by Luke Tagg

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CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - South African website TashiTagg.co.za - described by its owners as "a behind-the-scenes view of life" - has been saved from closure by its readers. The site had been running for more than a year without any operating capital, and the bills finally became too great. The straw that broke the camel's back was a Telkom bill which was unmanageable, and had the site readers not stepped in to help the cause would have been lost, and the site would exist no more.

But as it happens TashiTagg.co.za is still very much alive, in what is a very unique piece of South African internet history.

The site began rather inauspiciously. Tashi Tagg - a Cape Town drama specialist who worked in the fields of acting, teaching and writing - was intrigued by the drama and human interest of "reality TV." Having a free User website (clients of Internet Africa are given 10MB of free web space), Tashi began writing daily commentary on the first run of Big Brother, and publishing it on the web.

Her articles offered some interesting and different opinions, on Big Brother in particular and reality TV in general, and before long she had a dedicated following of 20 readers, who faithfully logged on each day to get their update. Tashi invited them to send her emails with their opinions on what she'd written and on the show itself, and these she published on the site as well. Many chose to disagree with her point of view, and soon learned that no matter what their view it would be published along with all those who did agree. Thus began a relationship of trust which was to last right through until today.

Those 20 readers soon started to grow in number, as people sent their friends to the site, and search engines started referring others. Tashi approached Iafrica.com - South Africa's busiest portal website - to carry her articles for free, in return for a link from their site to hers. Soon the readers came flooding in, mostly inspired by curiosity at the often-controversial views expressed by Tashi.

With more readers came more emails, and soon it became unmanageable to keep putting them up. The TashiTagg Forums were developed, and they quickly became the throbbing heartbeat of the site. Tashi would write articles and provide a link to the forums, and readers would browse an article and go off to discuss it with others.

Tashi continued to cover all major reality TV shows, including both Big Brother's, all the Survivors, Pop Idols, Popstars, Fear Factor, Love Cruise and more, but then came the major revelation: all these shows were a starting point for discussion about the issues raised in them, but there was a burning need for people to be able to discuss their opinions on more than just reality TV. South Africans have never really had a public voice - apart from Letters to the Editor, radio phone-ins and the occasional opinion pages in magazines - but on Tashi's site they could express themselves with the anonymity and interactivity afforded by the internet.

Once Tashi began covering all manner of issues - from Orania to homosexuality - the site really took off, as readers discovered the joys of heated debate. With Tashi always egging them on to dispose of conventional wisdom and to challenge their own perspectives on social, political and sexual issues, opinion and truth became the keywords of the forum, as they are today.

It became far too big a task for Tashi to handle on her own, and her husband Luke left his job as community editor of a major South African website to work with Tashi full time. They worked on a new incarnation of the website which they launched at the start of January this year, offering all sorts of trivial pursuits for bored office workers in addition to the daily articles by Tashi. Luke - a songwriter, actor, web developer, programmer, salesman, editor, copywriter, credit clerk and occasional criminal - began writing for the site as well, and between the two they churn out over 5000 words a day, all of which is rigorously challenged and debated on the humming forums.

You may wonder how the Taggs managed to make a living - they didn't. They borrowed what tiny scraps their relatives could throw their way, then set to work on selling nearly everything they own at second-hand shops - video recorders, guitars, amplifiers, games, game consoles, cd's and jewellery. The only possession not sold was their television - the original and continued inspiration behind the site.

In between madly selling everything they spent every spare moment calling potential advertisers to place their products on their site, but discovered a sad truth - if you aren't a major portal, with a huge corporate structure propping you up, advertisers are just too wary of the unknown to get involved with it. The internet and its credibility suffered enormously as a result of the dotcom crash, although in recent months the South African internet has grown rapidly. The Taggs realised that if they could stick it out for a few months longer they would have penetrated a significant enough portion of the market to be fairly considered for financial input.

But then came The Bill - a Telkom stinker for which they had no answer. It had to be paid by Monday 24 March, or their telephone - the only connection to their site - would be disconnected. With no more options on the borrowing front, and no possessions left to sell, they turned to their readers.

The Taggs posted a message on their forum the Wednesday before the due date, informing readers of their dilemma. They told the truth - the fact that TashiTagg.co.za was not staffed by millions (an impression they had tried to cultivate, mainly for sponsor appeal), but was in fact run by just the two of them with contributions from a best mate. They explained about selling everything, and the fact that they couldn't afford the bill. And they offered the last thing in the world they had to sell - email addresses @tashitagg.co.za - in return for R100 [100 Rand -- Ed.] donations to the cause.

Most internet-connected people know a million places to get a free email address, so the Taggs were not under any illusion - R100 for an address was not a likely scenario.

But by the middle of the next day their email server was struggling to deliver the constant flow of emails offering support in any way, shape and form, and not only had they raised enough money to pay the monster bill - they had enough to pay the next one as well (which was even bigger). There were even a few cents over to get a pizza and some wine - a luxury comparable to any given to Survivor contestants.

The message was clear - the TashiTagg readers wanted a place to come to on Monday. A place where they can express themselves, and view life from a different and honest perspective. A place where they matter, which is very difficult - if not impossible - to find in this corporate, company-run modern environment.

Those first 20 readers have grown into 20 000 last month - no mean feat for a site with a staff of three unpaid, flat-broke Capetonians, whose sole passion it is to see South Africans question the conformity of opinion thrust upon them by media and conventional wisdom, and to become a thinking society with something to say.

The readers of TashiTagg.co.za proved that South Africans are desperate for a new perspective, and the right to have their opinions heard. The Taggs have been sent a very strong message through it all - TashiTagg.co.za shall not close!

And it won't.