Lumifer comments on Why effective altruists should do Charity Science’s Christmas fundraiser - Less Wrong

3 Post author: tog 01 December 2015 11:59PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (15)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Lumifer 02 December 2015 03:56:46PM 3 points [-]

“Hi [Person A]!

How are things? How are your kids doing? Over here, things are going really well. I just came back from a trip to Chicago, which was surprisingly beautiful and very cold. It snowed! The buildings were gorgeous and ornate though. It felt like I’d come to a steampunk city. [Note: start with something personal]

I don't like such things. I believe they are poisoning the well.

This is a commercial message (I define commercial as "about money"). The "How are your kids doing?" is a lie -- it's an attempt to make commercial personal, to use personal as a tool to extract money. I understand that this is the standard operating mode for charities. It does not make me like it any more.

I don't want to acquire an association between receiving a message that starts by asking about my family and wondering what kind of a template the writer is using and how much money does he want.

Comment author: Mac 02 December 2015 11:25:29PM 0 points [-]

I don't like such things. I believe they are poisoning the well.

You're right, transparent feigned interest will reduce the recipient's trust in the sender and probably others as well. I agree that we should promote trustworthiness and cooperation for a variety of very important reasons.

...BUT we need to quantify because AMF saves lives.

I pose the question: how much bullshit eliminates one WALY?

Comment author: Mac 02 December 2015 11:37:25PM 1 point [-]

I pose the question: how much bullshit eliminates one WALY?

Maybe an example is better.

Would you send out an annoying and obvious template email to all your friends and family if your favorite charity received $10 for every email sent?

Submitting...

Comment author: Romashka 03 December 2015 07:11:53PM 0 points [-]

Send emails, then apologize...

Comment author: tog 08 December 2015 04:40:39PM -1 points [-]

I think it's possible to send versions of these emails which aren't annoying. I've sent a bunch myself and people haven't seemed to find them annoying.

Comment author: tog 08 December 2015 04:39:40PM -1 points [-]

I disagree - I know Peter was genuinely interested in hearing back from people.

Comment author: Lumifer 08 December 2015 05:56:53PM *  1 point [-]

Funny how I never receive letters from charities which inquire after my life and family and then stop. One might think that if they were "genuinely interested" they might express it in some way which does not involve "Please give us money, the more the better".

Comment author: tog 11 December 2015 06:11:45AM 0 points [-]

These aren't letters from charities, asking for your money for themselves (even if they then spend some or most or all of it on others). If you get a stock letter signed by the president of Charity X, who you don't know, saying they hope your family is well, that's quite different.