Supporting Modest Needs
A funny thing happened today: Modest Needs received more than five times the normal donations from people coming from BenedictXVI.Com.
I'd like to think it has something to do with my understated good looks, which were revealed to me in an e-mail from a Today Show viewer this morning. But I suspect that people are simply gratified that I am not a pornographer.
I will never be a pornographer, so please keep helping Modest Needs.
I sent an e-mail to Pope Benedict XVI's new e-mail address today asking if the church wants the domain. I am concerned that my "Subject: Free Domains" email might not get through the Holy See's spam filters.
While I am waiting to hear from the Vatican (which has to be the strangest phrase I have ever written in my life), I am donating the pope domains and my site's ad revenue from this crazy week to Modest Needs. I'm working together with founder Keith Taylor to host them. His unique one-emergency, one-family-at-a-time charity has helped 1,500 individuals and families since its launch in 2002.
Thanks, everyone. And to answer the questions from Tina in Fort Myers, Florida: 1. Clubman Art-Rim glasses. 2. Yes that is my real hair. 3. No I will not send you a lock of it because it would be a great color for your guest bedroom.
Comments
Rodgers -
This is a test. You speculated on the Pope's name and here you are. A Steward for the Holy domain... tic, tic, tic...
Don't look at me... I'm not takin' it.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time... I'm sure it did.
In the interval couldn't you re-direct those people to a Pope orientied News page... or create quick community blog site for people to share their thoughts. I know it all sounds like more work for you but gad has given you this gift... and now he's watching you, dude.
No, not prey on it... pray on it.
McD
why not a charity that really helps people who need it such as amnesty international or one specializing in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children.
Two very noble causes im sure you agree.
Your appearance on the Today Show was delightful. I have read so much on your site now and I am happy to have been introduced to Modest Needs.
I am now a fan of your homepage and will no doubt read much more of it than I ordinarily would have!
Thank you for your sense of purpose and for your sense of humor as well.
Viva il Papa, e viva il "Banco da Lavoro".
Peace.
Rogers its amazing that you beat everyone to the finish line before they could even take it for granted on the domain! Your Today Show appreance was an excellent feature to see, hear and read.
May the lord bless ya and keep up the good fight.
This is one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?!" moments. Very cool. Enjoy your 15 minutes.....hey, you might even get a half an hour or more on this one!
Hey Rogers, read what Dave said today. I also think you should keep doing what you're doing with it and perhaps alternate worthy causes around the world. Perhaps invite people to guest blog to keep up with policy and other news, as Dave suggests. Heck, maybe el papa would even do a podcast!!!
Now if you want to push your business model forward, you could buy the domain of my beloved Aunt Penny, who was a nun (sisters of St. Joseph) for a while -- sisteragnesrita.com. Slips right off the tongue, eh?
So what's this now?
Ya, I want one of those hats too.. It's so wonderful that your using the internet as another way to spread Christianity and its beleifs. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing: even if you somehow make money your doing the right thing.
But what I also think is that you have made this site "charitable" becuase you know that the media would publicise such a great thing, that gets more people to see your site.. like myself.. then when the amount of hits increases: you can sell the site for more money. Or your publicising your other sites which can be for profit without people relating it to religion.
Sorry but that makes a lot more sense to me than what your doing. It is just hard to believe that you would be so motivated to stop the sale of a domain name...before the Vatican was announced. Who spends 70 bucks on that. You look like a normal person... so you probably are a normal person who thinks about personal gains, the problem is that your smart.
But all of this sounds awfull. From what I have seen you are a generous, smart, "but nerdy" guy who is doing something for people, not himself. I just wanted to make public what I thought could be a possibility. This isn't a letter of accusation, just one of possobility.
Hows that for a conflicted viewpoint.
And i'm not really tech-y person so if I was wrong on how the process of selling a domain name works: just say so.
and my e-mail is jaminman12@yahoo.com if anyone thinks i'm that wrong
You sir, should be considered for sainthood.
Rogers, your charity choice reeks of nepotism, or some kind of ism, friendoism, whatever. The premise is so weak - we help not really super needy, dying, horribly afflicted folks get vaccines, or food, or shelter, but we help semi-poor folk catch up on their car payments. WTF is that? Lame-o, Mr. Pope URL Snatcher.
Oh, your nephew's girlfriend and I have been chatting. She is nice. I promise not to say anything off color.
Love,
A member of your jilted Cruel family
At least you didn't ask for a ride in the Popemobile.
Ya, I want one of those hats too.. It's so wonderful that your using the internet as another way to spread Christianity and its beleifs. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing: even if you somehow make money your doing the right thing.
But what I also think is that you have made this site "charitable" becuase you know that the media would publicise such a great thing, that gets more people to see your site.. like myself.. then when the amount of hits increases: you can sell the site for more money. Or your publicising your other sites which can be for profit without people relating it to religion.
Sorry but that makes a lot more sense to me than what your doing. It is just hard to believe that you would be so motivated to stop the sale of a domain name...before the Vatican was announced. Who spends 70 bucks on that. You look like a normal person... so you probably are a normal person who thinks about personal gains, the problem is that your smart.
But all of this sounds awfull. From what I have seen you are a generous, smart, "but nerdy" guy who is doing something for people, not himself. I just wanted to make public what I thought could be a possibility. This isn't a letter of accusation, just one of possobility.
Hows that for a conflicted viewpoint.
And i'm not really tech-y person so if I was wrong on how the process of selling a domain name works: just say so.
and my e-mail is jaminman12@yahoo.com if anyone thinks i'm that wrong
Anyone got a clip of Rogers on the Today Show?
I saw you on MSNBC! You rock! And you're hot.
Right after watching the drive by Virgin Mary on MSNBC... I saw your interview. Interesting.
Muah ha ha.
I just happened to be watching "Countdown" with Keith Oberman and when Oberman said he was going to have on a guy who bought up some of the possible new Pope's domain names I told my Mom "I wonder if it's that guy Rogers Cadenhead because he did exactly that and mentioned it on his blogsite." Well, sure enough there you were. It was great, and you were great. Nice of you to donate the name back to the Pope (I'm sure God will take note) and hope you get alot more t.v. time for yourself and some advertisers for your blog. Every little bit helps. Didn't see you on the Today Show as I am a night owl. Good luck and great forward thinking on your part! I hope your smarts to think ahead work out well for you but also don't want our gang's Drudge Retort blog "flooded" with tons of new bloggers. (Selfish on my part, I guess.) You deserve the best you can get from all this and very nice of you to donate it to charity. I don't question your motives at all, no matter what poster "Karl J" thinks. He's probably just jealous he didn't think of it first like you did.
Sincerely,
Calif Chris
Burbank, CA
On the Modest Needs site it says you gave up "hundreds of thousands of dollars" by not auctioning the domain.
Have you checked the market for domains recently? Ever since business.com it's been going down-down-down.
The most you could get would be the net present value of the income stream from ads over the next three years or so, and your traffic this week is the highest it's ever going to be.
On the Modest Needs site it says you gave up "hundreds of thousands of dollars" by not auctioning the domain.
I cringed when I read that. I prefer to think that I'm donating a $12 domain to Modest Needs that has been overvalued because of my sparkling personality and one joke about a papal hat.
Well done
Jean Claude
France
Someone else is auctioning their Pope domain on eBay... I'm glad you have better things to do with yours.
Rogers,
You're funny, you're telegenic, you're smart, you're charitable. You're more watchable than most of the hacks on TV. Hope you get an agent.
LJ (http://mooalex.blogspot.com)
P.S. To "Amnesty Marvin"... get over yourself. Who are you to criticize Rogers' choice of a charity. Jeez.
Dude, your comments in news stories are hilarious. You pretty much are the coolest person ever for thinking of all this. At first I kinda thought that you did it for the money, but now I see that your much more than a cruelly calculated embezzeler...rock on! I'd be so excited if you'd visit http://puckfunk.cjb.net and give us a shout out on our forum or guestbook... that'd be so awesome!
Stay freakin cool!
p.s. Has anyone commented that you kinda look like Jay Leno with a really good chin-job?
Oh Rogers, you make me feel all smurgley inside.
Howdy.
Congratulations to your benedictXVI domain, U were mentioned in one of Austrian's best reputated daily papers!
Regards, woELFin from Vienna, Austria.
I'm Presbyterian, but I thought I'd look in to see the site. I enjoyed your interview. Your sense of humor is original and refreshing. You should have said, 'Back to you Matt.' That's my only beef...
Rogers -
If you ever get divorced, I will be your sex slave.
Roger
Rogers, I've been reading your blog since the last round of RSS 2.0 / Atom Feed mud-slinging (I was doing research for a grad class and found your site that way).
Thanks for all of the above mentioned reasons.
In particular, thanks for demonstrating (via ModestNeeds) the idea of paying it *forward*. I believe that donating your time and money to others because that's what you would hope they'd do for you is a true virtue. Some call it the Golden Rule. (Does anyone else besides Rogers remember that?)
Thanks, man.
I gotta say that the Modest Needs site totally blew me away. Sure, there are other charities that one could give to, as I'm sure more pesky posters will suggest, but this one really makes you feel connected to the common man, and has a great way of making even couch-change feel like it could affect somebody's life in a positive way.
For what it's worth, I gave them a plug as my favorite charity ever, although I'm sure my traffic is nothing like yours.
Nice way to bide the time until you figure out how best to use the domain.
Mr. Cadenhead:
Thank you for your recent foray into the limelight. This message is to inform you that you have approximately five minutes left. Please make the most of it. We will be needing your time back soon as people are beginning to complain about the lack of Michael Jackson coverage. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
U.S. Naval Observatory Atomic Clock
Hey Rogers,
I enjoyed the articles and you deserve all the positive press.
I would never doubt your intentions for registering that domain. I've worked with you for the past year plus and think very highly of you. You're an excellent programmer and a great father.
I just thought that some of your visitors would be interested in hearing that from someone who knows you.
Keep in touch ~
Joe Mehm from BestBlinds
Hi Rogers! I just want the people here to know what a great boyfriend and "daddy figure" you are to me and my friends. You are our big pappa bear, our hairy hunk of hot steaming man meat, our pulsing, throbbing shaft of meaning and virtue. Take it from us, people that know you, and so forth.
Memo to all you people coming here for the first time and criticizing: Rogers is a good guy. I've been reading his blog for some time now, and it isn't within this guy to be anything but a thoughtful, stand-up citizen.
And to Rogers...this has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen. To see the public comments here and how some are taking it all wrong and getting worked into a frenzy is cracking me up. I can only imagine some of the hate-mail you must be getting. It's hard to believe that anyone thinks there is some inherent right to the domain name just because it's the freaking pope. Last I checked, Al Gore invented the Internet. Not god, not the vatican, and certainly not the pope. Go back to worshiping your golden calf, people.
I'm proud that you're in my neighborhood, Rogers. Keep stirring the pot and shaking the establishment. It's a good thing.
Ha ha! Jokes on you, suckers! I was kidding (full of holy sh*t, actually) about Rogers. He actually sold me bad weed when we were in college - yes, the owner of the Pope's friggin' website is a pothead! So keep up the abuse, he deserves it. Oh, I'm gay!
Rogers,
I still want you to know the offer of hot, steamy, monkey love is still on the table for you.
Love,
Smitten, I mean, Smitty.
What the deuce happened to the Cruel.com message board???
First - craptacular, click on the link here on my post, and you'll find temporary "cruel".
Second, to Rogers:
I found more clips of you and Katie:
When you say "I will never be a pornographer" you're not saying that as though it's a good thing are you?
Google Video has a number of other snapshots of the Today show appearance, found by searching for 'cadenhead'. I just thought everyone would appreciate a couple more looks at you!
It's over - the networks are no longer calling, your site hits are dwindling....your fame has eroded back to it's natural state.
Meanwhile, your only true fans, your all-weather flock (no fair-weather groupies, like the scum that have been posting here all week) are left in the dark, alone...dying....
Wait 'til Monday, you say. Sure. We'll wait. What else can we do, but wait. And wait. And wait.
It's over - the networks are no longer calling, your site hits are dwindling....your fame has eroded back to it's natural state.
Don't even joke about that.
Wow small world!
I found you a month ago when I was working on an OPML project.
Congrats on the juice for your blog!
I didn't see the video, but in the stills you look like a (younger, better looking) William Devane.
For all of you making negative coments to Mr. Cadenhad and making senseless jokes, you might as well stop. What this man has done is a great thing, not only is he keeping the name of Benedict XVI clean, he is also helping a wonderful organization. So unless you are going to go out into the community and start another wonderful program you have no right to criticize this man. Think before you post again.
comments* Cadenhead* sorry for the typos
We do have RAID 1 0 on the DB servers, a live backup running now, and have done a few other things to ensure this wont happen again. The timing was unfortunate because things were still in transition because of the datacenter move.
great thanks
Good site. Thanks!!!
diaper bag
Neat! I wish I had the same knack for speculating on big world events and get to be the first to buy the domain name for it. :-) That's be so cool. I've been eyeing a domain name related to bamboo blinds but when it finally expired, somebody beat me to it. :-(
Hi...found your blog while Googling Modest Needs. You see I am one of the many individuals that have sought help there. We are a loving couple, with a big dream, to buy a home that we can open to foster children. As an adoptee myself that suffers with infertility, my heart longs to offer a home to children in need.
In order to make this dream come true, my husband and I have sat down with a lender and found that a few minor past due bills from our credit report are hindering us from this dream.
Although we have been able to pay a few of them, we have had set backs from car troubles which hinder us from completing the payoffs by our goal date of October 1st, 2008.
The bills that we would like help with are four medical bills, however payment of even a couple of the bills would be a GREAT help!
It sure would be cool if someone that donated to Modest needs would consider helping fund our points required of 1250. I know there has been sometime since anyone replied to this post, but hey, a girl can hope, right...LOL. I wish you the best in all you endevor to do.
Yours,
Sherri From Atlanta
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