Re:Jonathan's Card
by eggbrain on Sunday August 07, 2011 @07:47PM
(#2858148)
Things like this are just apt for abuse. While in real life when this happens, we get a small connection with the person (they live near me / they also were getting coffee), on the internet, people only see a free gift card that automatically refills itself, and not the people that paid for it. When you are playing with other peoples money, it's hard to be frugal.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
It looks like things have died down. The steady state seems to be one where the balance is low and the transactions are small: http://dpaste.com/589113/.
That would imply that the card is currently being used as intended.
Re:Jonathan's Card
by startupfounder on Sunday August 07, 2011 @11:49PM
(#2858680)
Looks like it only gets abused when there is a high balance that people can see on the twitter feed. A solution is to focus on coffee not money. "at least one coffee is available" or "buy someone a coffee, no coffee available" or "someone gave the gift of a coffee". Oh, FYI free coffee refills after purchase in shore.
Indeed, the monetary value makes things impersonal - great idea!
Re:Jonathan's Card
by TranceaddicT on Friday August 12, 2011 @06:32PM
(#2879532)
The unfortunate thing about structuring the card in that manner is that: 1) it's not the way the card is programmed to work and 2)the experiment was to provide a vehicle for those who can't to benefit from those who can. The moment the individual the experiment as designed for would end the experiment; the inevitable end of buy one, give one.
Except by you stealing from it....
I'm trying to figure out- what's the difference between loading the card and just dropping $10 on the ground?
When I get small amounts of change, like a nickel, I often leave them on nearby ledges or fences or mailboxes or any object I can find. It's not so much altruism, as making life more like a video game where you can find small amounts of money by searching random objects.
Re:Jonathan's Card
by gregschlom on Sunday August 07, 2011 @10:50PM
(#2858554)
Nobody is going to drop back 20 bucks after they found the $10 bill.
Re:Jonathan's Card
by startupfounder on Monday August 08, 2011 @11:19AM
(#2860325)
Thinking outside the box and buying someone a coffee can sometimes have unexpected results: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2860312
Link seems to be broken. What did it point to?
Re:Jonathan's Card
by startupfounder on Tuesday August 09, 2011 @08:17AM
(#2863719)
Re:Jonathan's Card
by jonathanstark on Monday August 08, 2011 @12:28AM
(#2858783)
Please try both and share your findings with the group.
If I drop ten dollars on the ground, the person who finds it doesn't know they've been the recipient of someone else's generosity (rather than someone else's clumsiness) and hence they're less likely to pass that generosity on.
The experiment started on Twitter where a smaller group was initially involved (but sadly not this canuck). It was more of a take a coffee, leave a coffee thing between friends. Fun to watch.
Posting it to HN should bring interesting results. There's still money on it at the moment.
- It's hard to drop ten dollars cash on the other side of the country.
- You don't need a smartphone to use ten dollars you found on the ground.
- Cash can be spent somewhere other than Starbucks.
- There's no twitter account broadcasting the amount of money dropped on the ground.
- If you find money on the ground, chances are not good that it was dropped by someone from HN.
- If you tweet about money you found on the ground, you are just a jerk.