Okay, I admit I am not the most observant person walking the planet. I'm probably not far removed from the absent-minded-professor -- sans the "professor" part in both credentials and education -- who meets his demise falling down an open manhole (though a another couple inches around the middle should protect me from that hazard). I tend to miss things. Sometimes big things.
Consequently, I don't know how long it's been like this. Maybe it just started. Maybe it's been this way for days. Weeks. But last night as I was preparing to hang it up and head to bed, I decided to take a quick tour of teh Kos. As I was skimming the front page and browsing the diaries in Community Spotlight, it struck me that something was..............odd. There was something..........different. Had kos unexpectedly rolled out a site redesign or something? And as I looked over the page, the obvious suddenly reached out and smacked me up-side the head.
Where are my ads?
Oh sure, I saw the announcement of the demise of the lifetime subscriptions at the end of the year, and Sir Blades' diary vowing to give out two lifetime subscriptions as gifts to community participants, and challenging others to join in, and I saw from the avalanche of 'Thank You!' diaries posted that it was snowballing, but that was something for the Kool (Kos) Kids, the ones who are here day in and day out, writing diaries, commenting, rec'ing and tipping, and making this place work, not for someone like me, whose activity of late barely rises above 'lurker' level. 'Maybe it's a Christmas present to the community from kos -- a couple of ad-free weeks for the holiday season,' I thought, as I fumbled around trying to find where the place was on our member pages where you could purchase a subscription. And when I finally found it and clicked on the tab, my jaw dropped.
You can't purchase a new subscription for yourself. You already have a lifetime subscription.
I was, and still am, just flabbergasted. moi????. Regrettably, I have no idea who my benefactor was. If he or she sent me a message with the subscription, the email, unfortunately, never reached me. It seems, embarrassing to say, I had a typo in the email address in my profile, something I discovered while trying to pay this kind generosity forward. So, kind soul, if you're reading this, drop me another email or a message so I can thank you properly.
In the meantime, as the clock ticks down on the ability to buy and gift lifetime subscriptions, click on that "subscription" tab in your profile and secure yours while you still can. For those of you imbued with the spirit of the season, there is a list of Kossacks who could benefit from a subscription -- or find your own. I don't know where to obtain the latest version of the wish list, so I'll just post a link to the Latest diaries with the Gift Subscription List tag. If someone can tell me where to get the code for the list, I'll be happy to add it.
If you want to help out a fellow community member but can't swing the full cost of a lifetime gift subscription, don't worry. Like Newt Gingrich's robo-poll hinted to me the other night, if you can't give the whole $100, they might be willing to settle for less. A group of community members has set up a fund to allow you to exercise your generosity at whatever level you can afford, by donating small amounts that will add up to purchase lifetime subscriptions for random recipients as the funds accumulate. It's at the Small Donor Drive.
So I'll leave you now to exercise those credit cards and PayPal accounts while I mull over my list of suspects, and marvel at what a great community this is, and what a great decision joining has turned out to be. Whoever is responsible for this generous gift, I thank you profusely. And to all of you, Happy Holidays!