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Jonathan's Card

jonathanstark.com

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Re: Jonathan's Card

#141

Post by michaelschade »

jonathanstark wrote: post #138
funthree wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is at least two cases that this doesnt explain. http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard/status/10034195955777536... http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard/status/10035604975584460... edit: now at least 5, see above

Jonathan here: I see what you're saying, and of course it is possible that some jerk is buying gift cards with the card. That said, it's worth pointing out that the tweet stream is not real time and it doesn't have every transaction. The card balance is scraped from the sbux site every minute and posted to Twitter if it has changed since the last tweet. When there are multiple transactions in the same minute, the cha…

I vote that you encourage people to make lots of little transactions over time versus just getting rid of the balance.

The balance is really neat to see and it keeps people engaged and thinking about this project, even if they're not actively partaking (like myself, at the moment).

The smaller installments of cash also help others realize that it's okay to submit small amounts and increase the likelihood that more than just one person with a large purchase will benefit.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#142

Post by Cushman »

jonathanstark wrote: post #138
funthree wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is at least two cases that this doesnt explain. http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard/status/10034195955777536... http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard/status/10035604975584460... edit: now at least 5, see above

Jonathan here: I see what you're saying, and of course it is possible that some jerk is buying gift cards with the card. That said, it's worth pointing out that the tweet stream is not real time and it doesn't have every transaction. The card balance is scraped from the sbux site every minute and posted to Twitter if it has changed since the last tweet. When there are multiple transactions in the same minute, the cha…

Can you put spending limits on a card? Or disable it entirely?

What I'm wondering is if you can have a deposit-only card, which transfers funds to the live card to keep it topped up at $10. Downside is some people have to wait an extra minute or two for free coffee; upside is someone trying to clean out the account has to spread it over a bunch of transactions, which even if it doesn't stop everyone probably raises the barrier to entry.

A PayPal account could also work for this.

Then you could broadcast a rough total balance, and just have a binary indicator for when the live card gets topped up.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#143

Post by gnaritas »

Peaker wrote: post #57
brk wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to kind of defeat the point? Use it when you can't afford coffee, refill it when you can afford a coffee plus a little more...

I don't understand: Do people really alternate between being able to afford a coffee and not being able to, more than a couple of times in a lifetime?

Seriously, many people experience that weekly. That's what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#145

Post by joezydeco »

JohnLBevan wrote: post #101
hassanhassan wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something does sound fishy. I wonder why someone would ruin the fun for everyone involved.

$100 spent on coffee for the homeless maybe? Just to take an optimistic view on the data.

How about someone buying a coffeemaker (they sell those) and telling the clerk "I've got $100 on the card and I'll pay the rest in cash"?

Re: Jonathan's Card

#146

Post by tedunangst »

dvdhsu wrote: post #22
coverband wrote: post #15

Such a simple and wonderful idea; it brightened my Sunday. (Edit: I wonder how soon it will take SBX to decide that this is a vulnerability in their mobile app and change something that will break this.)

It really doesn't seem that much of a "vulnerability" actually. The only way to get a picture is if you get ahold of the victim's phone, or they willingly give it up to you. If you get ahold of the victim's phone, the victim has bigger problems (NFC, e-mail, saved passwords, etc.).

All you need is a high-res picture of the victim's phone. Take a picture of them paying, use the same barcode yourself.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#147

Post by Sam_Odio »

eggbrain wrote: post #96

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.

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

#148

Post by jonathanstark »

Cushman wrote: post #142
jonathanstark wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jonathan here: I see what you're saying, and of course it is possible that some jerk is buying gift cards with the card. That said, it's worth pointing out that the tweet stream is not real time and it doesn't have every transaction. The card balance is scraped from the sbux site every minute and posted to Twitter if it has changed since the last tweet. When there are multiple transactions in the same minute, the cha…

Can you put spending limits on a card? Or disable it entirely? What I'm wondering is if you can have a deposit-only card, which transfers funds to the live card to keep it topped up at $10. Downside is some people have to wait an extra minute or two for free coffee; upside is someone trying to clean out the account has to spread it over a bunch of transactions, which even if it doesn't stop everyone probably raises t…

Thanks for your feedback! Your suggestion is a good one and something that I've been considering. It is possible to reload one sbux card from another, so I was thinking about using one for deposit only and dribbling the balance into the purchase card at $20 per hour or similar. I think there's something about this that would ruin the excitement so I'm working on different approach at the moment. Not sure where it'll end up.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#149

Post by hammock »

eggbrain wrote: post #96

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.

I'm trying to figure out- what's the difference between loading the card and just dropping $10 on the ground?

Re: Jonathan's Card

#150

Post by Cushman »

jonathanstark wrote: post #148
Cushman wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you put spending limits on a card? Or disable it entirely? What I'm wondering is if you can have a deposit-only card, which transfers funds to the live card to keep it topped up at $10. Downside is some people have to wait an extra minute or two for free coffee; upside is someone trying to clean out the account has to spread it over a bunch of transactions, which even if it doesn't stop everyone probably raises t…

Thanks for your feedback! Your suggestion is a good one and something that I've been considering. It is possible to reload one sbux card from another, so I was thinking about using one for deposit only and dribbling the balance into the purchase card at $20 per hour or similar. I think there's something about this that would ruin the excitement so I'm working on different approach at the moment. Not sure where it'll…

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. One thought I had (which others have suggested) is to encourage people to donate in small amounts— rather than drop $25 on the card if you're feeling generous, you should drop $5 on it each morning for a week.

But since that's kind of a hassle, then you'd whip up a quick app that lets people easily amortize a larger contribution over a series of coffee-scale contributions. Connect that to their twitter account, and you can credit each individual coffee donation to an individual and report them individually.

It's effectively the same as having a larger account balance, but since you're not holding the money it feels more engaging and social for folks.

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