As some of you already know, Alan Izatt left £20,000 in his will “to further the promotion and facilitation of an actual freedom from the human condition.”
I am pleased to announce that the “Alan Izatt Actual Freedom Fund” has been established as the custodian of these funds, and to fulfill that purpose, with me, @Srinath, and @Dona being the three Directors of the Fund. The funds were received this morning and are already available.
We’d like to open up the discussion for some suggestions of how the funds could be used. One sensible thing seems to be to cover domain name & hosting fees for this forum and other actualism sites (like simpleactualism). Another often-floated idea is to help host get-togethers, which we all know Alan loved.
Personally I also like the idea of diversifying the currencies, e.g. split it among USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, INR, IRR, and/or wherever else actualism currently has a foothold. Firstly it seems nice symbolically and an international gesture, secondly it might actually be good to diversify risk since things are in flux in the world right now. But that still leaves the question open of what to do with said diversified assets.
What are your guys thoughts? Put it all in Bitcoin?? .
To me the most sensible thing would be to cover the domain and hosting fees to assure that this site will be here. The funds could be deplenished too quickly by hosting get togethers.
I say we give our resident crypto experts a portion each to diversify amongst investments of their choosing with the purpose to grow a portfolio managed and controlled by @Srinath , @Dona, and @claudiu to then use the funds as the controllers see fit. Put another way, we should gamble with some of the money. But just some. Because, yolo? Or put it into a trust fund? Does anyone know how money works?
But that’s assuming we have any resident crypto experts up for the challenge. I nominate @Felipe so that he can combine his two favorite things. I’d prefer to have nothing to do with it and watch from a distance.
If people are down for a wacky idea in the spirit of fun and enjoyment I’d love to hear more. The spirit of the diverse currency idea is great.
Well Alan’s wishes were both broad and narrow - the furtherance of actualism, as well as organising meet up’s. He did mention also paying for server costs when he was alive.
I’m not really sure how this money could be spent really. Would be good to sit on it for a while until a some solid ideas come up. But I’m guessing that spending a small amount for now for say server costs etc. would avoid the problem of having to pay tax on interest @claudiu and @Dona?
When there are meetup’s in the future, then I guess these funds could may for things like food, hospitality and so on. Might also be useful for those without a stable income or for students - for their accommodation and expenses. Can be considered on a case by case basis.
I guess business class tickets to fly people to Australia is probably not the way to go
Can this money also be used to disseminate actualism more widely through funding the production of good content e.g. podcasts, videos, written content etc. ? But that isn’t something we can simply pay others to do. Potentially though if one of our members that is not working or works part-time/flexibly/own business would like to dedicate time to do this then they could be paid for their time and their costs.
Dear Srinath . if i can be a help ,i would be happy to do something . if i considered to be a member ! i would do anything voluntarily , because i don’t need money . my English is not good though!
Although I was of @jamesjjoo’s opinion, if Alan was specific about using at least part of the money to organize meetings, then of course I’m fine with that (although, as you say, there are different ways for it to facilitate them).
Can someone, e.g. Miguel, come up with a way for Google Search to bring up AFT site and Simpleactualism.com in more broad and priority kind of way, even if it means spending some money on this ?
This is probably the best idea. I think anything to facilitate meetups happening.
I can do a certain amount of video production, podcast production, and editing in my sleep. Same for photography and filming. Making content is really easy for me as long as I keep it simple. If it’s a pet project, it can take longer but something produced on the regular would need to be simple.
I wouldn’t do it for money because I don’t want to be obligated and I don’t think the money would be worth it for me. Nor do I think that’s a good way of spending the money. I personally think if we want to create content then the people here should do it themselves. If that’s where you suggest the money goes then we’re on the same page.
But I would be interested in collaborating with people here on something and perhaps the money could be used to cover the cost of necessary assets like stock footage or such. I could also use money to outsource certain tasks to contractors or fellow actualists who would like to develop their skills. Perhaps there are a few people here that could use a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud? Could we get a non-profit license?
If dissemination of content is a potential goal, I would suggest we play the game where we arrange meetings with those of us interested and come up with a plan to execute. I’ve seen a few different people express interest in this over the past year. Maybe now is the time to start pulling the trigger in an organized way?
@edzd I might take you up on this offer.
I’ve been saying I’d do content for a while now, and that I’d do it myself… but I’ve apparently not been doing it lol…
Although, just typing that… yeah I’m gonna do it!.. soon!
Just fyi, we got somewhat close to a first podcast episode with a mysterious guest ()… but schedule synchronization issues (let’s say the Universe ) prevented it last minute.
Ok fine… you guys strike a hard bargain… I’ll do a travel vlog of that business class trip to Australia… with kangaroos in the background, House Boat™ footage, and… stuff.
I think using the money to produce videos and podcasts could be a great idea, it’s 1 avenue that’s somewhat missing at the moment. I’ll put my hand up to take part in podcasts too, I think it could be a lot of fun. Just not the editing part as I have 0 skill there.
As far as I know, Google is clear about that you can’t pay to rank higher. An alternative are ads, but do not seem to correspond well with the Actual Freedom “product”.
As it is very difficult for a forum to rank high due to the relative heterogeneity of its content and structure compared to the SEO of blogs (even video channels, podcasts, etc.,) I think what is left is to grow the blog part (https://actualism.online/) by writing more articles that will tend to have a higher coherence in their contents; more homogeneity/repetition of words with respect to the total number of words written; internal links between them; organic inclusion of external links to the AFT site and other actualist sites, videos, podcasts, etc.; organic inclusion of external links to NON-actualist but popular sites; eventually backlinks (incoming links) from those actualists and non-actualist sites/videos/podcasts to articles of the blog, etc.
I’d love to chat sometime to see what issues you’re running into or what might be preventing you from doing it. If it’s technical ability then I can likely help. And if you get a good recording of a ‘podcast’ with a ‘special guest’ it’s likely I could edit that together pretty quick and we could collaborate on how you may like to present it.
I want to stress that making content in 2022 requires little to no money. Especially if it’s more informative than creative. But it’s an extremely tedious process that gets way less tedious once a skillset is developed.
Guys, about the plane tickets. Even on the cheap it’s quite a sum.
If you don’t stop talking like it’s a good idea, I’m gonna start really considering it lol.
It’s not technical ability which is the issue (easy to say, as I have none hahaha), it’s rather that I’m not quite sure about precisely what I want to do. I haven’t been satisfied with my various attempts so far.
I’ll be sure to require your help though. Thx!
Why did I buy this gear…
Why does it look like I need more…
But… surely, one cannot capture the glory of kangaroos randomly jumping in the vast red landscape with a portrait lens?
Look, I’ll say this. You bought the gear in the hopes that you’d enjoy it enough to use it. It’s a hobby and you’d like to learn how to use all those neat little adult toys It’s fun to have nice stuff.
But what I want to say to anyone out there is that you likely own an iphone or android. That one device can allow you to create phenomenal content. If creating content is your passion, gear should never be an impediment - to a degree. There are techniques you can learn to get the most from a little. So don’t wait until you have good gear to start.
Also, good gear can be an impediment. It’s heavy, clumsy, not spontaneous, and has a learning curve. It’s great when you have a vision and know what it is you want to do but it sometimes can weigh down a novice IMO. It pays to be fluid in the equipment and that takes repetition.
I’d really love to talk sometime and hear where you think things have been falling short or perhaps what sort of vague vision you have.
Well if you’re suggesting you’d like to fly down to AUS to do a podcast with a special guest, I’m sure we could at least do a go-fund-me.
@edzd Cool. Yes, let’s have a chat one of these days.
I can’t agree more about the gear lol.
The main reason I want to go to Australia… is not that hard to guess.
Although I must say I’m currently smiling at the absurd amount of fun I’d have with the travel vlog hahaha. (… I would need a wide angle though… with stab… )
.
)… but schedule synchronization issues (let’s say the Universe 
It’s fun to have nice stuff.