Snopes.com needs your help. Yesterday, in a blog post, the editorial team posted an appeal to their readers, saying that they’re currently at the mercy of an ad vendor, who is essentially holding the site hostage.
The post says, “We had previously contracted with an outside vendor to provide certain services for Snopes.com. That contractual relationship ended earlier this year, but the vendor will not acknowledge the change in contractual status and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com web site hostage. Although we maintain editorial control (for now), the vendor will not relinquish the site’s hosting to our control, so we cannot modify the site, develop it, or — most crucially — place advertising on it. The vendor continues to insert their own ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from us.”
The only way to get Snopes out of trouble, it seems, is to kick in money to their crowdfunding campaign, which has a goal of $500,000. Before some smart-aleck posts a comment: yes, it’s believed that this campaign is true and real, as the plea for money comes from their own website, plus this post from The Atlantic covers what exactly is entailed in their legal issues.
If you’ve used Snopes at all before (and we like to think that our readers are smart and do so regularly to fact check their stuff), then maybe consider kicking them a few bucks. They’re already at over $206,000 raised and counting.
(image Shutterstock/BillionPhotos.com)
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