Skippy has been carrying on a dialogue critical of bloggers who have tipboxes or paypal links on their blogs asking for donations. Skippy believes we should be asking people to contribute to charity instead. Many people have agreed with him in the comments sections of his various posts on the matter. Skippy's original and much more opinionated post on tipping is here.

Skippy says that he had trepidations about posting his "rant" as he calls it--in part because he was concerned that we, TalkLeft, would be angry with him since we accept contributions and he stresses what a fine blog we are:

"we try to have no regrets as we go through life, but we must admit that we are sorry if our little diatribe upset talkleft in any way, for she has not responded to our email. talkleft is a fine blog, even with a paypal link on it [ed. note: it is actually an amazon honor system link], and we highly recommend it to all."

So, we respond as follows:

"Skippy, we agree with SK Bubba too, when he says:

"This blogging stuff does cost money for hosting, bandwidth, software, and so forth, not to mention the time. I don't blame them for trying to offset the cost a little. So if you enjoy reading a blog on a regular basis and appreciate the blogger's efforts you should support them if you can. "

For those of us with paying day jobs, time is money and the time we spend blogging costs us money. Especially if we spend hours a day doing it. Contrary to your first post on the subject, many of us are published writers, not frustrated writers who can't get published elsewhere.

True, some bloggers are putting out only personal diaries, or tend to mostly recap what other blogs say, at little or no cost to them other than bandwidth, if that. But there are other blogs that are, for example, news resources shelling out real dollars for various subscription costs and for expensive news syndication software programs, with which they put out their own individualized daily newsfeeds that are a cut above free but more generalized news services like Moreover.com. Many blogs pay for advanced search engines; for linkchecker services that enable them to locate and repair broken links so their readers don't log on to dead webspace; subscribe to lexis or nexis or other paid financial or political services that they use in part for their blogs--to research topics, chronicle events, fact-check their statements and provide analysis that is more in-depth than what you get from an AP wire story--thereby gaining a reputation as a trusted resource--even to those who disagree with their conclusions or point of view.

As SK Bubba points out, contributions, are a way for regular readers of a blog to say, "Hey, thanks for what you are doing, we stop in here often and we appreciate you." Just as you tip for good service in a restaurant, why not tip for good service on the web? It's a way of saying, thanks for keeping us informed and we appreciate the effort you put into your blog.

We donate to blogs we read frequently either because they ask us to or because something they write on a particular day touches us or otherwise strikes a chord. Tipping is a sign of respect and appreciation.

Among blogs we highly respect who ask for contributions are Atrios, Daily Kos, and Instapundit.

We also give to charities and hope everyone does too. Why make giving to charity and tipping a few bucks to a blog an either/or proposition?

Skippy, we're not mad at you and we still read you every single day. That said, we now must return to our day job.