Originally published at: Please Support TidBITS in 2025 - TidBITS
As 2024 winds down, many readers will receive TidBITS membership renewal notices in email. If you’re among them, thanks in advance for renewing—we rely on your continued support! If you have trouble (especially with resetting your password, an aspect of the site that has just been broken by an onslaught of spambots—we’re working on it), contact Lauri Reinhardt at support@tidbits.com. Because TidBITS memberships operate on a rolling annual basis, if you don’t get a renewal reminder, it’s likely because you joined at another time of year. You can check your membership expiration date on your account page; if it’s blank, your membership auto-renews.
When I say TidBITS relies on reader support, I mean it. You may have noticed the lack of corporate sponsors for much of the last year. That’s largely intentional because I have become increasingly disillusioned with advertising as a business model, and I far prefer to write solely for readers rather than collect eyeballs for advertisers. Revenue from memberships is what enables me to dedicate the necessary time to write, edit, and publish TidBITS each week.
Throughout 2024, I’ve continued to focus on practical and personal topics, along with coverage of important developments from Apple, all with an eye toward providing valuable information and insights instead of contributing to whatever commotion is being hyped up by social media mavens and algorithms.
When I’ve found time to go beyond the timely topics that dictate coverage, our new AppBITS column has proven popular, and I hope to do more of those brief introductions to interesting apps. We’ve also kept up with the Do You Use It? polls we started last year, which use the poll data to inform articles that explore industry trends and technical topics.
Support from members has also enabled me to focus more time on answering questions, keeping threads focused, and moderating discussions on TidBITS Talk. It has been drawing significantly more traffic, even exceeding the main TidBITS site now that Google is favoring forums. Discourse (the underlying forum software) suggests that TidBITS Talk received 122,000 pageviews last month, an increase of 27% since January 2024. But what matters is the quality of the discussions, which is as high as you’ll find anywhere. If you have a quirky technical question, I encourage you to post it on TidBITS Talk.
Finally, the financial support from TidBITS members has enabled us to continue featuring content from regular contributors like Agen Schmitz, Glenn Fleishman, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Michael Cohen, and Jeff Carlson. We also have to pay for Web hosting, email distribution, article editing, and ongoing maintenance. Keeping our technical infrastructure functioning is neither easy nor cheap, especially with the constant onslaught of spambots trying to compromise the site.
So, if you aren’t yet part of the TidBITS membership program, would you join the nearly 3600 readers who help keep TidBITS vibrant?
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Scroll through our Membership Benefits page to see all the Mac apps on which members receive discounts. You’ll find essential apps that many TidBITS readers use and recommend, such as 1Password, Audio Hijack, ChronoSync, Default Folder X, DEVONthink, Keyboard Maestro, KeyCue, LaunchBar, Nisus Writer Pro, PopChar X, Scrivener, SpamSieve, TextExpander, and more. (Contact me if you’d like to add your company’s product to the list.)
You can choose from different levels of support—$20, $50, $100, or $1000—or set your own monthly or yearly amount. There’s also a Boost TidBITS button at the bottom of that page if you want to use PayPal or make an extra out-of-cycle donation. The membership perks are the same at each level, with one exception: the $1000 TidBITS Angel level is a lifetime membership that includes dinner with Tonya and me if you’re in Ithaca or we’re in your city. We’ve enjoyed some memorable dinners with TidBITS Angels, one of whom joined us last April when he was in the area for the solar eclipse.
Again, if you find TidBITS content valuable, want to support our efforts in the future, or have received personal help simply because you asked, please become a TidBITS member. You’ll have our undying gratitude and can bask in the good feeling that every article you read in 2025 was made possible in part by your generosity. Thank you!