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Why even bother mentioning the pay when it doesn't even cover TTC transportation to and from an event? Its about as good as a kick in the balls/ovaries.

Hey Drew. Having both been kicked in the balls (not by blogTO of course) and paid by blogTO, I can honestly say that the pay is much better than said kick.

can we talk to ex blogto writers to get a sense of how abusive the publisher is?

Abusive is a word I'd have a hard time believing has ever been used to describe the working atmosphere at blogTO. I've never worked with a more laid back, interesting, kind bunch in my life! Writing for blogTO has been nothing but fun for me. Not one kick in the nuts in almost 2 years :P

The only abuse I've ever received on blogTO is free pizza and beer. I mean, the horror, who would ever do that? =)

I love the abusive beer and pizza!

What I mean is why even bother paying for stories when it is such a pittance? I am not saying they should pay more, I am saying they should consider it a voluntary position. I would rather work for free than to get less money for my work than my weekly allowance in grade five. I think that the major blogs in Toronto are competition for what print is available. But not until they better define their relationship with staff and freelancers will they get consistent quality content.

And I don't know where all of this abuse talk came from. A kick in the balls was my analogy for an insult, not being abused by blogto. Abuse could only result from a promised upon payment structure not being carried out. What I mean is that it is insulting from the get go.

Wow. Party in the comments.

Drew - you raise a valid point. We try our best to treat everyone fairly and with respect and be upfront as possible about how the relationships works. We pay writers what we can afford which at first was nothing, but over time keeps growing as we're able to realize increased ad revenue for the site.

I think for the most part contributors recognize the challenges of growing grassroots media in this city. I'd love it to be otherwise, but we don't get to operate at a loss and receive government funding (hello CBC) and we're not funded by a big media company who can throw millions of dollars away and call it a lesson learned (Dose anyone?).

So, we do what we can and hopefully that's enough for some people. We do have ad revenue so not sharing it with the contributors just seems wrong to me regardless of how small the amount is.

When did you start handing out Clamato, Tim?

Btw, Jack and I used to work together in the advertising world so his comment is meant to be a joke.

I didn't realize my comment would end up with so much reaction...Tim is right about what he said.. I was just joking.. Tim is a great guy, I have a lot of respect for him.. We used to joke around..Tim is the best online guy I have worked with..

Does blogTO pay for the food costs for restaurant reviews?