The 1,000 Dollar Donation

Published on March 1, 2008 (↻ April 29, 2023), filed under (RSS feed for all categories).

A few minutes ago, I donated the 1,000 US dollars I offered in the 1,000 Dollar Comment Game. I rounded the 1,000 dollars to 700 euros and transferred the money to “Selbsthilfe für Wohnungslose e.V.”, Hanover—400 euros directly to the aid group, 300 euros to a voluntary employee so as to pay extra work.

Donation proof.

The motivation for this measure is simple to explain: Both the 1,000 Dollar Comment Game and its predecessor, the 100 Dollar Comment Game, well, flopped, and donating the money made more sense than waiting until 2009. I did not give the money to an international organization because I think that in a world moving together, local support becomes even more important, and it’s easier to tell what’s being done with the money. (I don’t generally mistrust international aid institutions though, as a forthcoming project will show.)

Regardless, many thanks again to the 1,000 Dollar Comment Game sponsors, Mathias Ziegler of Triplemind/Unterkunft.de and Tom MĂźller of SUP4U, who, thankfully, agreed to this donation. So I hope that we all enjoyed the experiment (whose development still puzzles me) and are also glad that we could help a few people in need.

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About Me

Jens Oliver Meiert, on September 30, 2021.

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a frontend engineering leader and tech author/publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead for companies like Google and as an engineering manager for companies like Miro, I’m close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development (and engineering management), but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

If you’d like to do me a favor, interpret charitably (I speak three languages, and they do collide), yet be critical and give feedback for me to fix issues, learn, and improve. Thank you!

Comments (Closed)

  1. On March 3, 2008, 10:40 CET, Lazar said:

    So, what was the experiment?

  2. On March 3, 2008, 11:03 CET, Jens Oliver Meiert said:

    Hi Lazar, well, I’ve just been curious đŸ˜Š

  3. On March 3, 2008, 11:35 CET, Lazar said:

    I’ve tried to stimulate people with money once ($100) to submit enlightening videos, but enthusiasm was not very high! All they had to do is submit a video with a thoughtful comment (well, and to figure out an odd diamond like rating scale!).

    In my experiment there was no ‘game theory’ involved. Only the quality of comment/video would decide the winner…

    I am actually surprised that the number of comments in your game didn’t reach close to hundred. If the game is still on, I think I can mobilize a few people with one email and your game will end within few days!

  4. On March 3, 2008, 23:13 CET, Robert Bienert said:

    Well, what is the conclusion of the two games: Do bloggers already have enough money so that they don’t bother about some “tip”, some “silly bucks”?

    And since the interest of earning 100 and even 1,000$ has decreased more and more, I think you did the right decission to donate the money for a good cause.

  5. On March 4, 2008, 9:23 CET, helmdach said:

    Nice touch jens đŸ˜‰

    Btw, the link to the charity organization is not very useful đŸ˜‰