<div><strong>The Story Behind the Ask...</strong>
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<div>I figure some of you have stumbled onto our fundraiser and don’t know anything about FOSS Force and what we’re about. Others are here because you’ve seen one of the updates we publish on our site, or because you’ve seen one of our fundraising appeals on social sites – meaning you already know what we’re about.
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<div>No matter which group you’re in, we welcome you.
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<div>At FOSS Force, we practice journalism and our beat is free and open source software, or FOSS. Since 2010, we have offered our insider’s take on what’s happening in the FOSS world. We cover all aspects of FOSS, including Linux, open source software projects, enterprise use of FOSS, open source institutions… The list goes on and on.
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<div>If you’re not familiar with our site, I invite you to take a look. I’m sure that even if you’re not involved in the FOSS world, you’ll see we take our work seriously. It’s also important work, because whether you know it or not, if you use any computing device – from a phone on up – FOSS is a part of your daily life.
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<div>About a year ago, we made the decision to do away with Google ads – along with any other form of advertising that uses tracking cookies that follow you around on the internet. We were motivated not only by our concern about the privacy of the people who visit our site, but because in order to make Google ads pay, we had to load the site down with so many ads that reading our site became something of a chore.
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<div>Since then we’ve been supporting the site with affiliate ads from carefully selected sponsors, in which we get paid when someone clicks on an ad and makes a purchase. Many sites maximize their affiliate ad income by incorporating their affiliate advertisers’ products into their editorial content. In other words, they write articles pushing their affiliate advertisers’ products.
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<div>As a news site, in this age of fake news and sponsored content, we feel we can’t do that. We have a background in the print newspaper business, and we strive to create a firewall between advertising and editorial. We will never run articles like product comparisons that are meant to sell products and earn commissions. On FOSS Force, our content is honest, and our ads are easily recognized as such.
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<div>Right now, we need help paying our writers, so here we are with our FOSS Force 2026 Independence Fund. What we’re trying to do is raise $12,000 in 12 months to cover what we pay our writers while we develop other ways of monetizing our site. That’s at least $1,000 we need to raise each and every month. Because of that, we have a mini goal each month that we track on our site in a push for that $1,000.
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<div>Whether you’re a regular reader of our site or you just want to support honest and well-reported journalism, we would appreciate your help. Give what you can afford; no donation is too small. And if you can afford it, make your donation monthly, so we’re not starting each month from scratch.
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Ken Starks

Andrew Wyatt

Matt Hartley

Benjamin Romer

Ricardo Barberis

James Schweitzer

Anonymous

Bruno Thomsen

FOSS Force's 2026 Independence Drive

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

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3DS payment method

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GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

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fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

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US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

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braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

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Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

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AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

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Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

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Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

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UC Tipping v20250107

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GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

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Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

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Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

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Survicate

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iOS App Version

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PYMK has donors

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FOSS Force's 2026 Independence Drive

Still $8,705 to go. Help us build momentum.