
Cards Against Humanity is digging a hole in the earth - kwikiel
https://holidayhole.com/
======
Hurtak
Their FAQ is also pretty good.

Q: Why aren’t you giving all this money to charity? A: Why aren’t YOU giving
all this money to charity? It’s your money.

~~~
amelius
One question is missing though: what if they find gold or other precious
materials? Will the backers receive part of the returns?

~~~
corndoge
HN, always thinking of the money. Can't we just set aside the technicalities
and cash and enjoy a hole for once.

------
Friedduck
We were stopped by a TSA agent, who took great care to inspect our Cards
Against Humanity deck, and ask lots of questions. Where'd you buy them? What
is this? She revealed in the course of the conversation that she'd been banned
from shopping on Amazon.

I posit that someone who's banned from shopping at AMZN is more dangerous than
someone who plays card games with a dark sense of humor. How does that even
happen?

~~~
throwaway729
_> How does that even happen?_

Fraud and abuse.

Treating Amazon like a mail-in library for books, tools, and other products is
the easiest way.

Returning a huge number of your orders regardless of other forms of abuse.

Contesting valid CC charges.

Etc.

 _> I posit that someone who's banned from shopping at AMZN is more dangerous
than someone who plays card games with a dark sense of humor._

I wouldn't necessarily say "dangerous". Maybe "untrustworthy" or "lacking in
good judgement" or "lacking a strong moral compass".

~~~
crawfordcomeaux
Instead of trying to judge the person, how about we conceive of behaviors?

They could be someone who cycles in and out of addictive or manic shopping.
The word that comes to mind for me there is "tragic".

~~~
illirik
I have bipolar disorder, and many (if not most) people with bipolar shop to
excess during manic phases. One person in my therapy group spends several
thousand dollars on clothing, shoes, technology, etc. in a single day roughly
twice per year, and then brings it all back the next day when he realizes that
he cannot afford it all. He's banned from J. Crew and Brooks Brothers. I've
done similar things (although not to that scale). Ultimately, there can be
many reasons for strange or even potentially harmful behavior that one cannot
easily control.

~~~
jliptzin
How do they enforce that ban? Do they check the ID of every shopper who makes
a purchase?

~~~
bunderbunder
Set up the POS machines to refuse to process purchases using certain credit
card numbers, or based on the name associated with the card, I'm guessing.

~~~
weaksauce
> or based on the name associated with the card

doubtful that that is a strategy or else there would be a ban on common names.

------
frisco
This is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Much better than the
laser cutting of a Picasso. CAH is the OK Go of postmodern satire and have
outdone themselves. Really incredible art.

I imagine many people not getting this is the same feeling I had growing up
and being dragged to museums.

~~~
syphilis2
I think you are seeing what isn't there. Of course that's the definition of a
hole.

"Is there some sort of deeper meaning or purpose to the hole?

No."

~~~
ethbro
Isn't deliberate lack of purpose also a purpose?

~~~
Retric
"No."

~~~
danlindley
I think the Dada art movement would disagree.

~~~
bigblind
Still, their reply is clear.

"No."

~~~
ethbro
The FAQ stated there wasn't a purpose to the hole. Not that their lack of
purpose wasn't purposeful.

Two different things.

~~~
Piskvorrr
I tried digging into this, and got a stack overflow some 10 "no"s in.

~~~
sesqu
It seems you need to manually implement tail recursion.

------
binaryorganic
The folks at CaH have a history of pranks around Black Friday. They've invited
people to send them money in exchange for absolutely nothing. They've sold
boxes of actual bullshit. My personal favorite was when they raised their
prices $5 and called it a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity and they still had
record sales.

------
rroblak
CAH would never admit it, but I feel like at least part of this can be seen as
political commentary.

From the top of their page: "The holidays are here, and _everything in America
is going really well_ " (emphasis mine).

It's hard for me not to read the last part of that as sarcasm, given many
people's reaction to the recent US election.

Perhaps CAH is saying that the US is digging itself a hole by electing Trump
and a Republican Senate.

~~~
nathan_f77
> Cards Against Humanity is digging a tremendous hole in the earth.

"tremendous" is one of the words that Donald Trump is very known for using. So
I think you're right.

~~~
asciimo
People say it's the best hole all the time.

~~~
theptip
It's going to be yuge.

~~~
cyberferret
And other people are going to pay for it...

------
dorianm
This is crazy awesome! I just wanted to do a cost breakdown:

0.6s/$ is $6,000/hour (thanks @danielvf).

The excavator is around $2000/day[1].

The truck is around $2200/day[2].

Plus at least two operators with $200/day each[3].

And then the cost of Stripe's fees, buying the land, getting a permit (?),
etc.

[1]: [http://www.rentalyard.com/listings/construction-
equipment/fo...](http://www.rentalyard.com/listings/construction-
equipment/for-rent/list/category/1032/excavators-
crawler/manufacturer/caterpillar/model-group/345)

[2]: [http://www.rentalyard.com/listings/construction-
equipment/fo...](http://www.rentalyard.com/listings/construction-
equipment/for-rent/list/category/1049/off-highway-
trucks/manufacturer/caterpillar/model-group/740)

[3]: [http://gcsenergy.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2016/04/2016-Hourly-R...](http://gcsenergy.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2016/04/2016-Hourly-Rate-Schedule-Revision-1.pdf)

~~~
yincrash
The cost per second changes over time. When I first saw the site yesterday
afternoon, it was 2.2s / $.

~~~
chadscira
Oh, awesome. Hopefully they drastically reduce it.

~~~
colechristensen
I believe it started at 5 s/$

~~~
thomasahle
So they have increased their costs by nearly af factor 10?

~~~
CydeWeys
It seems like they settled on a fixed maximum time of hole-digging, and are
drastically increasing the cost so as to not exceed it.

~~~
johan_larson
Yes, they seem to have set the digging period in advance. Somehow that seems
dishonest to me. If they knew they were going to dig for 48 hours come what
may, they should have said so.

~~~
CydeWeys
My best guess is that the operators of the vehicles, and perhaps the vehicles
themselves, need to get back to their real jobs come Monday.

------
supergreg
If you see the glass half full, they are not just digging a hole, they are
creating a hill next to it.

~~~
nickpsecurity
Lol. Someone should send money in for building the hills.

~~~
archgoon
If they feel inspired to work around the whole conservation of mass thing to
avoid 'free work', then I'm not going to complain.

------
phillco
Strongly reminds me of this classic Onion video:
[http://www.theonion.com/video/in-the-know-should-the-
governm...](http://www.theonion.com/video/in-the-know-should-the-government-
stop-dumping-mon-14289)

~~~
stephengillie
Congrats to the CaH team for privatizing this public need. That's
entrepreneurship at its finest.

------
Chos89
I think the interesting thing about this is to think how weird our economy
functions, because at the end of this, all we will have is a net gain for the
economy and an empty hole.

~~~
throwaway420
a) Is it really a net gain for the economy? Not really, unless this hole has
some other future productive use, because you're ignoring what this money
would have otherwise gone to pay for in lieu of this hole.

b) Funnily enough, the example of paying people to dig random holes is
frequently given in economics arguments to illustrate why the Subjective
theory of value makes more sense than the Labor theory of value.

C) Holes are made to be filled. Next year's gag is probably filling the hole
back up with something.

~~~
brentm
I'd say it is a net gain. The money went to pay the company that dug the hole
who used the money to pay their contractors working on the project, equipment
leases, gasoline, etc. It will also end up being mentioned on the various blog
and news outlets all selling ads against the story of the hole. CAH will also
sell more product because of the hole & subsequent publicity. It looks like an
increase in GDP (aka net gain for the economy) to me.

~~~
johan_larson
All the money I don't spend on absurd acts of Dadaism I just spend on liquor,
which is bad for me and occasionally for those around me. So the world is
probably a little bit better off for the money I spent on digging this hole.

------
Raed667
I have spent last night laughing at this.

I have spent this morning depressing about it.

~~~
the_duke
I just found the site 5 minutes a go.

I still can't stop laughing.

This is so marvelously stupid, I love it.

    
    
      What do I get for contributing money to the hole?
      A deeper hole. What else are you going to buy, an iPod?

~~~
Raed667
What depresses me is the fact that $77k can easily run a startup for over a
year in my country.

~~~
swengw
Seems similar, since the average startup temporarily employs people and
results in nothing (although over a longer period of time).

~~~
inimino
The opportunity cost of the people digging the hole should be lower, and at
the end, at least they'll have a hole. A clear win over the median startup.

Besides, they are literally changing the world.

~~~
chadscira
Awe, hey we end up with more than a empty hole! What about all of the dead
code!

------
ethbro
_"...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be
bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the
world burn."_

If ever there was an appropriate event for the quote.

~~~
johan_larson
For $90K, you could probably buy an old house and literally burn it down. It
would probably take some doing to convince the fire department to let you do
it legally, but with enough money it should be possible to take enough
safeguards, particularly if the house is remote to begin with.

------
pilom
If you're thinking of donating,
[http://www.givewell.org/donate](http://www.givewell.org/donate)

~~~
dwaltrip
I was inspired to write the following short story, and couldn't really help
myself. I hope it is worth the amount of page space it occupies.

\---

A few weeks into the maiden voyage of the Interplanetary Transport System, a
middle-aged woman named Alex Kimber sat quietly in the library behind the
kitchen. The term "library" is perhaps a bit gracious. American walk-in
closets back on Earth were often larger than this enclosure.

It was a good place for thinking, though. Not surprisingly, the compact
spaceship didn't provide much privacy, as each additional pound of weight came
with a $200 price tag.

Alex was near the peak of an enviable career. She possessed master's degrees
in two different engineering fields as well as in political science, was the
founder of two companies valued in the $10M to $100M range, and had held
multiple advisory positions with her state's long term development board.

Her fellow voyagers were good company. Only the highest caliber applicants had
been accepted for the first 10 missions. These "founding missions" were
responsible for building a secure base capable of housing at least 5,000
individuals. All within five years! This would be an immense challenge. They
would be testing the prototype blueprint for a self-sustaining Mars base.

These difficulties, however, were not on Alex's mind. She was ruminating on
more fundamental matters. As both a scientist and passionate student of modern
philosophy, her personal framework for understanding life was strongly colored
by materialism and absurdism. On a pragmatic level, however, she found much
peace and stability through mindfulness.

She had always felt that greatest institutions of the current age were
severely lacking in their integration of such principles. The chance to tend
to the young seeds of the first society on Mars played no small role in her
willingness to risk so much and join the expedition.

Over the years, as she pondered the deepest dynamics of human relationships on
both the micro and macro scales, Alex had scribbled down notes here and there.
Yet she often still struggled to summarize her views.

An unexpected connection sparked in the unseen layers of her subconscious
mind, and she opened her laptop. She began browsing through her collection of
saved articles and other media. She clicked the "post-modern" tag, and a
diverse set of articles, blog entries, lectures, and videos filled the screen.

The whimsical title "Cards against Humanity is digging a hole in the Earth"
jumped out. She opened the file. Vaguely remembering this offbeat stunt from
more than a decade and half ago, she couldn't help but smile.

Some moments passed. Her thoughts turned serious. A few clicks later, and a
blinking cursor yearned at her from the blank canvas of the editor. Like a
hurricane forming from the gentle flaps of a butterfly's wings, the keys of
her laptop softly succumbed to the pressure of her fingertips, and the text
"Mars Political Treatise: Volume 1" filled the first line of the page...

~~~
joeguilmette
This is awesome :) You should keep writing it.

------
TeMPOraL
I'm imagining the next year.

Black Friday 2017 - plot twist! For each $10 donated, CAH will put $7 in cash
in the hole (using the remaining $3 to secure it against elements). At the end
of the fundraiser, they'll fill the hole back in, creating a literal case of
hidden underground treasure.

------
nickpsecurity
Next time they should take donations for a deep learning system. They will
promise to train the machine with data from CaH, Reddit, and 4chan. It will
then output the next set of Cards Against Humanity. Their bullshit will be at
the level of some tech companies posted here often. Whereas, fans might
actually get something back for their money later. :)

------
cyberferret
I, for one, am incredibly saddened by this. Not against CaH directly, per se,
but at the psychology of people's propensity to spend money.

Over the past 3 years, I have created about 4 or 5 web apps, and sunk my own
money into them to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. In most cases, it
was a struggle to get people to pay even $3/month for one of them, and I ended
up shuttering some of them.

The feeling I get from this is that hundreds and hundred of hours of blood,
sweat and tears from me, (which includes 50 years of knowledge, and personal
sacrifices that I and my family have had to make) is, at the end of the day,
worth less than a hole in the earth.

Excuse me while I go sit in a darkened room and ruminate about this over a
glass of wine.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_In most cases, it was a struggle to get people to pay even $3 /month for one
of them, and I ended up shuttering some of them. The feeling I get from this
is that hundreds and hundred of hours of blood, sweat and tears from me,
(which includes 50 years of knowledge, and personal sacrifices that I and my
family have had to make) is, at the end of the day, worth less than a hole in
the earth._

I've been there, so please don't take this the wrong way, but yes, your
hundreds of hours of blood, sweat, and tears may mean less than a hole in the
ground. And why shouldn't it?

Your hard work _on its own_ means basically nothing to anyone. People buy
because of the perceived value _to them_ of what they're buying, not because
of what the seller did or didn't put into it. If people weren't going to pay
$3 / month for your project, it's because you weren't offering them at least
$3 / month of perceived value.

There is basically no connection that I can see between how much hard work
goes into something and how much the market is willing to pay for it. Some
people labor a lifetime on something that no one will ever want, others spend
a weekend throwing together a website that will one day IPO for billions [1].

This is why so many successful startup founders and investors advise getting a
project out there as quickly as possible and iterating rapidly to either find
product / market fit, or to abandon it for something else. Fighting an uphill
battle to make people want something that they don't care about, just because
you've poured so much into it is a recipe for disaster.

Again, I've been there, so please don't take any of this the wrong way! Just
my own rumination in response.

1\. Yes, a lot of hard work goes into it along the way, but that's a hell of a
lot easier with early success.

~~~
cyberferret
I totally agree with you about the value perception, and don't take your post
in the wrong way at all.

But seeing people put even $10 into the 'hole' project just highlights that
someone, somewhere, thinks that giving their hard earned $10 is better value
to them than an app that costs $3. More than 3 times the worth, really.

That kind of thing really sucks, to me. I've spent a few dollars here and
there in the past to support people whom I think deserved it for their efforts
- be it a small trinket at a craft fair or a CD from a busking musician in the
street. To me, spending money on the efforts of their craft (even if it is on
things I didn't really need) rather than a cup of coffee, or a hole, says to
them "I think that your efforts and creative energy are worth something, and I
am willing to give you some of my hard earned cash to prove its worth". Even
giving a few dollars to a homeless person is leveraging the money for the
betterment of humanity.

The sadness here is the fact that I live in a society that thinks a hole in
the ground is worth more that someone's creative output. All the worse for the
fact that they are prepared to make a statement about it by quite literally
throwing away money to make their point. Is this the every day person's
equivalent of lighting up cigars with $100 bills?

~~~
imagist
The problem is, a hole in the ground is indeed often worth more than someone's
creative output, because many people's creative output has negative worth.
Silicon valley has fixated on behaviors that are actively harmful to users--
corporate surveillance, spam, poor security, etc. In some cases these
behaviors are damaging society as a whole.

I put $10 in the hole. If such a thing existed, I'd be willing to put a lot
more toward any effort that would plausibly put Facebook out of business
without an equally evil alternative arising.

I can't say the same for your apps, since I don't know you or your apps, but
the average app I wouldn't install for free, because I know they would collect
my data and use it against my interests.

~~~
cyberferret
Valid point re: collection of data in apps. Mine don't do that, but of course
I understand that a lot of people have that natural suspicion these days. I
didn't think of that aspect and am grateful you pointed it out.

------
dictum
I keep waiting for the day cynical businesses will cut out the middlemen and
make a point using only their own resources.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Qu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid)

~~~
hashhar
That's exactly the point they are making and have been for the last two years.
They were able to sell actual 'bull shit' to people last year and jacked up
their prices last to last year and yet sales went higher than ever before. The
margins from last year were distributed among employees to do as they saw fit
and can be seen on their website (a lot of them decided to donate). The last
to last years' went all to charity.

They are making a point against the blind consumerism. And that too in style.

Companies have donated more than $1k in some cases and CAH makes it look a
mockery of them throwing their money into a literal hole for advertisement.

------
dpeck
"From the widest gulley to the deepest trench, holes define who we are and
where we are going." \- Rainier Wolfcastle

~~~
wlkr
Linking just to save others the search.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDONJhEo0RI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDONJhEo0RI)

------
wbhart
An interesting question is what volume of earth could they move in the
allotted time with this equipment. In the live feed it looks like they are
making the hole wide, rather than deep though. It would be fun if they
accidentally dug up a massive fossil find or something like that.

------
nathancahill
Funny, I'm watching two different fundraisers progress. One for election
integrity and one for digging a hole.

~~~
akerl_
And only one of those fundraisers was up front about what they were collecting
the money for.

------
ivl
I think what amuses me most is that the biggest donors seem to be people
looking to advertise.

At the moment it's a vehicle code scanner, LEO/Tachical gear, flavored
nicotine (I guess?), and a BBQ thermometer.

~~~
hashhar
That's exactly what they have been trying to critique for the last two years
on Black Fridays. Blind consumerism. Advertisers are literally throwing money
at a hole in the ground.

They even state at their page "Why don't you donate this to a charity?" and
they reply, "It's your money. Why don't YOU donate it to a charity.".

It's almost like we are looking past the mirror they have held up for us in
our faces.

------
ohwaitnvm
If you find this interesting and would like to read about another money pit,
HN led me to read about the Oak Island Money Pit many months ago.

[http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/topics/oakisland/story....](http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/topics/oakisland/story.html)

------
reppic
A wonderful critique of capitalist ideology... and so on and so on. _sniff_
\--Slavoj Zizek

~~~
whytaka
The appeal to vulgarity is a tired cliche of social critique. At this point,
no one can make a fresh point about it. Now it's just exploitation of the
weak.

~~~
imagist
At this point, saying that an economic activity is an exploitation of the weak
is redundant.

------
throwaway1974
Uhm can someone explain to nonUS audience what exactly is this Cards Against
Humanity?

~~~
Pxtl
A party card game about combining cards with tasteless jokes on them to make
larger tasteless jokes.

The company is also known for viral marketing campaigns, like mail-order poo.

They also have a more elaborate social deduction game called Secret Hitler
about politics in Weimar Germany. With cartoon lizards.

~~~
titanix2
This game (Secret Hitler) ruined quite of few nights when I was an exchange
student: people kept playing it while it was limited to only 10 players IIRC
and was an obvious albeit less-fun rip off of the game "Les Loups-garous de
Thiercelieux"[1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Werewolves_of_Millers_Holl...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow)

~~~
ajkjk
That sounds like it is itself a ripoff of the game Mafia [1] which is
ubiquitous in the US. Unless it came first, I guess.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_\(party_game\))

~~~
chris_7
If Secret Hitler is a ripoff of anything, it's Avalon, which is similar to
Mafia/Werewolf, but is much deeper and lacks the issue of player elimination.

------
gkafkg8y8
I wish I could give more than ~$1.797693 x (10^308).

That means that they can't dig longer than ~3.417998 x (10^300) years.

If you'd like to find the exact amount, you can copy this into the custom
amount field and keep altering digits until you come up with the right number:

    
    
      179769313000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
    

I have a feeling whatever the actual number is would be extremely important to
our survival as a species, like something I'd need to enter into an Apple II+
every 108 minutes to discharge electromagnetic energy safely or the
"Underworld" hieroglyphs would be displayed.

[http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hieroglyphs](http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hieroglyphs)

~~~
fred256
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-precision_floating-
poin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-precision_floating-point_format)

------
haberman
The people they hired to do this have got to be thinking this is the weirdest
job they have ever, or will ever, get paid to do.

------
pulsefire
HTTP ERROR 503. Can't access the website anymore. Seems like they weren't
prepared for such high traffic!

------
typon
This is a more powerful critique of rampant consumerism than I've seen in my
University courses.

~~~
imagist
That's because university economics courses are typically taught by economists
with a vested interest in the continuation of rampant consumerism.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
This does not appear to violate the First Rule of Holes, and should,
therefore, be acceptable.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_holes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_holes)

------
kamyarg
This reminded me of "The Hole"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAIbvlobWDM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAIbvlobWDM)

------
kelvin0
Well I'm glad someone is taking on that Herculean task. We can check that off
our 'Humanity' bucket list ... It's funny and profoundly depressing at the
same time.

------
JoeDaDude
I seem to recall a TV show about this subject. Yes, here it is:
[http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/going-deep-with-
david-...](http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/going-deep-with-david-
rees/interactives/getting-graphically-deep-with-david-rees-how-to-dig-a-hole/)

------
Applejinx
If this becomes a viral thing that never dies, can we who are trying to do
little business things which can't reach sustainability due to this sort of
nonsense sucking all the air out of the room… be BURIED in this hole?

…we're gonna need a bigger hole. Keep going.

------
msurekci
Getting wider rather than deeper.

------
raywu
The site has been down for the past 5 minutes
[http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/holidayhole.com](http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/holidayhole.com)

------
ChuckMcM
This is so remarkably non-nonsensical and fun. Not that I'd throw money at it.
I'd be curious what they did if they accidentally struck water or an
underground fiber optic cable.

------
pulsefire
I can't access the website anymore. HTTP ERROR 503. Did they take it down
because some legal action was taken against them or they weren't prepared for
high traffic?

------
gkafkg8y8
Are we sure this isn't some ruse to fund a fallout shelter?

------
lai
According to the FAQ, the hole is supposed to get deeper, but the guys are
just widening the hole. Can you guys please correct that? Thanks.

------
torgoguys
I get the joke. I also find it stupid. But YMMV.

------
praptak
What is the excavators' contract? Did they agree to just dig three shifts 24/7
for an unspecified amount of time?

------
ytjohn
I hope that next year they will fill it back in. Or maybe even this holiday
season if they can get enough funds.

~~~
phlyingpenguin
They will fill it in after the stream is finished this year.

[https://twitter.com/c_frieds/status/802217118964023296](https://twitter.com/c_frieds/status/802217118964023296)

------
analog31
I'd be shocked if it wasn't a video of a hole already being dug for some other
purpose.

~~~
iaw
Look into the company's history, I'd be shocked if it was anything other than
what they said it was.

------
msimpson
So who's starting the fundraiser to decide what to put in the tremendous hole?

------
afandian
This feels like Clickhole or The Onion but with real commitment. Excellent.

------
femto113
For that money they could have hired a hundred men for a week.

------
juhq
Why did I just spend 15 minutes watching this?

------
arielweisberg
My guess is that this isn't just a hole it's a building whose purpose we will
find out about at a later date.

I threw in 15 dollars for entertainment purposes.

~~~
Illniyar
This is Cards Against Humanity, if it's anything other then just a hole in the
ground, it'll be very much outside of their usual black-friday offerings.

~~~
arielweisberg
That isn't how it played out in 2015. They said give us money for nothing and
then they spent it on stuff including giving a week off to their factory
workers and buying stuff for the staff.

~~~
lostlogin
"For nothing" has 2 meanings and I think you are thinking it meant "for us to
do nothing with". I think it meant "give us money and you get nothing". I
could be wrong though.

~~~
arielweisberg
In their own words... "Cards Against Humanity is known for our charitable
fundraising - since 2012 we've raised nearly $4 million for organizations we
love like Worldbuilders, the Sunlight Foundation, the EFF, DonorsChoose.org,
the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Chicago Design Museum. We even started a
$500,000 full-ride scholarship for women getting degrees in science."
[https://cardsagainsthumanity.com/blackfriday/](https://cardsagainsthumanity.com/blackfriday/)

They don't have a history of burning money. It's inconsistent with past
behavior as well as their own description of themselves.

~~~
throwaway729
This dig operation is likely very profitable. I'd be unsurprised if those
profits get donated to something.

------
lucd
Evil people .. They must have an hidden plan .. Like burying a big time
capsule with the worst items of our era... Not nice !

~~~
fullshark
The worst item of our era? Cards against Humanity?

~~~
gkafkg8y8
Maybe they are reburying the Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges using a deeper hole
this time in an undisclosed location. Perhaps they were never meant to be
uncovered.

------
ronnybrendel2
But why?

~~~
datenwolf
> But why?

So that you ask exactly that question.

~~~
blauditore
I don't understand when people argue like that. It's like punching someone in
the face and when they ask what the hell is wrong with you answering, "Ha! I
knew you would be confused!"

~~~
Piskvorrr
QED.

------
castledcornet24
That is bull crap

------
karmakaze
Irony here is the SSL cert being from Amazon.

------
castledcornet24
That is so dumb

------
omginternets
>Can't we just set aside the technicalities and cash and enjoy a hole for
once.

I tried presenting that argument to the judge, but I still got sentenced :(

~~~
AngrySkillzz
Sorry, these jokes aren't funny anymore.

~~~
omginternets
I'm sorry you feel that way.

I would suggest you stay away from Cards Against Humanity (and threads
thereabout), as jokes like these are literally the game's _raison d 'être_.

------
jbmorgado
So, now we are helping destroy the environment for sarcasm? Seriously, what's
wrong with these people?

~~~
sangnoir
It's what the market wants, apparently. The digging will continue while the
market exists. I thinks it's brilliant performance art and provides some
introspection to a part of capitalism.

CAH's black Friday stunts have consistently shown that people will spend money
on stupid shit they don't need. Maybe there's a deeper lesson in there on the
nature of people?

~~~
necessity
Looks more like a critique to government spending money on unproductive shit
as a measure to "improve the economy". The difference is that you are forced
to finance that through taxation, whereas the hole digging is voluntary.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I don't know how people are making connections to _government_ of all things.
Because there are excavators there?

Anyway, judging by the history of CAH Black Friday stunts, I'd say it's
definitely a critique of _consumerism_ \- of people spending money to buy
stupid shit. The difference between CAH and all other Black Friday sales is
that CAH tells you up-front you're buying stupid shit (at one occasion, they
literally sold _bull shit_ ).

~~~
amscanne
I don't personally think it's a commentary on government, but it's a
reasonable conclusion. It was John Maynard Keynes who famously said (talking
about government stimulus) that the government should "pay people to dig holes
and fill them in again". As a result, a hole is the classic example of a
useless government make work project.

~~~
imagist
This isn't paid for by the government in any way, so no, that's not a
reasonable conclusion.

~~~
amscanne
You misinterpreted me. I was saying that digging a hole is the classic
_useless_ project.

------
cmrdporcupine
Waste of good topsoil.

~~~
littleweep
How do you know it will go to waste?

------
k_sze
How is this even legal? Do they own the piece of land?

~~~
yincrash
Are you really positing that most holes that have been dug are illegal holes?

~~~
distances
I would guess most people live in populated areas where you can't just dig a
hole without a permission from a municipal board of construction or some such
governing body.

~~~
CydeWeys
... you can watch the live feed. They're not digging up someone's backyard.
Just because I happen to live in a city doesn't mean that I have no
imagination for what things are like outside cities.

------
peternilson
One estimate I heard on the required size of a donation able to save one life
was around $4k. So yeah right now the collective have given enough money to
save 20 lives into digging a massive hole in the ground.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Add in their Starbucks spending. Then their movie=going. How about money spent
on hair products? Lots more egregious waste, than one hilarious stunt. In
fact, this stunt got folks talking about it.

~~~
peternilson
Those cases are not the same. Here you have individuals spending money because
they find the idea of their money being wasted in such a fashion entertaining.
It's waste for the sake of waste. This is exactly why this is the perfect
stunt for CAH.

------
sabertoothed
I cannot find the information which charities will receive the money. Should
this not be mentioned?

EDIT: It's OK. I was naive. I had thought it was a joke AND had a good cause.

~~~
placeybordeaux
From their FAQ

>Why aren’t you giving all this money to charity?

>Why aren’t YOU giving all this money to charity? It’s your money.

~~~
sabertoothed
I am confused. So when you donate you choose the charity yourself and transfer
it directly? Is that what it means?

~~~
Pxtl
No, the money is paying for the cost of operating excavators. This is not a
charity, the CAH team is not going out with shovels, the men driving the
excavators are not volunteers. You're paying them to dig a hole. When CAH runs
out of money for hourly expenses of hole-digging, the digging stops. That's
it.

You pay for N seconds of digging. That's the whole thing.

~~~
sabertoothed
Thanks. I was too naive.

------
johnofthejohn
I am disappointed that human beings can be so bored as to find money and time
to do that useless nature massacre.

~~~
tyingq
They have a FAQ for that:

 _" Is the hole bad for the environment? No, this was just a bunch of empty
land. Now there’s a hole there. That’s life."_

Edit: Lol, I'm not endorsing their answer. Just pointing it out.

~~~
johnofthejohn
Burning gasoline for useless digging actually is bad for the environment. And
it might not be amazonian rain forest that we're talking about, but an "empty
land" is better left untouched than slaughtered like this.

~~~
ChoGGi
I can guarantee there isn't any gasoline being burned there.

Edit: Not sure why I'm getting downvoted, those three vehicles are burning
diesel...

~~~
johnofthejohn
Haha good point :-)

