It was worth a shot.
Also, I solemnly promise that I will not kick anyone.
Oh, now my dear Loai, were would the excitement be then?
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You may be right, Archbishop. I amend my statement; I will only kick SOME people.
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So what’s the actual charity here? Seems more like a fundraising auction than a charity.
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Keep it on the down-low, but this all benefits the Alar Chakaid Memorial Assisted Suicide Foundation. It’s a not-for-profit dedicated to preventing Chakaid from drawing another breath.
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In that case, they can have all of my ISK.
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I’ll refer to the OP. However, At this point, given that isk has far exceeded projections, 20% any proceeds are being set aside and held until the next Plex for Good.
Plex for Good would be the only part of it that is an actual charity, and appreciated. The rest is fundraising for-profit as it is going towards the development of a capsuleer market selling excludable goods, and so shouldn’t be called a charity.
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Tebu Amkhiman Ammatar Mandate Development Society…
Yeah, I gotta agree that a LUMEN-owned market Fort don’t really sound much like a charity. Sorry, folks, it just don’t.
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We’re definitely running it at a loss to help promote the region: Ammatar Mandate Revitalization Project
That being said, we’re not the SOE either. I’ll rephrase as a fundraiser for a project we are proud of and continue to expend a lot of time and effort into. 20% of this fundraiser’s proceeds will also go to Plex for Good.
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I live and work out of Tebu and have flown with LUMEN on a few occasions, so I can say from personal experience that LUMEN’s aims for this event are genuinely meant to benefit the Mandate.
But the massive red flags point to a very different outcome.
Somewhere around the second or third billion-ISK-level bid, this stopped being a festive fundraising event and became an unabashed cash grab from LUMEN’s usual phat stacks. Just take a look at the bid list. No surprises there. No diversity of viewpoints, either.
Except for the anonymous donors, of course, merely on the basis that none of us casual viewers have any way of knowing who they are. Are these donors–or, perhaps, just one donor–gaming the system? Are they trying to bump up bids so that the end total is much higher than it might be otherwise? Are they trying to drown out bids from less affluent individuals, who would also be much more likely to hold views opposite to LUMEN’s?
Your response will be, “Anonymous winners will be announced at the end,” but that doesn’t mean that anonymous bidders who don’t win will ever be identified. That’s just as big a problem, because none of us will ever know whether the lower anonymous bidders weren’t LUMEN goons drowning out poorer pilots, or maybe Chakaid puppets wanting to sow discord, or one of the dates themselves wanting to look fabulous, or any number of ridiculous possibilities. And that’s a liability for you all, because Nauplius could argue til the end of his days that the anonymous bidder was Molok in the flesh, and you have no way to prove otherwise.
None of that is a good look. And it lends greater weight to Samira’s and Arrendis’s concerns. Because even for me, having worked with you in the Mandate, now that you’ve already shown disinterest in any sort of equity or diversity of opinion, the nobility of your end goal also comes into question. One bad otaheite spoils the bunch, and so on.
To that end, since you are claiming that this monstrous amount of ISK is supposed to go toward revitalizing the Mandate, I request that LUMEN release a full, transparent financial statement indicating the ultimate dispersal of the funds raised from this “fundraiser.” The statement will account for 100% of the funds raised and provide receipts and other references to verify how the ISK was spent, and should be released once the funds are exhausted or by December 15, YC121, whichever happens first.
Once the financial statement is publicly released, I’ll donate the 200 million ISK I was planning to bid directly to the Tebu Amkhiman Ammatar Mandate Development Society. If the deadline is missed, I will withdraw all of Corovid Industries’ business and assets from LUMEN’s Tebu Amkhiman fortizar in Tanoo.
I encourage everyone else who got outbid or is concerned about the outcome of this “fundraiser” to also pressure LUMEN for transparency.
In the future, it would probably be better to handle your solicitations of funds from your wealthy allies in-house, without wasting time on the public charade. I can say for myself that this pretense has definitely cost you the trust of someone who might have been a strong ally in the Republic for you.
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I didn’t realize I was making a political statement by bidding.
I also remember when a billion ISK was a lot of money, but now it seems a small sum for anyone that’s been in space more than a month or two. Inflation has really killed the value of my bankroll.
I mean, the biggest bidder until recently was a blooder.
Which is exactly my point: unless she bids again, she’s out of the running.
I do feel there shouldn’t be anonymous bids. And people shouldn’t be allowed to ‘hedge their bets’ on multiple candidates either, if they’re only allowed to win one of them. They should only be able to have one active bid at a time.
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This is hilariously ignorant.
I’ve been in space for almost a year, and the only reason I hit a billion ISK was because I won the top prize at the writing competition. I can also think of a dozen pilots just off the top of my head who have been flying for years and are still broke.
You really ought to expand your horizons. Have you ever tried having a conversation with someone who doesn’t have the potential to buy you a Keepstar?
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I don’t generally ask people their net worth before chatting with them. I should also point out that if I were only out there talking to people that could buy me Keepstars, you’d think by sheer dumb luck I would’ve actually gotten one by now.
While I don’t know the bank balance of any individual capsuleer other than myself, I do know there are plenty of ways to make over a billion ISK per day, which tells me that a billion ISK isn’t really worth all that much.
I think the main reason for that is that other Amarr are usually going to generally be the most interested in both ‘dating’ one of us for the night and helping us monetarily. People with other loyalties on average are going to be less willing to essentially donate money.
Honestly I think this is a valid criticism of allowing anonymous donors. The problem is that now that we already have we can’t turn around and tell the people who have bid with the condition of anonymity that they can’t actually have it. I would however, agree that if there was ever a similar event held again, that we probably shouldn’t allow anonymous donations.
Their valid concerns were responded to and the word ‘charity’ was replaced with ‘fundraiser.’ Another change that I agree with.
Fuel for the Fortizar. All of it (not including what goes to Plex for Good of course). Its running cost is just over 900m a month and it’s somewhat painful for us to keep fueled if I’m being honest.
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