Support
The Yellow Light appreciates any help you can provide for the project, chiefly for the essays and the public podcast at this time.
First, please consider subscribing to The Yellow Light. Signing up does not cost anything. Every subscriber gets an email whenever The Yellow Light publishes a post for a new essay or for a new episode of the podcast.
Benefits
You can also become a supporter on Patreon and receive benefits when they go live in the spring and summer of 2025. The basic tier will open the audio part of the chat room on Discord and access to the private podcast, The Yellow Light Club. At higher levels, patrons participate in discussions recorded live in an audio chat room for a special episode of the private podcast every month.
Because Patreon members get benefits, Patreon may levy a sales tax or VAT in your territory.
If you are outside of the USA, then PayPal and Venmo take a larger cut of the pledge. More importantly, if you log into PayPal or Venmo while traveling, the PayPal company will lock your account.
Patreon and subscriptions on this site cannot add up in order to unlock higher tiers on Patreon.
Direct Support
In addition to an article and a podcast episode every week, The Yellow Light aims to do deeper research and, someday, interviews. If you would like The Yellow Light to continue and to create more content, then you can help by upgrading your subscription to a premium level. Additionally, anyone can make a one-off donation.
These options incur no sales tax or VAT because they are pure support. They maximize your contribution with minimal processing fees. Stripe has many payment methods. You can maximize your donations through ACH or direct debiting, for example.
If you would like the benefits (such as the private podcast and participation in episodes), you may want to consider pledging on Patreon.
As a general reminder, a card from almost any network except American Express will feature a sixteen-digit number as the card number. For the security number (“CVC”) that you use when confirming a transaction, this card uses the three-digit number on the signature area of the back of the card.
In contrast, every card on the American Express network will have a card number that is fifteen digits. It relies on the four-digit code on the front of the card as the value for the security number (“CVC”).
When you go out and about, the safest way to use a card is through wireless connections or a chip reader. It is impossible for an attacker to copy the card details this way. The chip calculates a special number and authorizes only one transaction with that number.
The stripe on a card that you use whenever you swipe is not secure. Anybody can copy this. Criminals can secretly put so-called skimmers on top of card readers at stores or bank ATMs. The skimmers will read the stripe’s details.
When you use a card over the internet, you share the same information that is in the stripe. You can show extra care by looking for a secure connection. You may see the website begins with “https://” and know that the s stands for secure.
The Yellow Light and the hosting service for the website can never see your financial details. If you use Patreon, then Patreon knows that information in accordance with its privacy policy. For people who use Stripe, only Stripe handles your payment data as per its privacy policy.