This is not a hockey story, but stick with us anyway. Ian and I started RMNB in late 2009. For years after that we operated the site without any revenue beyond some t-shirt sales. We were fine with that because, for us, RMNB was a labor of love.
But we’ve grown, and that model doesn’t make sense anymore. RMNB now has a wonderful team of contributors — a smart and diverse group that we’re proud to count among our friends. We pay the team, but not nearly what they deserve. We think we’ve figured out a way to do it that’s ethical for us and advantageous for you. We need your help, and in exchange you’ll get some cool rewards.
Patreon is a platform for supporting content creators. When you become a patron, you choose a monthly amount to contribute automatically each month. In return, you will get rewards and we can do RMNB right.
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Lemme ask you this: What is RMNB worth to you? Are you a daily visitor? A frequent commenter? Does beagle.jpg make you cry? Could you put forward a few dollars a month to help us keep the lights on and the writers fed?
RMNB will always, always be free, but we’re carving out some special stuff for our patrons. Patrons at different levels will get exclusive content, access to monthly video hangouts, invitations to our super-secret summer party, early access to videos and podcast, Christmas presents, and more. We’ll have more info soon, but you can check out the whole rewards list along the right-hand side of our Patreon page.
We know lots of our readers don’t have the means to join, and that’s totally fine. But if you can afford to put, say, one Chipotle burrito’s worth of money towards RMNB each month, you will help us make the delightfully weird RMNB stuff that you love so much — and help us do it in a fair and sustainable way. Plus, you’ll get a bunch of exclusive stuff that no one else has.
Too much of the internet content business is kind of gross. The biggest sites, cash-rich and backed by venture capital, still pay talented writers peanuts or not at all just because the job market is terrible and internet ad revenue is unreliable. We think we can do it differently and better — but only if we have your help.
We’re making a bet that you guys value the work we do and can spare a few dollars a month to let us do it right. In return, we will give you the inside track: exclusive and early-access to content and a secret, patrons-only chat group for us only.
It’s really easy to support RMNB. Just click the big happy “Become a Patron” button. You will choose how much you want to spend per month and which rewards you want. You can quit or change your donation at any time. When you set your contribution level, think about the times RMNB has helped you appreciate the game or the players in a new way. How about the hard times when stuff sucked, but maybe not so bad because we shared it with each other? And please think about all the stupid, stupid, painfully stupid jokes.
If you can’t support us now, we totally understand. Instead, if you could help spread the word, we’d really appreciate it. Either way, we’ll be here making weird hockey things for you guys. Thanks for reading.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
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