Make a Donation to the Internet Archive | Hacker News Reader

Make a Donation to the Internet Archive

archive.org

165 pointscleverjake31 comments

The Internet Archive is genuinely one of my favorite sites on the Internet. From the vast audio archives[1] to the insurmountable web archive[2], I find myself using it daily.

[1] http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead

[2] http://web.archive.org/web/20070405032412/http://news.ycombi...

Bitcoins sent, my pleasure. Apparently they have received over 560 BTC... very cool.

Yep, you can see all the bitcoin donations they have received over here:

http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvR...

They also accept Bitcoins :)

I've donated 50$ to the Internet Archive under this donation campaign. It's awesome that someone is tripling that - so that the Internet Archive gets 200$ from that.

Whoever is doing that, is awesome.

The Internet Archive does a lot of spiffy things - and it's in my opinion really worth it to support them.

Where's Jimmy Wales' face when you need it?

So true.

Interesting that they dont have a message like "This page brought to you by archive.org Donate here to keep this page alive" on the archived pages.

I dont think people would mind seeing that on the recovered sites. (Unless they do and I cant see it for some reason?)

People does not seem to like that kind of Wikipedia donation advertising, if I understood you correctly.

At least in the sense that there's endless parodies and nagging about those ads.

It does however seem to work, since they raise money that way - and continue doing so.

Internet Archive do have a top banner which is quite neutral on most of archive.org (It's the blue ribbon thingie). It's not on the Wayback Machine though.

I'm using the Bitcoin option!

I donated some money to the Internet Archive last year and was pleasantly surprised when I received two IA-branded caps in the mail some time later (I live in Germany). Very nice gesture.

after visiting sf last year i became a donor to the internet archive (for practical purposes) and the long now foundation (for philosophical purposes) with a company match. will be looking into whether i get a company match outside the ordinary 'window' - would be nice to add another multiplier to this matchstravaganza.

Sent a few bitcoins their way.

4 peta bytes doesn't seem that much. How long is that going to last them?

Not sure, but for comparison, they're currently using 10 petabytes.

Not to sound like an ass, but it's going to last them longer than no extra drives from the campaign. So it'll certainly help them along :-)

You don't sound like an ass!

I was just wondering why something which is almost universally seen as good (or great, even) is running donation drives to get 4 petabytes. (To bring them to a total of about 14 petabytes.)

(I guess I'm comparing to Megaupload's 25 petabytes - which are still(?) sitting in racks not being used.)

When someone is matching your donation, there's no reason not to donate.

Not at all. If it's a cause you support then it certainly makes it more compelling, but any reason against donating normally still exists when donations are being matched.

Very useful site, however im kind of broke at the moment :)

Am a user, but primarily as free storage for live show recordings. It's a great service and should be supported for all they do, but unfortunately I won't be a donor anytime soon.

As a user of the site, what is preventing you from chipping in for your usage?

It's too bad that I got a -3 for my post- I was just being honest. Thanks for asking.

I upload content, and used to listen to it, but now I don't. Some others have downloaded the content, but it wasn't critical. I don't use the site enough on my own to justify donation. I think it is a great service- really! But, I would bet many feel the same way. Unless it is really helping others that you care about, why donate? It has never significantly helped me personally, or any that I know. I would rather donate to a charity that helps those in need. But I'm glad others donate. It is preserving history. It is just a matter of priority.

Am I the only one that finds appeals to donate actually more irritating that adverts?

To something like the Internet Archive? Yes. Yes you are.

I don’t find this appeal to donate irritating because the Internet Archive is a non-profit, and it does necessary work I’m grateful for. Asking for donations is the main way the IA can keep doing the good things it’s doing, so I wouldn’t want to stop that.

I don’t like the idea of good human works being lost, so I’m glad that the Internet Archive archives lots of media, especially scrapes of websites in the Wayback Machine. I’ve used the Wayback Machine usefully multiple times in the past to find information that would otherwise be gone.

(That said, I didn’t donate, because I feel that I can’t afford to.)

Yeah and those damn pesky charities who have the audacity to ask for donations to help sick children get better or provide clean water and food to families in third world countries... /sarcasm

To answer your question: yes, you are the only one that finds appeals for donations for worthy causes to be irritating. The Internet Archive might not get as much attention as Wikipedia or other donate-able causes, but what they're doing is a very worthy cause and something that will be commended and finally recognised one day in the near distant future. When someone is willing to match a donation 3-1, you can't argue that even the minimum donation of $25 which I am sure most HN users could afford would help them out a lot.

It's attitudes like yours that are the reason sites like Wikipedia have to resort to plastering Jimmy Wales' face over their site and beg for donations to keep the site running. Have some heart, man.

I just donated $50, please consider donating even just $25.

Matched you, every 404'd article that I have found through web.archive.org makes it more than worth it.

I've also donated $50. So - thanks to you and me, IA now has $400!

Also, please keep in mind that the Internet Archive isn't plastering this donation campaign everywhere - and that this is completely user submitted.

They have a blue banner on http://archive.org asking for donations on some pages. But they do not for example;

* mail every user that is registered

* add the banner on all wayback machine pages

In other words, they're pretty subtile.

No, you're not. And that's why non-profits have to spend large sums of money on marketing to convince people to give more.

But you say: "Marketing is a waste of money for a charity! Feed more starving kids with it!" That sounds good, until you realize that the ROI on marketing is positive and if the charity wants to grow, it has to spend a portion of each $1 you give to it trying to get the next $1 to help it grow.

Thus we end up with overhead, which ironically, can upset people more and make them want to give less.

It's a vicious cycle people. Spread the love and give.

Marketplace on NPR interviewed an economist researching charity fundraising. Some highlights from the interview:

* 1-to-1 match works well, but increasing the match to 2-1 or 3-1 doesn't do any additional good.

* Raffles. If you're serious about raising money, offer people a prize. And just by doing that you end up increasing gifts by as much as 100 percent.

* "Once-and-done" policy: Since charities know it's annoying to constantly get solicitations in the mail, they give you a choice: if you send in some money today, and check a box opting out, we'll never bother you again. People who are given the once and done proposition, they not only give more money in that particular fund-raising drive, but they do not check the box. And in future months they end up giving more money that people who never received the once-and-done proposition.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/freakonomics-radio/wh...

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