the tin cup and someone who wants to divert a portion of those 90,000 monkeys/month to their dank, lonely corner of cyberspace can do so.
That’s a bargain, son.
Wil, as EVERYONE else has said, don’t stress about it dude.
I’ve only been coming here for a couple of weeks now. I quickly realized you are more ‘normal-guy’ than you are ‘star’. Everyone makes mistakes.
I can see how this might have been viewed as…well…contraversial (sp), but both my wife and I (and she’s often a ‘web-widow’ too) thought it was a really cool/sweet idea.
If ya lived near Calgary, I’d say come skiing! Just cause you are a ‘normal’ person…whatever the hell that entails…snicker.
Chill out, and have a fantastic Valentine’s Day.
“I suggest resisting the temptation to click on the related comment button at Fark.”
i suggest doing that most of the time, anyways. great website content, but as for the comments section… yecch.
Scott said:
>> PATRICK: (to Thai whore) Make it so.
>> I should probably stop now.
No, you shouldn’t.
Will–
Hi. I am oleg. I am sorrey your idear didnt work out lik u wanted it to. Peple didnt have too be rude abowt it tho. If thay did not want too partisipate thay shuld have kept it to themself. Eh?
Your truley
Oleg Gene Krupa
Will–
Hi. I am oleg. I am sorrey your idear didnt work out lik u wanted it to. Peple didnt have too be rude abowt it tho. If thay did not want too partisipate thay shuld have kept it to themself. Eh?
Your truley
Oleg Gene Krupa
Will–
Hi. I am oleg. I am sorrey your idear didnt work out lik u wanted it to. Peple didnt have too be rude abowt it tho. If thay did not want too partisipate thay shuld have kept it to themself. Eh?
Your truley
Oleg Gene Krupa
I missed the whole thing but have read the commets on fark.com and here. Personally I think you should have a donation link somewhere. You put a lot of time and money into running this site and could use the support. As for the farkers, fark them. Being one of the original farkers I have noticed that site go down the hill fast regarding the quality of the users that post there, hence why I don’t anymore.
Keep up the good work Wil.
Re: The FARK comments
Yeah it sucks-Most of those comments are coming from the usual perspective of not knowing the whole story, but I have a feeling removing the link will just make things worse. They’ll just say “Hey, we must be right about this or why would they pull it off?”
I think the best thing to do would be to let it run its course and quietly fade away. There will always be another target to take the heat of this anyway.
Oh, and Spudnuts-just your mentioning of Danny Bonaduce creeped me out! brought back bad memories of when he was on the radio here in my town.
Speaking of which, if we wait long enough, Bonaduce will probably do something that takes the heat away….
Let it run its course?!
Shit.
Come on now.
Wil plays over at FARK all the time, right?
If he’s gonna cheek-to-cheek with them under a harvest moon when they’re sucking his rocks, then he’s gonna have to step into the ring and falk them up Lachance-style when the worm turns.
Run its course…
Please!
Get the fuck in there and mix it up, Wil.
You’re a greasy, eye-talian fighting machine!
Hey, Wil
Your diplomacy skills equals your talents as an actor and entertainer. In other words, you da man. Keep up the awesome attitude. 😉
Zod
Hey Wil, one caveat about PayPal: http://www.paypalwarning.com
I’d be careful. There are plenty of alternatives, not the least of which is just a simple PO Box for the posse to send checks to.
I mean, *I’d* give a penny for your thoughts. And with all the people around here giving their two cents all the time, I would think you wouldn’t have any trouble raising money. 🙂
BTW, this is my first post here. Regardless of what anybody says, keep up the good work, Wil!
What’s this? I come home to catch up on Uncle and discover someone has been nasty!?! All I say is…get a life! Stop with the hate over such little things! People are starving for gosh sakes! (Mum where did you come from?!)
Don’t let it get ya down Wil. Anyone who’s lived in the real world will understand.
Bonaduce!
Bonaduce!
Bonnnaaaaduuuccceee!!
/Beavis
(hmm, should i admit this?)
during the period the comments were down i tended to visit the site, uh, once in a while, and largely to see if they were back. I did, however, sit on the irc channel to talk to the people I have come to enjoy procrastinating with. plain weblogs i tend to read when i think “hmm. i wonder how [personx] is doing today.” and because i am a self-absorbed creature, that isn’t all that often. (i am going somewhere with this.)
would i pay to support a journal? no. however, i would pay to keep soapbox up and running, or to keep some sort of dialogue open between other people who visit.
i think that’s probably the source of the vitriol earlier, the people in question didn’t realize you weren’t asking the infrequent visitors to the site to pay. I do tend to agree that some people just take a perverse delight in ruining other people’s day, but i always write them off as having the lives they deserve. something had to make them that way.
in other words, screw them.
and jbay is the pickle guy.