Jonathan's card strikes a good point beyond giving to Yuppies and not those seriously in need. The social implications of this experiment I think shows that people are willing to help others if its relatable and also accessible for them to do so. Besides, I am sure somewhere someone bought a coffee with Jonathons card and then gave it to a hobo
Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
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Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#92Since 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. Co…
Robin Hood is all about stealing to the rich to give to the poor and in that respect, I think Sam is right on.
Robin Hood is actually all about robbing from corrupt oppressors and protecting the oppressed. There are tales where the people he protects are fairly well off, and he regularly interacts with people of medium to high status without any intent of robbing them.
Nothing in the tales of Robin Hood suggests he would rob an honest rich man.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, if he stole enough to buy an iPad, that's a large chunk of the missing money from the card right there. I'm willing to bet most of the other people stealing from the card aren't rich and successful YC graduate entrepreneurs either but somehow that makes what he did much worse in my opinion. He's also a rich guy lecturing people on how they should be donating every little bit of their excess money to charity. I'…
Now the community should do a social experiment of encouraging Sam to return the same amount of money onto the card as he stole and see if it works.
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Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#94"Or am I alone in thinking that helping a stranger find their next caffeine fix is not what we should be worried about in today's world?" sigh This is such a silly, stupid point to make: Buying an iPad? What about world hunger!? Going to the movies? What about the modern slave trade!? Painting a picture? Women in Sudanese refugee camps can't go to the bathroom at night without fear of rape, and here you painting a pi…
I know what you mean, but the original Jonathan's Card thing made it seem like buying someone Starbucks was the height of charity when it's actually quite frivolous. At least this idea is real charity. It's still in the spirit of Jonathan's Card, but actually does some small amount of good for the world.
No it didn’t. Where did you get a crazy idea like that?
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa, a bit.ly link? Was that really necessary?
Excuse my ignorance, but what's wrong with bit.ly? Or are you simply objecting to the need to shorten the URL?
A bit.ly link prevents a HN reader from figuring out where the link is going to send him/her. When there is a limitation of 144 characters, URL shortners make a lot of sense. I got the feeling that people generally don't prefer them on HN.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#96Thought this was already revealed as a viral marketing campaign by starbucks: http://www.coffeestrategies.com/2011/08/08/starbucks-and-the... Not sure if that means there's more of a reason to exploit it or not, at least Sam's doing it for good =)
Did you read the article? It mentions that.
What our little hacker here did amounts to a cut and dry case of wire fraud - here's the wikipedia in layman's terms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_fraud. With all the press on Jonathanscard, it is more than likely this guy will be prosecuted because it is an open and shut case. Good luck kid...
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa, a bit.ly link? Was that really necessary?
Excuse my ignorance, but what's wrong with bit.ly? Or are you simply objecting to the need to shorten the URL?
link shorteners are generally frowned upon here on HN. They're unnecessary (if there is a character limit on posts, I've never reached it) and they have some downsides. So just post the whole link.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#98Since 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. Co…
Robin Hood is all about stealing to the rich to give to the poor and in that respect, I think Sam is right on.
Okay, but I'm not rich and Sam stole from me.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#99Jonathan's card, at worst a marketing experiment, at best a means of charity for those who are privileged enough to learn about it and who like to frequent Starbucks, has been subverted to give to the truly poor and needy. Does it leave a bad taste? It might. Truly, a shame. This toy for the well off might now be broken for good. I might have used it, I might have even given to it (in the spirit intended by the creator), and in either case this exploit would not upset me. I don't see why there is so much umbrage present in these comments.
Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not like giving a gift. It's making a donation for a specific cause and then having the funds misspent on something different. The publicly accessible debit card was part of the 'social experiment' which seems to result in what we already knew a long time ago. People are happy to abuse the system for what they believe to be the greater good.
How is what he's doing not "part of the social experiment?" Q: What happens if you let everyone contribute to and take from a Starbucks card? A: We are in the process of finding out, and the answer wasn't what we expected! Why isn't this just an interesting, unexpected result? Furthermore, condemning this guy is like condemning Lulzsec for exposing security vulnerabilities. Do you think that no one would have figured…
This isn't anything like "exposing a security vulnerability." Everyone understood that the card COULD be misused.
That doesn't make the misuse of it okay.