6 ms·

Make a Donation to the Internet Archive

165 points by cleverjake 14y ago

switz 14y ago
The Internet Archive is genuinely one of my favorite sites on the Internet. From the vast audio archives[1] to the insurmountable web archive[2], I find myself using it daily. [1] http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead [2] http://web.archive.org/web/20070405032412/http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070405032412/http://news.ycombi...
sdafdasdfasdf 14y ago
Am a user, but primarily as free storage for live show recordings. It's a great service and should be supported for all they do, but unfortunately I won't be a donor anytime soon.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- stevewillows 14y ago
  As a user of the site, what is preventing you from chipping in for your usage?
  - sdafdasdfasdf 14y ago
    It's too bad that I got a -3 for my post- I was just being honest. Thanks for asking. I upload content, and used to listen to it, but now I don't. Some others have downloaded the content, but it wasn't critical. I don't use the site enough on my own to justify donation. I think it is a great service- really! But, I would bet many feel the same way. Unless it is really helping others that you care about, why donate? It has never significantly helped me personally, or any that I know. I would rather donate to a charity that helps those in need. But I'm glad others donate. It is preserving history. It is just a matter of priority.
hissworks 14y ago
after visiting sf last year i became a donor to the internet archive (for practical purposes) and the long now foundation (for philosophical purposes) with a company match. will be looking into whether i get a company match outside the ordinary 'window' - would be nice to add another multiplier to this matchstravaganza.
mibbitier 14y ago
Am I the only one that finds appeals to donate actually more irritating that adverts?
- seanc 14y ago
  To something like the Internet Archive? Yes. Yes you are.
- roryokane 14y ago
  I don’t find this appeal to donate irritating because the Internet Archive is a non-profit, and it does necessary work I’m grateful for. Asking for donations is the main way the IA can keep doing the good things it’s doing, so I wouldn’t want to stop that. I don’t like the idea of good human works being lost, so I’m glad that the Internet Archive archives lots of media, especially scrapes of websites in the Wayback Machine. I’ve used the Wayback Machine usefully multiple times in the past to find information that would otherwise be gone. (That said, I didn’t donate, because I feel that I can’t afford to.)
- DigitalSea 14y ago
  Yeah and those damn pesky charities who have the audacity to ask for donations to help sick children get better or provide clean water and food to families in third world countries... /sarcasm To answer your question: yes, you are the only one that finds appeals for donations for worthy causes to be irritating. The Internet Archive might not get as much attention as Wikipedia or other donate-able causes, but what they're doing is a very worthy cause and something that will be commended and finally recognised one day in the near distant future. When someone is willing to match a donation 3-1, you can't argue that even the minimum donation of $25 which I am sure most HN users could afford would help them out a lot. It's attitudes like yours that are the reason sites like Wikipedia have to resort to plastering Jimmy Wales' face over their site and beg for donations to keep the site running. Have some heart, man. I just donated $50, please consider donating even just $25.
  - voltagex_ 14y ago
    Matched you, every 404'd article that I have found through web.archive.org makes it more than worth it.
NanoWar 14y ago
They also accept Bitcoins :)
yuokool12 14y ago
When someone is matching your donation, there's no reason not to donate.
- corin_ 14y ago
  Not at all. If it's a cause you support then it certainly makes it more compelling, but any reason against donating normally still exists when donations are being matched.
swalsh 14y ago
Sent a few bitcoins their way.
bdotdub 14y ago
Where's Jimmy Wales' face when you need it?
- lucb1e 14y ago
  So true.
cryowaffle 14y ago
Bitcoins sent, my pleasure. Apparently they have received over 560 BTC... very cool.
- tjaerv 14y ago
  Yep, you can see all the bitcoin donations they have received over here: http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvRq8R2r http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvR...
DanBC 14y ago
4 peta bytes doesn't seem that much. How long is that going to last them?
- suby 14y ago
  Not sure, but for comparison, they're currently using 10 petabytes.
- ersii 14y ago
  Not to sound like an ass, but it's going to last them longer than no extra drives from the campaign. So it'll certainly help them along :-)
  - DanBC 14y ago
    You don't sound like an ass! I was just wondering why something which is almost universally seen as good (or great, even) is running donation drives to get 4 petabytes. (To bring them to a total of about 14 petabytes.) (I guess I'm comparing to Megaupload's 25 petabytes - which are still(?) sitting in racks not being used.)
lucb1e 14y ago
I'm using the Bitcoin option!
steelmaiden 14y ago
Very useful site, however im kind of broke at the moment :)
bobbles 14y ago
Interesting that they dont have a message like "This page brought to you by archive.org Donate here to keep this page alive" on the archived pages. I dont think people would mind seeing that on the recovered sites. (Unless they do and I cant see it for some reason?)
- ersii 14y ago
  People does not seem to like that kind of Wikipedia donation advertising, if I understood you correctly. At least in the sense that there's endless parodies and nagging about those ads. It does however seem to work, since they raise money that way - and continue doing so. Internet Archive do have a top banner which is quite neutral on most of archive.org (It's the blue ribbon thingie). It's not on the Wayback Machine though.
raphman 14y ago
I donated some money to the Internet Archive last year and was pleasantly surprised when I received two IA-branded caps in the mail some time later (I live in Germany). Very nice gesture.
ersii 14y ago
I've donated 50$ to the Internet Archive under this donation campaign. It's awesome that someone is tripling that - so that the Internet Archive gets 200$ from that. Whoever is doing that, is awesome. The Internet Archive does a lot of spiffy things - and it's in my opinion really worth it to support them.

165 points by cleverjake 14y ago

switz 14y ago

The Internet Archive is genuinely one of my favorite sites on the Internet. From the vast audio archives[1] to the insurmountable web archive[2], I find myself using it daily. [1] http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead [2] http://web.archive.org/web/20070405032412/http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070405032412/http://news.ycombi...

sdafdasdfasdf 14y ago

Am a user, but primarily as free storage for live show recordings. It's a great service and should be supported for all they do, but unfortunately I won't be a donor anytime soon.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
stevewillows 14y ago
As a user of the site, what is preventing you from chipping in for your usage?
- sdafdasdfasdf 14y ago
  It's too bad that I got a -3 for my post- I was just being honest. Thanks for asking. I upload content, and used to listen to it, but now I don't. Some others have downloaded the content, but it wasn't critical. I don't use the site enough on my own to justify donation. I think it is a great service- really! But, I would bet many feel the same way. Unless it is really helping others that you care about, why donate? It has never significantly helped me personally, or any that I know. I would rather donate to a charity that helps those in need. But I'm glad others donate. It is preserving history. It is just a matter of priority.

hissworks 14y ago

after visiting sf last year i became a donor to the internet archive (for practical purposes) and the long now foundation (for philosophical purposes) with a company match. will be looking into whether i get a company match outside the ordinary 'window' - would be nice to add another multiplier to this matchstravaganza.

mibbitier 14y ago

Am I the only one that finds appeals to donate actually more irritating that adverts?

seanc 14y ago
To something like the Internet Archive? Yes. Yes you are.
roryokane 14y ago
I don’t find this appeal to donate irritating because the Internet Archive is a non-profit, and it does necessary work I’m grateful for. Asking for donations is the main way the IA can keep doing the good things it’s doing, so I wouldn’t want to stop that. I don’t like the idea of good human works being lost, so I’m glad that the Internet Archive archives lots of media, especially scrapes of websites in the Wayback Machine. I’ve used the Wayback Machine usefully multiple times in the past to find information that would otherwise be gone. (That said, I didn’t donate, because I feel that I can’t afford to.)
DigitalSea 14y ago
Yeah and those damn pesky charities who have the audacity to ask for donations to help sick children get better or provide clean water and food to families in third world countries... /sarcasm To answer your question: yes, you are the only one that finds appeals for donations for worthy causes to be irritating. The Internet Archive might not get as much attention as Wikipedia or other donate-able causes, but what they're doing is a very worthy cause and something that will be commended and finally recognised one day in the near distant future. When someone is willing to match a donation 3-1, you can't argue that even the minimum donation of $25 which I am sure most HN users could afford would help them out a lot. It's attitudes like yours that are the reason sites like Wikipedia have to resort to plastering Jimmy Wales' face over their site and beg for donations to keep the site running. Have some heart, man. I just donated $50, please consider donating even just $25.
- voltagex_ 14y ago
  Matched you, every 404'd article that I have found through web.archive.org makes it more than worth it.

NanoWar 14y ago

They also accept Bitcoins :)

yuokool12 14y ago

When someone is matching your donation, there's no reason not to donate.

corin_ 14y ago
Not at all. If it's a cause you support then it certainly makes it more compelling, but any reason against donating normally still exists when donations are being matched.

swalsh 14y ago

Sent a few bitcoins their way.

bdotdub 14y ago

Where's Jimmy Wales' face when you need it?

lucb1e 14y ago
So true.

cryowaffle 14y ago

Bitcoins sent, my pleasure. Apparently they have received over 560 BTC... very cool.

tjaerv 14y ago
Yep, you can see all the bitcoin donations they have received over here: http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvRq8R2r http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvR...

DanBC 14y ago

4 peta bytes doesn't seem that much. How long is that going to last them?

suby 14y ago
Not sure, but for comparison, they're currently using 10 petabytes.
ersii 14y ago
Not to sound like an ass, but it's going to last them longer than no extra drives from the campaign. So it'll certainly help them along :-)
- DanBC 14y ago
  You don't sound like an ass! I was just wondering why something which is almost universally seen as good (or great, even) is running donation drives to get 4 petabytes. (To bring them to a total of about 14 petabytes.) (I guess I'm comparing to Megaupload's 25 petabytes - which are still(?) sitting in racks not being used.)

lucb1e 14y ago

I'm using the Bitcoin option!

steelmaiden 14y ago

Very useful site, however im kind of broke at the moment :)

bobbles 14y ago

Interesting that they dont have a message like "This page brought to you by archive.org Donate here to keep this page alive" on the archived pages. I dont think people would mind seeing that on the recovered sites. (Unless they do and I cant see it for some reason?)

ersii 14y ago
People does not seem to like that kind of Wikipedia donation advertising, if I understood you correctly. At least in the sense that there's endless parodies and nagging about those ads. It does however seem to work, since they raise money that way - and continue doing so. Internet Archive do have a top banner which is quite neutral on most of archive.org (It's the blue ribbon thingie). It's not on the Wayback Machine though.

raphman 14y ago

I donated some money to the Internet Archive last year and was pleasantly surprised when I received two IA-branded caps in the mail some time later (I live in Germany). Very nice gesture.

ersii 14y ago

I've donated 50$ to the Internet Archive under this donation campaign. It's awesome that someone is tripling that - so that the Internet Archive gets 200$ from that. Whoever is doing that, is awesome. The Internet Archive does a lot of spiffy things - and it's in my opinion really worth it to support them.