5 ms·

Random anecdote: someone told me a bunch of years ago that LJ was looking for guest authors. So I submitted a couple of articles to them and they published them

Random anecdote: someone told me a bunch of years ago that LJ was looking for guest authors. So I submitted a couple of articles to them and they published them. This is when I found out that they were paying $400/article. Mind you, I sent them my stuff with absolutely no expectation of compensation. I was just happy to share what I knew and it was kinda cool to see my name in LJ. But hey if you promise money, I’ll take it. They struggled to pay me for like almost a year and eventually did by putting it on a company credit card, which was apparently the only way they could pay anyone because the other accounts were either frozen or off limits or some such. They folded shortly after this. So to every reader out there who was disappointed by them folding, I am sorry I contributed to that. I am glad to see them try again, though I don’t know how this will work. This content is just a lot less relevant today than it was two decades ago.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
g_p 6y ago
To add my own similar anecdote, they mailed me a check (overseas, I might add). I didn't cash it, as it seemed like LJ needed the money. I am likewise glad to see another try, but hopefully it won't try to emulate a generic tech/Linux blog. They had a niche for deep dives and original content, but I wonder how viable that really is in 2020.
- Hello71 6y ago
  > I didn't cash it, as it seemed like LJ needed the money. I don't think this is particularly useful. For professional accounting purposes, uncashed outgoing checks are liabilities, meaning that in general, the company cannot spend that money to do other things. If you want them to keep the money, you need to tell them that. Otherwise, the money effectively gets split between the bank and the government.
  - ska 6y ago
    I think this is more generally true - the existence of the check has no bearing on the liability; it's only when you cash it that liability is resolved (i.e. it's the bank transaction that resolves things, not the check)
  - pdonis 6y ago
    > For professional accounting purposes, uncashed outgoing checks are liabilities Even accounts payable that haven't had checks written against them yet are liabilities. Which makes your advice that you need to tell them if you want them to keep the money even more important.
  - ericbarrett 6y ago
    Important to know that in many US jurisdictions, uncashed checks eventually "escheat" to the state as unclaimed property. (I was unaware of this until looking up accounting procedures for uncashed checks.)
    - brantonb 6y ago
      This was an excellent Planet Money episode about how a guy bought AMZN stock to hold but it got escheated because he didn’t log into his brokerage account. Needless to say, what should’ve been a small fortune… wasn’t. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799345159/episode-967-escheat-show https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799345159/episode-967-escheat...
- mook 6y ago
  > They had a niche for deep dives and original content, but I wonder how viable that really is in 2020. LWN.net seems to have excellent in depth original content; they get linked here occasionally. Perhaps that's an indication that that sort of thing is still viable. Hopefully they stay around for a long time yet.
  - zorked 6y ago
    Pro-tip: if you work for one of the Big Tech companies there may be a spreadsheet somewhere where you add your email and get LWN access, which I assume also increases the amount of money they get paid.
  - corbet 6y ago
    We (LWN) pay for articles too, and we don't even need to use our credit card :) If you would like to write for a highly technical and engaged audience, we'd love to hear from you; see https://lwn.net/op/AuthorGuide.lwn https://lwn.net/op/AuthorGuide.lwn for more information.
punnerud 6y ago
Hypothetically: If they would give you money after submitting the article, but you had to fill a small form. Would you submit it?
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  Yes totally. I mean I essentially did by sending them the topics. I will say that their quality controls seemed really good. They talked me through the topics I had ideas for and definitely wanted a deep dive into both topics while making them very newbie friendly. But I guess not a ton of money in that.
gonzo 6y ago
I always took the author money for articles I wrote for them in trade for extending my subscription.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

g_p 6y ago

To add my own similar anecdote, they mailed me a check (overseas, I might add). I didn't cash it, as it seemed like LJ needed the money. I am likewise glad to see another try, but hopefully it won't try to emulate a generic tech/Linux blog. They had a niche for deep dives and original content, but I wonder how viable that really is in 2020.

Hello71 6y ago
> I didn't cash it, as it seemed like LJ needed the money. I don't think this is particularly useful. For professional accounting purposes, uncashed outgoing checks are liabilities, meaning that in general, the company cannot spend that money to do other things. If you want them to keep the money, you need to tell them that. Otherwise, the money effectively gets split between the bank and the government.
- ska 6y ago
  I think this is more generally true - the existence of the check has no bearing on the liability; it's only when you cash it that liability is resolved (i.e. it's the bank transaction that resolves things, not the check)
- pdonis 6y ago
  > For professional accounting purposes, uncashed outgoing checks are liabilities Even accounts payable that haven't had checks written against them yet are liabilities. Which makes your advice that you need to tell them if you want them to keep the money even more important.
- ericbarrett 6y ago
  Important to know that in many US jurisdictions, uncashed checks eventually "escheat" to the state as unclaimed property. (I was unaware of this until looking up accounting procedures for uncashed checks.)
  - brantonb 6y ago
    This was an excellent Planet Money episode about how a guy bought AMZN stock to hold but it got escheated because he didn’t log into his brokerage account. Needless to say, what should’ve been a small fortune… wasn’t. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799345159/episode-967-escheat-show https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799345159/episode-967-escheat...
mook 6y ago
> They had a niche for deep dives and original content, but I wonder how viable that really is in 2020. LWN.net seems to have excellent in depth original content; they get linked here occasionally. Perhaps that's an indication that that sort of thing is still viable. Hopefully they stay around for a long time yet.
- zorked 6y ago
  Pro-tip: if you work for one of the Big Tech companies there may be a spreadsheet somewhere where you add your email and get LWN access, which I assume also increases the amount of money they get paid.
- corbet 6y ago
  We (LWN) pay for articles too, and we don't even need to use our credit card :) If you would like to write for a highly technical and engaged audience, we'd love to hear from you; see https://lwn.net/op/AuthorGuide.lwn https://lwn.net/op/AuthorGuide.lwn for more information.

punnerud 6y ago

Hypothetically: If they would give you money after submitting the article, but you had to fill a small form. Would you submit it?

IgorPartola 6y ago
Yes totally. I mean I essentially did by sending them the topics. I will say that their quality controls seemed really good. They talked me through the topics I had ideas for and definitely wanted a deep dive into both topics while making them very newbie friendly. But I guess not a ton of money in that.

gonzo 6y ago

I always took the author money for articles I wrote for them in trade for extending my subscription.