

Jonathanscard: A social experiment, or not? - danielodio
http://www.danielodio.com/2011/08/14/jonathanscard-a-social-experiment-or-not/

======
citricsquid
(Maybe it's just me being overly... I don't know the word, but overly
something...:)

> And It’s funny to see those comments on a site titled “HackerNews.”

It's as if he's trying to guilt people here into thinking "oh, that's true!
Startups have to disrupt! Therefore it's okay for him to fuck with stuff
because he's a startup! It's okay!". Which to me is really really lame. Let
people form their own opinions.

The social experiment was people giving to others, for the experiment succeed
it required people to pay it forward, for it to fail it'd require people to
_not_ pay it forward, based on Jonathan's reply[1] to the entire situation I
think it's pretty clear there was never the intention or expectation that
someone asshat would come along and take all the money.

Why they're still trying to justify this and won't just accept they shit all
over something good is beyond me, maybe they're that desperate for publicity
that this is all they can do. Grasping at every last second.

[1]: [http://jonathanstark.com/blog/2011/08/13/an-open-letter-
to-s...](http://jonathanstark.com/blog/2011/08/13/an-open-letter-to-sam-odio/)

------
ltamake
It doesn't matter if Sam is donating the money to charity. Fact is that he
stole money from kind-hearted people who thought they were buying coffee for
others. Like I said in the other comments, you wouldn't rob a bank and then
try to make up for it by donating all that money to charity, right?

~~~
smoyer
Hmmm ... robin Hood was deemed a hero by the common folk and a villain in the
eyes of the law. And perhaps Sam will be viewed the same way as he "pilfered"
coffee from the rich and fed children with the proceeds. Certainly he'll be a
hero to those kids.

But the more interesting facet of this story (to me) is that everyone is so
clearly on one side or the other. I'd love to run a sociology experiment that
tried to determine how those lines were drawn.

~~~
Hyena
Robin Hood was largely stealing from a landed Norman aristocracy which had
conquered and subjugated the people he was giving to. That's the context for
the legend. Try again.

------
Terretta
> _Sam took a social experiment and ran a social experiment on it._

I think the general consensus is, "Want to run an experiment? Great! Get your
own."

