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Jonathan's Card

jonathanstark.com

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Re: Jonathan's Card

#151

Post by gregschlom »

hammock wrote: post #149
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?

Nobody is going to drop back 20 bucks after they found the $10 bill.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#153

Post by connor »

I agree, photos, names, or some proof of humanity of the people behind the karma would help to stem abuse. The internet almost makes this abuse of karma easier due to the anonymity. You just don't feel as bad.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#154

Post by mrpollo »

jonathanstark wrote: post #44
ookblah wrote: post #26

Hmm, I think posting the value of the card affects the data points. I understand why it needs to be done, but my thinking is that if nobody knows how much is on there it leaves it less prone to outright abuse. If the card suddenly gets a $100 recharge I'm sure it will be abused a lot more. Maybe that's part of the experiment, but I'd like to see what people do in general without that knowledge. EDIT: or maybe even ju…

Jonathan here: I've been thinking about this quite a bit. One the one hand, last week some jerk saw a $50 balance and spent the whole thing in one shot. On the other hand, people need to know when there is money on the card if they are thinking about walking down to a sbux to get a coffee. I might try the "there's more than $10 on the card right now". I've also experimented with delaying the reloaded messages, and do…

Perhaps keeping things simple, just a message that says "the card has balance", "no balance in the card", that way we can reduce the abuse

Re: Jonathan's Card

#158

Post by corroded »

this is such a good thing and i hate to see this go to waste when some capitalist bastard starts selling coffees for half the price using the card.

Re: Jonathan's Card

#160

Post by brianleb »

gnaritas wrote: post #143
Peaker wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm really not trying to be critical of other people's lifestyles (and I like the idea behind Jonathan's Card), but when it comes down to it I would want to be able to educate those people that they are living outside of their means rather than enable them.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck and buying Starbucks every morning, that's definitely part of your problem. I understand and fully appreciate paying a bit more for a quality product, but when it comes down to it, being able to start a savings and plan for your future is more important than enjoying a better cup of coffee in the morning. It's directly analagous to buying a car that's out of your price range (say, a Lexus when you're only bringing in $35,000 a year pre-tax) and struggling to pay the note on it every month. You really can live with the cheaper product, and in the long run it may do you a world of good.

Am I wrong? I'd like to see some other people's input on this idea.

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