I would prefer, I think, to contribute to a fund for Joe Famous, rather than towards a gift, but I'd like to be able to send him a personal handwritten card.

I know from the times I've been in hospital, especially when I was busy with pain meds, all the flowers, fruit, toys, etc. that people sent me were a bit of a waste because I was too ill to eat the fruit, and by the time I was better, it had gone mushy, the flowers died quickly in the sealed hospital atmosphere and I'm not a plush toy person. I suspect Joe F isn't a big plushy man either.

I'm really sorry TrishaLynn, I didn't read your other thread on this, and can see how my response above might sound snarky, without having read what you'd said in your earlier report. It wasn't meant to be a dig, so I apologise.

That's okay. An apology isn't necessary. I don't think he's generally a stuffed bunny guy, but I can't think of any other appropriate gift that would say, "Here's something from the gang at MetaChat" you know? An iPod shuffle with random tunes on it?

The fund sounds like a good idea. What do you think, TrishaLynn? You know him, so I'm happy to go along with whatever you think is appropriate. I suppose it depends on how many people can contribute, too.

Actually, at the risk of seeming like a terrible person, I do have to say that we have a policy of not asking for gifts or donations on the site, so I will have to ask at this point that if there are people interested in arranging something with TrishaLynn that you please contact her by email.

I'm going to close this thread, and if anyone wants to talk to me privately about it, I'll be back home tomorrow (Monday) and free and happy to email or chat about it. Additionally, if y'all want to discuss the policy together and express your ideas or offer suggestions about how we might refine the guidelines, create a general fund, or anything related, I'm totally open to that, so anyone can go ahead open a new thread for that purpose.

For the moment, simply because at any given time there will be a metachatter or mefite in financial difficulty and well deserving of help, as well as others in the greater blog world, and also many charity drives happening all the time, we run the risk of becoming a mining ground for donation requests, so if we are able to come up with something that will address these concerns and keep people from feeling pressured, or embarrassed if they can't pitch in with the giving thing, that would be great.

Thanks, and sorry!