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Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

fortune.com

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Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#21

Post by dragonwriter »

eli wrote: post #17
_m8fo wrote: post #6

I wish there was a TLD that was regulated such that only a legitimate not for profit organization could have it, similar to .edu. Change having a .org TLD is incredibly misleading. It's not a non-profit, and no, B corporations do not count.

I think you just described .ngo, though I've never actually seen one in the wild.

.ngo/.ong doesn't require official non-profit status, it just (in that dimension, there are requirements in other dimensions) requires an organization to be non-profit-focussed.

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#22

Post by losteric »

pestkranker wrote: post #5

I would like to see a world where petitions are much more taken into account. Unfortunately, for many leaders, they are not taken seriously. I hope Change.org can do something about this.

I thing petitions is the wrong way to go about it... They are static copies of the author's complaint, ignoring the precise and subtle opinions of the public.

Compare that to this democratic tool: https://blog.pol.is/pol-is-in-taiwan-da7570d372b5 - collaborative consensus sounds more politically compelling that petitions

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#23

Post by dpeck »

dgranda wrote: post #11

There is much better option in some countries if you want to change some law or government policy. For example, in the UK any British citizen or UK resident can create an online petition to be discussed in UK Parliament [1]. If a petition gets 10,000 signatures, the government will respond. If a petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament. And source code is available on GitHub [2…

can't tell if this is in jest, is "considered for debate" really a better option for bringing about change?

At the end of the day influence (and by proxy money since it buys influence) is pretty much all that matters in changing policy.

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#24

Post by GlobalServices »

I don't know. To me, change.org seems like the world's largest and best-funded cyberbullying site. Don't like the opinion of some sitting judge in a case you didn't personally hear, but were angered by a friend's Facebook meme about it? Start a change.org petition to remove him!

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#25

Post by exolymph »

GuiA wrote: post #15
ryanx435 wrote: post #4

Is sama investing as an individual or is he investing through y combinator somehow? If it's as an individual this can be interpreted as further proof that he is positioning himself to run for governor of cali in a future election.

Curious to hear what some of the prior proof would be.

Details here: https://www.recode.net/2017/5/14/15638046/willie-brown-colum...

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#26

Post by r3bl »

_m8fo wrote: post #6

I wish there was a TLD that was regulated such that only a legitimate not for profit organization could have it, similar to .edu. Change having a .org TLD is incredibly misleading. It's not a non-profit, and no, B corporations do not count.

Oh, you mean like academia.edu, which, even though it's a company, got an .edu domain?

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#28

Post by rmc »

dgranda wrote: post #11

There is much better option in some countries if you want to change some law or government policy. For example, in the UK any British citizen or UK resident can create an online petition to be discussed in UK Parliament [1]. If a petition gets 10,000 signatures, the government will respond. If a petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament. And source code is available on GitHub [2…

The European Union has a similar. A European Citizens Initiative has been available since the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon. If 1 million EU citizens (~0.2% of the population) sign it, the European Commission must respond, maybe with legislation. It hasn't been used much though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Citizens%27_Initiativ...

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#29

Post by rmc »

koolba wrote: post #27

Is change.org a for-profit enterprise? The name suggests otherwise. If so, it's not really an investment in the traditional sense where you'd expect a return.

> The name suggests otherwise.

Do not underestimate the power of someone to make a business selling the feeling that your not part of a business!

Re: Change.org Raises $30M Led by Reid Hoffman; Sam Altman and Bill Gates Invest Too

#30

Post by dragonwriter »

koolba wrote: post #27

Is change.org a for-profit enterprise? The name suggests otherwise. If so, it's not really an investment in the traditional sense where you'd expect a return.

> Is change.org a for-profit enterprise?

By their own description, no, though they are identical to one in at least superficial legal form (I don't know if their corporate governing documents do anything to address this.) Note that not-for-profit is not a crisp legal category ("nonprofit" is a term used for specific tax classification which requires a number of other qualifications and accepting a number of behavioral restrictions, including on political activity, on top of being not operated for profit.)

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