Another lesson here is to be careful with @font-face styling - http://i55.tinypic.com/1z342ee.png - the whole thing is barely readable on Windows.
Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
21–30 of 252 posts
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#22Sam hacked Jonathan's card and is doing good with it. But his hack defeats the original purpose of Jonathan's social experiment. Jonathan's card can probably only work as it was intended to with restricted access among a select group. But as the pool grows larger and more anonymous, it'll most likely be abused. Solve Jonathan's card and you'll solve Tragedy of the Commons.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#23Since I don't find the idea of yuppies buying yuppies coffees very interesting I decided to mix things up a bit.
OP/Sam, I understand that you believe there are worse problems in the world. I have no doubt that you are correct. However, this does not change the fact that your own social experiment amounts to you taking advantage of the good will of those who contributed to the Starbucks card by stealing from them. Contributing the money to a charity afterwards does not change this fact.
You are not Robin Hood stealing from a corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. So please don't act like it.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#24Why does a project that's about a minor form of good will always need to be trumped by something else? Like we need to be incessantly reminded that there are starving people for every decision we make in our day to day lives?
It's nice that he's trying to increase the awareness of starving children. But I don't see why he feels he needs to basically destroy the system Jonathan has come up with.
Yes, apparently the one second you were thinking about your own needs, or anyone OTHER than a very poor person, was selfish and horrible. We should all stop buying things, walk out into the street and start screaming at the futility since there are people in the world who are worse off than us.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are people who may or may not wear tinfoil hats who have shared circumstantial evidence suggesting this. Jonathan, his friends, and Starbucks have all denied this is the case. My experience is that when confronted with the evidence, the people behind “viral marketing campaigns" have no trouble ‘fessing up, they usually boast of it and use it to drum up more business for their “social media agencies.” A company…
I kind of agree with your point, but saying that the Starbucks brand takes a "huge" hit is a bit of an overstatement.
If Starbucks does a viral marketing campaign, gets outed, and says “Yes, we did a viral marketing campaign,” there’s no hit to speak of. But I do think that if they deny in writing that there is a viral marketing campaign and then are busted for lying about conducting a viral marketing campaign, this is a scandal that would end up on the evening news.
I suppose there’s room for conflicting views over how much damage that might be, but I can’t see any marketing person thinking that it is worth the risk.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#26This seems like an unauthorized use of the card and could be criminal theft. If I give you my stored value card to buy coffee and you instead steal all the money, it doesn't matter whether you're donating to charity or disagree with my cause - it's stealing. Regardless, it's certainly a shitty thing to do.
You no longer control the money once you donate it to an anonymous recipient! You don't get to choose how the money is spent. If you're not comfortable with that, don't put money on a publicly accessible debit card!!
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#27This is clearly theft. What he used the money for is not relevant. The card was put out for a specific use, and this use case was not the intended one. Had he actually bought an iPad, everyone would agree that it's theft. Transferring money between someones else's card and your own with out permission is theft.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#28Gift cards held by a group are an interesting way to move money around with a little deniability.
If there was an easier way to cash in Starbucks gift cards, Starbucks could take over Western Union.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#29meh. don't care who you are donating too, its still shitty. get down of your high horse.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#30I can't help but feel that this just isn't the right way to go about helping the less fortunate. It's just too underhanded.
Just build something similar that doesn't involve taking advantage of J's Card. Man up.