Comment author: Entropy 18 April 2010 01:13:07PM 6 points [-]

Hi! I discovered this site via OB a few months ago and have been lurking ever since. I've commented only twice before but have been reluctant to comment more as I haven't yet read anywhere near as much of LW as I would like. I'm very interested in many of the very common topics of discussion here, such as rationality, AI, etc, and hope to be able to make a contribution to our understanding of one or more such topics in the future.

Thanks for the excuse to comment, and to the LW community at large for creating such a fascinating site.

Comment author: denisbider 11 February 2010 04:04:38PM *  -2 points [-]

Charity is the process of taking purchasing power away from functional, creative individuals and communities, and giving it to dysfunctional, destructive individuals and communities.

Charity doesn't change the nature of the dysfunctional and destructive. It only restructures the reward system so that the dysfunctional and the destructive is rewarded, and the functional and constructive is penalized.

A person who does this willingly is, I am sad to say, stupid. You are only supposed to do this if people force you at gunpoint (taxes), and even then it's more patriotic to flee.

You should reward people for doing the right thing - providing a quality product or service - not for when they fail miserably.

Comment author: Entropy 11 February 2010 04:27:16PM 1 point [-]

If I derive joy from helping people in need then you could view that process as part of a very specialised industry. In this view I am not really paying to alleviate suffering, I am paying to make myself feel better but may in fact help others as a by-product. This suggests that a large proportion of efforts devoted to charity would be fairly inefficient as "makes me feel better" doesn't necessarily equate with "helps people", nevertheless it is still "productive" as it is producing a sense of well being among the givers.

Comment author: Peter_de_Blanc 10 February 2010 03:19:07AM 7 points [-]

Are there any social media marketers in the house? The first step is deciding what to call the Facebook page; it's limited to 75 characters.

Craigslist Charity Initiative?

Comment author: Entropy 10 February 2010 05:29:34PM 5 points [-]

Just a suggestion but has anyone thought of creating multiple different groups (obviously with the same objective) that have different names in order to see which name/s are most effective at attracting new members? Start X groups at roughly the same time and see which has the most members after Y days. Assuming they are all promoted roughly equally. This might also create the impression that more people are campaigning for this than actually are, though I'm uncertain whether or not that is helpful.

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