An Experiment

Some readers may have Mastodon accounts, and know of me through intersection of our timelines.
If you have a mastodon.sdf.org account, you could know my account has a 'Mod' flag/label. I
can approve, reject, freeze, and suspend accounts. If you don't see many spammy + promotional
accounts, it's because I use a search engine to look up IP addresses and email accounts so I
can make an educated guess if the accountholder will abide by SDF's terms of service and 
Code of Conduct.

If you see any spammy + promotional mastodon.sdf.org accounts, that's due to a more trusting
 moderator.  

I type this because I hate spam. Because I take my Mastodon moderator duties seriously, 
I don't post anything promotional unless I give it a Content Warning or it benefits the
SDF population.

You may know my husband died October 2020 of a short illness. He did not bother with 
travel medical insurance when he followed me up to Canada in 2019. The borders closed
and his illness ravaged his body within weeks, there was no medical transport available
to take him to his home country where he was insured.

His estate owes, according to the hospital that didn't bother until two weeks into his
stay to contact me, close to $100,000 CAD.
 
I did not share this on Mastodon partly because of the Moderator level of trust, but
also because fundraising on Mastodon seems to be for modest needs, like making rent, or
urgent needs, like dental treatment or pet surgery. Seeing that two people in the
whole fediverse responded to my poll on what to do with an inherited Roth IRA, I get
the idea that not many well-heeled or well-connected Mastodon users exist. 

There is a GoFundMe open for my husband.

What I ask of you the reader, are these:
- IF you know anyone who has lost an immediate family member to surprise late-stage
cancer,
AND
- you are aware of appropriate distribution channels for GoFundMe fulfilment, online
and offline

Consider printing and posting (offline) a document of, or copying and pasting (online)
the URL https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of-tobin-lathrop

The current total is $7438 USD. I use this only to pay bills, and supposedly I pay 
$1000 CAD to the hospital. I am in process of getting my spouse's retirement funds.
It's tricky to do internationally, in a pandemic. Banks SAY they understand and exist
to help, but mine like to freeze our US credit cards when I use them in Canada, and
close my accounts because the US Post Office that receives my financial statements
returns mail to sender. Nobody can cross the border to get mail.

Don't tell me if you helped by forwarding or contributing. If you can't contribute,
times are tough, remember how widespread the coronavirus is,  and one person can 
make a difference merely contacting twenty or more people. This should be obvious
to anyone who's an enterprise network server admin that had to deal with viruses
propagating in email servers. If you're in a techy job, you're likely three or four 
degrees of separation from people with disposable income. And if you're my age, 
(**ahemoverfortyahem**) you MUST have known someone who died of cancer.

I am contributing $25 of my PERSONAL FUNDS to Soma.fm to aid its fundraising goals.
If I see $7500 in the GoFundMe account for my husband, I will double my Soma.fm 
contribution from my separate, personal funds.

If I see $7550 in the GoFundMe account, I will get a MetaARPA account and support
with my personal funds SDF, who's been very good to me. Because SDF.org has been very 
good to me, I do not post this on Mastodon (also, Character Limits!).

If I see $8000 in the GoFundMe account, I will contribute to SDF, Soma.fm, and adopt
a cat. Most of my life I've been a cat owner. I waited until our 19-yo cat died
before moving to Canada, and am bereft of any warm living being to cuddle with at night.