Sideshow & Syrana

Wowza, I can hardly believe the 1st Annual Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive organized by Azeroth United has come to a close.  It ran November 1st through December 13th.  It was filled with great mini-drives and support.  The initial fundraising goal of $5,000 was surpassed quickly too!

As for our own mini-drive, #iblamesyrana, we ended with a total count of 1237 blame tweets which raised $300!

I consider that a smashing success.

We started out sponsoring 500, then Samodean, Fulguralis, Fuubaar, and Pixelated Executioner offered their support and sponsorship as well!  Sure, we didn’t reach the updated goal of 1500, but we came quite close!

So a HUUUUUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped out!

Oh my goodness, there’s not much time left for the Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive!  The community has been fantastic and we’re raising a lot of money for Child’s Play, which is awesome.  But, there’s some more money to be spent!

If you want to donate yourself, you can do so using the ChipIn widget on the right sidebar, or go to Azeroth United to check out the fabulous prizes you will be entered to win if you donate $10 or $20.

Otherwise, you can blame me on Twitter (for good or bad!) by adding #iblamesyrana to your blame tweet to help raise money.  Sideshow and I already donated our contribution for the first 500 blame tweets, but we still have sponsors!

Killing ‘em Slowly is sponsoring blame tweets 501-1000

Pixelated Executioner is sponsoring blame tweets 1001-1500

At the time that I’m typing this up, we’re still shy of 800 blame tweets for this mini-drive goal!

So go forth and blame Syrana!

Yes, people are still talking about it and being very passionate about their view points.  Yes, I realize this post may appear late in the game, but I had one major reason for postponing it – hoping some of the hype would die down a bit.  I mean, I love having discussions with you, dear readers, but during the heat of big news… trolls tend to come out of the woodwork.  They tromp through everywhere, leaving signs of foulness in their wake, never to look back.

Don’t get me wrong, you can disagree with me all you want – but there is still a level of respect that I expect in return and trolls (true trolls) don’t follow the rules.  (Hell, they are worse at following them than me.  I at least read and acknowledge the rules, they just chew ‘em up and spit ‘em out.)

So where were we? Oh yes – pets.  More specifically: mini-pets.

Before we move on, I want to give you some choices a la Bioware-esque style:

1. Yes, I’m interested in reading your views and commentary on this whole thing.
2. Please share, I may be interested in some of your points.
3. (Lie) Yes, please tell me what you think! (Mark post as read)
4. I don’t give a crap what you have to say. (Mark post as read)

(continue reading…)

That’s right, there is a new incarnation of #iblamesyrana on Twitter.  A few folks have already started to warm up their blaming skills in anticipation.  You may have heard a little about it on a couple of podcasts or even seen the post over at Azeroth United.

So, here I am, going to lay it all out for you and get you pumped for charity!

Of course, I want to encourage you to give to the Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive over at Azeroth United (AU) which is aiming to raise $5,000 for Child’s Play Charity between November 1st and December 13th.  There are even some nifty incentives you could win!

Whether you are able to help give to the cause or not, you can help us give to the cause.

How This Works:

• Starting as of November 1st, we’ll be keeping track of tweets containing #iblamesyrana.
• For each blameworthy tweet (no empty tweets please) Sideshow and I will donate 10 cents to Child’s Play. (up to a maxium of $50)
• At the end of the drive, we will match the amount raised via tweets (up to the maximum).

Examples:

• There are 500 blameworthy tweets containing #iblamesyrana.  At 10 cents a tweet, the tweets raise $50, so we’ll donate a total of $100
• There are 100 blameworthy tweets worth $10, so we’ll donate $20.
• So, you got ganked ingame? Computer crashed with the BSOD? Your tire is flat? Tweet about it and add #iblamesyrana

I urge you all to help us reach the 500 tweet mark!

Don’t have a Twitter account? Well now is the time to get one! It’s free and you can abandon it after you blame me if you really want.

Why is there a cap in place?

Well, I’d feel bad if there ends up being thousands of tweets bringing us to a total we can’t afford.  And we don’t want to disappoint the children, am I right?

However, if you guys want to continue blaming if/when the maximum number is reached, feel free! It may still help put the word out there and get folks to donate.

Now get out there and spread the word (and blame)!

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*Sidenote: If the maximum tweets are not reached during the drive, we’ll consider counting the ones that went out this week in all the excitement.