5 ms·

Archive.org donations matched 3:1 until 2014

286 points by blhack 13y ago

lelandbatey 13y ago
Done and done. I may only be a poor college student, but the fact that my $10 just became $40 towards Archive.org compels me to donate.
- m_rcin 13y ago
  Depending on the point of view, either your $10 became $40, or $30 from the anonymous donor just became $40. I've learnt about the concept of donation matching only recently (it's not used all over the world yet). It doesn't seem very honest to me. And not only to me, e.g. http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-donation-matching-affect-your-giving/ http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-don...
  - lelandbatey 13y ago
    Yeah, it doesn't. I did actually think "why didn't that anonymous guy just donate the straight up cash?" And then I realized "ah, because then I wouldn't have donated my money." It's not totally honest, but I get why they do it and I don't regret donating the money so in the end, whatever.
  - specialp 13y ago
    It is indeed a marketing gimmick, but if it gets people to give more then that is a good thing. The article you posted is 100% right, and yes in an ideal world everyone would say well I do not need this gimmick, I am going to donate the most I can to the most worthy charities. I think the article also implies that people have a finite donation budget that other charities are going to miss out on but I disagree. I think most people do not donate enough.
  - adventured 13y ago
    It's completely honest in this case, because it's entirely forthright. You know the deal before you donate. There's absolutely nothing inherent to the concept such that it's dishonest. It exists to drive others to get involved. It's an excellent mechanism and works very well by getting attention and encouraging people that their contributions will be magnified. It's a deal: you give, I give. There's nothing dishonest about that. Further, the donor in this case is matching an 'unlimited' sum. There's no artificial cut-off.
    - teddyh 13y ago
      I think the correct word to express m_rcin’s concerns should not be “dishonest”, but “manipulative”.
  - epistasis 13y ago
    This is mostly a moral and ethical judgement, but it appears to be a mild ethical preference, and I wouldn't accept ethical advice from Givewell. They may be trying to do "good" now, but the Wall Street shadiness of their founders shines through. http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Givewell http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Givewell
JohnTHaller 13y ago
Here's the backstory on what was lost in the November fire: http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-please-help-rebuild/ http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-plea...
aaronbrethorst 13y ago
I've received far more than $50 in value from archive.org. Total no-brainer, especially with the 3:1 match.
profquail 13y ago
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which means that if you're in the US and your employer offers matching for charitable gifts, you can leverage your donation even further. For example, if your employer matches your gift 1:1, donating $100 turns into $800: (1+1) * (1+3) * $100 = $800.
- eru 13y ago
  And that's in pre-tax money, isn't it?
  - hkmurakami 13y ago
    I don't really follow... For the donor, we deduct your giving from your taxable income, so by definition it must be pretax. For the donee, they are exempt from taxes so there is no concept of pretax. shrugs did I miss something?
markcampbell 13y ago
Is this a charitable donation in Canada?
- kitcar 13y ago
  According to this article only if you make money in the US, and therefore fall under the Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty ( http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol3iss3/ig_2.htm http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol3iss3/ig_2.htm )
sanxiyn 13y ago
Done: https://blockchain.info/tx/953f52b1bf1e55e85c59e28e319093c0a9d613a94d566836bddc5fd0fa27da50 https://blockchain.info/tx/953f52b1bf1e55e85c59e28e319093c0a...
- revelation 13y ago
  This reminds me of this wonderful reddit bot: http://www.reddit.com/user/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/user/bitcointip
  - est 13y ago
    reddit could really start a nova business model like that. Think there are already many novelty accounts and bitofnews, youtube linker bots, etc.
- Renaud 13y ago
  Just donated some BTC fraction as well and I must say that bitcoin really does shine in the area of charitable donations: it's quick, you get the confirmation of your donation almost instantly, all of the money goes to the charity instead of having a % wasted at the credit card processor and they have the potential to get much more out of it than what I sent (this could go both ways of course). I just hope that the btc donations get matched 3x as well, they don't say on the page.
nextstep 13y ago
Hopefully they had fire insurance.
rschmitty 13y ago
Thank you whoever is providing the match, no brainier donation for me. Anyone know why the library of congress doesn't combine forces? Maybe the NSA could help restore/collect :)
hobs 13y ago
I am going to check in with my employer, and then make it happen. I have given them some money in the past, but I know they are in it for the long haul and are always a quick search away to help me find something long gone. As far as I am concerned, they are great examples of what the ethos of the internet should be about.
bane 13y ago
I used to think Project Gutenberg was one of the most important projects on the internet, then Wikipedia. But the amount of value I'm getting out of Archive.org increases every day. Some examples: 1) I'm a fan of old-time radio because it can be more entertaining than books on tape or the radio for long car or bus rides. Archive.org has an unbelievable collection, literally months of well produced radio plays, including some great classic sci-fi like "X minus 1". https://archive.org/details/XMinus1_A https://archive.org/details/XMinus1_A https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio 2) On top of hosting a copy of all of Project Gutenberg (almost 40k books), they have numerous other libraries including an awesome collection of scanned Magazines. I'm into old computers and sci-fi, so their OMNI archive (https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine) and an unbelievable collection of old computer magazines (https://archive.org/details/computermagazines https://archive.org/details/computermagazines) fit the bill. (There's also a pretty big library of classic computer books). 3) It's backed up with an extensive collection of old computer software. https://archive.org/details/software https://archive.org/details/software 4) An awesome video archive with everything from archived old computer shows like the computer chronicles https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles to a few thousand old movies, many of which are still worth watching https://archive.org/details/feature_films https://archive.org/details/feature_films including "Plan 9 from outer space" https://archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace_811 https://archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace_811 and even the impressive (if incomplete) Chrontendo https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22chrontendo%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22chrontendo... Though I wish it was a bit better organized, browsing around archive.org, and hitting upon pockets full of awesome like the 5 above remind me of being a kid and going to the central library for the day and browsing the periodical and reference sections and coming across all sorts of great stuff. I haven't been this excited to use the internet in a long time and in many ways it seems like Archive.org fulfills much of the promise of the internet as a repository of all human knowledge. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but it really is that great of a resource.
- shubhamjain 13y ago
  With all due to respect to Internet Archive efforts, I would be a bit cynical here. I once downloaded Code rush documentry and the quality was so bad with heavy lost frames and flickering that it was impossible to watch it. At another instance, I downloaded mp3 of a classical piece, "william tell overture" and it was nothing like what I have heard it in its best. I might be talking about only specific cases that happened with me but quality wise I didn't had much luck with it. Albeit, I do realize the project itself is huge and have been fan of the Internet Time Machine.
gandalfu 13y ago
Just donated!
luckydude 13y ago
Donated and got my company to do a 2:1 match. Anyone know how often they update the total? I didn't see it go up.

286 points by blhack 13y ago

Done and done. I may only be a poor college student, but the fact that my $10 just became $40 towards Archive.org compels me to donate.

m_rcin 13y ago
Depending on the point of view, either your $10 became $40, or $30 from the anonymous donor just became $40. I've learnt about the concept of donation matching only recently (it's not used all over the world yet). It doesn't seem very honest to me. And not only to me, e.g. http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-donation-matching-affect-your-giving/ http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-don...
- lelandbatey 13y ago
  Yeah, it doesn't. I did actually think "why didn't that anonymous guy just donate the straight up cash?" And then I realized "ah, because then I wouldn't have donated my money." It's not totally honest, but I get why they do it and I don't regret donating the money so in the end, whatever.
- specialp 13y ago
  It is indeed a marketing gimmick, but if it gets people to give more then that is a good thing. The article you posted is 100% right, and yes in an ideal world everyone would say well I do not need this gimmick, I am going to donate the most I can to the most worthy charities. I think the article also implies that people have a finite donation budget that other charities are going to miss out on but I disagree. I think most people do not donate enough.
- adventured 13y ago
  It's completely honest in this case, because it's entirely forthright. You know the deal before you donate. There's absolutely nothing inherent to the concept such that it's dishonest. It exists to drive others to get involved. It's an excellent mechanism and works very well by getting attention and encouraging people that their contributions will be magnified. It's a deal: you give, I give. There's nothing dishonest about that. Further, the donor in this case is matching an 'unlimited' sum. There's no artificial cut-off.
  - teddyh 13y ago
    I think the correct word to express m_rcin’s concerns should not be “dishonest”, but “manipulative”.
- epistasis 13y ago
  This is mostly a moral and ethical judgement, but it appears to be a mild ethical preference, and I wouldn't accept ethical advice from Givewell. They may be trying to do "good" now, but the Wall Street shadiness of their founders shines through. http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Givewell http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Givewell

JohnTHaller 13y ago

Here's the backstory on what was lost in the November fire: http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-please-help-rebuild/ http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-plea...

aaronbrethorst 13y ago

I've received far more than $50 in value from archive.org. Total no-brainer, especially with the 3:1 match.

profquail 13y ago

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which means that if you're in the US and your employer offers matching for charitable gifts, you can leverage your donation even further. For example, if your employer matches your gift 1:1, donating $100 turns into $800: (1+1) * (1+3) * $100 = $800.

eru 13y ago
And that's in pre-tax money, isn't it?
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  I don't really follow... For the donor, we deduct your giving from your taxable income, so by definition it must be pretax. For the donee, they are exempt from taxes so there is no concept of pretax. shrugs did I miss something?

markcampbell 13y ago

Is this a charitable donation in Canada?

kitcar 13y ago
According to this article only if you make money in the US, and therefore fall under the Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty ( http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol3iss3/ig_2.htm http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol3iss3/ig_2.htm )

sanxiyn 13y ago

Done: https://blockchain.info/tx/953f52b1bf1e55e85c59e28e319093c0a9d613a94d566836bddc5fd0fa27da50 https://blockchain.info/tx/953f52b1bf1e55e85c59e28e319093c0a...

revelation 13y ago
This reminds me of this wonderful reddit bot: http://www.reddit.com/user/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/user/bitcointip
- est 13y ago
  reddit could really start a nova business model like that. Think there are already many novelty accounts and bitofnews, youtube linker bots, etc.
Renaud 13y ago
Just donated some BTC fraction as well and I must say that bitcoin really does shine in the area of charitable donations: it's quick, you get the confirmation of your donation almost instantly, all of the money goes to the charity instead of having a % wasted at the credit card processor and they have the potential to get much more out of it than what I sent (this could go both ways of course). I just hope that the btc donations get matched 3x as well, they don't say on the page.

nextstep 13y ago

Hopefully they had fire insurance.

rschmitty 13y ago

Thank you whoever is providing the match, no brainier donation for me. Anyone know why the library of congress doesn't combine forces? Maybe the NSA could help restore/collect :)

hobs 13y ago

I am going to check in with my employer, and then make it happen. I have given them some money in the past, but I know they are in it for the long haul and are always a quick search away to help me find something long gone. As far as I am concerned, they are great examples of what the ethos of the internet should be about.

bane 13y ago

I used to think Project Gutenberg was one of the most important projects on the internet, then Wikipedia. But the amount of value I'm getting out of Archive.org increases every day. Some examples: 1) I'm a fan of old-time radio because it can be more entertaining than books on tape or the radio for long car or bus rides. Archive.org has an unbelievable collection, literally months of well produced radio plays, including some great classic sci-fi like "X minus 1". https://archive.org/details/XMinus1_A https://archive.org/details/XMinus1_A https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio 2) On top of hosting a copy of all of Project Gutenberg (almost 40k books), they have numerous other libraries including an awesome collection of scanned Magazines. I'm into old computers and sci-fi, so their OMNI archive (https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine) and an unbelievable collection of old computer magazines (https://archive.org/details/computermagazines https://archive.org/details/computermagazines) fit the bill. (There's also a pretty big library of classic computer books). 3) It's backed up with an extensive collection of old computer software. https://archive.org/details/software https://archive.org/details/software 4) An awesome video archive with everything from archived old computer shows like the computer chronicles https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles to a few thousand old movies, many of which are still worth watching https://archive.org/details/feature_films https://archive.org/details/feature_films including "Plan 9 from outer space" https://archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace_811 https://archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace_811 and even the impressive (if incomplete) Chrontendo https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22chrontendo%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22chrontendo... Though I wish it was a bit better organized, browsing around archive.org, and hitting upon pockets full of awesome like the 5 above remind me of being a kid and going to the central library for the day and browsing the periodical and reference sections and coming across all sorts of great stuff. I haven't been this excited to use the internet in a long time and in many ways it seems like Archive.org fulfills much of the promise of the internet as a repository of all human knowledge. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but it really is that great of a resource.

shubhamjain 13y ago
With all due to respect to Internet Archive efforts, I would be a bit cynical here. I once downloaded Code rush documentry and the quality was so bad with heavy lost frames and flickering that it was impossible to watch it. At another instance, I downloaded mp3 of a classical piece, "william tell overture" and it was nothing like what I have heard it in its best. I might be talking about only specific cases that happened with me but quality wise I didn't had much luck with it. Albeit, I do realize the project itself is huge and have been fan of the Internet Time Machine.

gandalfu 13y ago

Just donated!

luckydude 13y ago

Donated and got my company to do a 2:1 match. Anyone know how often they update the total? I didn't see it go up.