Baa weep grahna weep ninny bong

The best way to start my morning. Watching Ben and Meg shake it!

PLEASE DONATE! Ben and Meg need dance lessons. Or they need to be paid to prevent any more attempts at dancing.

Can you use that thing to shake up a couple of daiquiris? Cause I think both of you need one before attempting to dance.

Wow, best video yet... I think.

Never has so few words said oh so much.

I'm getting "The honey is in the bear-shaped container in the cupboard."

Believe it or not, my first job outta college was in a small lab that had one of those things in it (if I remember right, it's called a roto-tapper). Those are stacked sieves of different mesh sizes that it's whacking on. You dump some sand in the top sieve, and it gets shaken/tapped until it falls down through successively small mesh screens. Then you dismantle the thing, weigh the sand that ended up on each sieve, and you know the size distribution of the sand particles.

Those sieves were said to be good for cleaning dope, too, but I wouldn't know anything about that...

Thats one minute of my life I'll never get back..

@riverstyxxx:
Yeah. You should go punch the guy who made you click on the video!

On a dare once, when playing drinking games, I lost and had to dance in front of a crowd wearing a sock. Just a sock.
Ben: be grateful for the lab coat. That's all I'm sayin'.

@riverstyxxx: You would have wasted it anyways.

I this this is the wrong place, but your email address, tips@consumerist.com is over quota, and is rejecting email.

Oh, have you used this on a can of beer yet? Just curious ...

White people dancing never gets old. But I really want one of those lab coats.

It's come to my attention through the ban hammer actions of Moderator-extraordinaire Roz that my previous comments on the topic of donations were expressed poorly and came across as negative, so let me try again, this time with more words and less snark.

Let me start with the a simple sentiment - I love The Consumerist. I've seen other people complain that you're not doing product tests, or going out and doing a lot of investigative journalism, and you know what? I don't care. You do a lot of good things for consumers, and I applaud your work.

I'm involved with several moderately successful sites - nothing as big as The Consumerist mind you, but successful none the less, and I find that the more you ask your readers for something (traffic, time, money, etc) the more you alienate them. It's OK to have a donate button, or something of that nature, but when you post once a day requesting money, you come off as needy/greedy, even if the request is accompanied by an admittedly hilarious joke.

Here's some suggestions to help you in your quest for donations:

1. Keep the donation posts to a minimum - once a week will do just fine. Any more than that, and you're just asking for people to get a chip on their shoulder about your frequent donation requests.

2.Take Paypal. The last time I checked, you didn't, and I would probably kick you a buck or two if you did. Why? Because it's easy for me to support you that way. It would take no more than thirty seconds of my life to do it.

3. Consider a zazzle store. I would definitely buy a consumerist coffee cup or a T-shirt, and you'd make a couple bucks each time I did so.

I'm not saying any of this to trash you guys, or to be in any way negative towards the site, and I'm certainly not suggesting that these donation posts don't belong on the site, only that if you want to see success from them without alienating your users, it's probably best to revise your marketing strategy a bit.

@Trai_Dep: Although, after viewing, I have to say:
Ben pretty fly. For a White guy.

Meg's got a pretty cool, '60s dance-vibe thing going on, too.
Hmm, perhaps next time she and Ben need to dress up as John Steed and (va-va-voom) Mrs. Peel?

@What The Geek: I'm donating just to spite you. How about you let them run their site , and you run yours?

@m4ximusprim3: Suit yourself, I never suggested anyone shouldn't donate - If you wanna donate, great, do it - it's a great site that deserves support. I never said anything contrary to that, just that the donation posts happen too frequently, and that they may see negative backlash from that frequency. I want to see the consumerist have as much success as possible, and I'd hate for any negative backlash from excessive donation requests get in the way of that.

looks like the peepee dance

@What The Geek: Yeah I agree that every day is excessive and I had seen a lot of complaints about it.. which you can apparently get banned for. o.O

I don't care much either way about the frequency of donations, however I would love to see Consumerist coffee mugs. That's a fantastic idea.

@What The Geek: I see nothing wrong with your comments.

I would also buy a coffee cup, or TShirt.

I would like to request 1 thing from the staff, and 1 thing from the readers.

From the Staff:
Meg please continue to appear in videos. You lend credence to Ben, and he looks very sad and alone in his solo videos.

From the Readers:
please Please PLEASE stop with the "net-stalker" like comments about Meg in the videos. Stop suggesting she appear in outfits that might fit well into some fetish you may or may not have. EVEN JOKING it's creepy, and not really very funny.

@Alan I Spach: +1

@What The Geek: That was an awesomely written counterpoint. I don't remember the previous one you referred to, but this time, your view is very well laid out. Views may differ, but you've made your point well. Props!

PS: Ben, Meg, I'll throw in some to help out, but I needs to see The Captain. Failing that (what, is he d-e-a-d? Noooooooo!), I'll slink in at the end of the drive and kick in a contribution.

@What The Geek: At the same time, the site's design makes it incredibly easy to scroll past items you don't want to read. For those of us who read every day, yes we know they are asking for money, but there are plenty of people who might check in once a week or less. They might never see weekly posts.

I can't stand listening to NPR during pledge drives, but I don't begrudge them the pledge drives. And they are asking for money literally 50 times an hour or more. They need the money and I'd gladly listen to a station manager asking for money for a week straight if it means I don't have to hear a car dealership or McDonald's commercial. That's the trade-off, pal.

@BurgessHizer: Exactly.

I think you just declared war on the shaky machine.

<3 meg.

@Trai_Dep: And Chris, Carey, Alex, Roz and Laura, 'natch.
Lacking photographic evidence, I have no option but to assume they're all locked in a dark closet, incommunicado. Fighting over a bowl of Perfect Oatmeal™.

I don't necessarily agree with the MegStalker comments, but what is she doing in that picture?

@What The Geek: Well said. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and constructive criticism should be welcome.

@deadandy: I do see your point, however, I feel a single weekly post about it that remains in the featured articles bar at the top for the duration of that week would be just as effective at capturing the "once a week" readers. Personally, I didn't care either way about the donation posts after the first couple I saw, but as time went on, and they became more frequent, they became an annoyance. A static "donate" button on the side bar, and a once weekly donation request that remains in the featured header would serve their purposes equally well without making anyone feel raw about the frequency of the donation requests. I'm not alone in this, as I've seen many people express the same sentiment in the comments.

That made me Lol. thank you

@ekthesy: Why you gotta bring race into it?

@Tito151: And it's not like he's getting back any of the other minutes either.

@What The Geek: Much of what you're saying is already addressed here: [consumerist.com]
They've said posts will be once a week, and the previous one was April 28, so that seems about right. And they've said they're developing promotional merchandise. And they've offered a filter tag if you don't like the posts.

So it sounds like they're pretty much on your wavelength. Be happy!

Damn, I wish Ben would wear some sort of speedo or something.

so let me try again

@What The Geek: NO

Do you not realize that the fact that you're making the comment here instead of e-mailing it to them is the problem? If you take issue with something about the post itself (spelling, topic, tone, etc.) you're supposed to e-mail that to them.

@Trai_Dep:

2nd.

@Trai_Dep:
On which foot did you wear the sock?

@Rectilinear Propagation: As per the Great and Powerful Roz, constructive criticism is A-OK.

1.) Why did you guys wait until you were purchased to come out of your shells like this? I think it's entertaining and endearing.

2.) Did you guys (Ben and Meg) have to move once Consumerist was picked up by Consumers Union? Seems like you hang out in their hq a lot these days.

@floraposte: the one thing I will say about that post is that in the first paragraph, they mention, and link to the donation page - in answering my questions, they're also asking for a donation - that just doesn't sit right with me.

Also, yesterday alone there was a tip jar post, and the micropony post on the front page at the same time, posted within one day of one another.

Also, I'm OK with donating to the consumerist - it's a great site.... but the consumers union will be paying their salaries with or without my donation. Non profits do still pay their employees. Granted, the donations will only help to justify the cost of the consumerist to the consumers union, and that's a good thing. I'd hate to see the site go away, or shrink in any way. I just can't justify two posts on the main page at the same time asking for donations. It feels unreasonable to me to ask that frequently.

To summarize, I agree with donating to the consumerist, and they should absolutely accept donations - they should do it in a smart, visitor-friendly way though.

@ClayS: Probably the middle one.

@Alan I Spach: +1. Definitely the pee dance.

@Trai_Dep: How many times did you have to double up the rubberband to keep the sock on

@TakingItSeriously: Well, speaking only for myself, Mrs Peel is damned classy. Harumph.
And seriously: Ben in a bowler hat and sword-stick umbrella? CLASSIC!