Please Donate to the Internet Archive

http://blog.archive.org/2011/12/07/please-donate-to-the-internet-archive/

by cleverjake • 15 years ago

293 46 15 years ago

blog.archive.org

I now own a vibrant community website, started in 2000, that was compromised & erased in 2003. The previous owner had no backups. Hundreds of articles, tens of thousands of forum discussions, and hundreds of thousands comments were lost. We regrouped, and rebuilt the community. Archive.org was the only record left of any of the content, and we grabbed & distributed lost member avatars to quickly make the new site feel like home. I still reference it from time to time to piece together gaps in our history.

If the Internet has any institutions at all, Archive.org is first among them. Donation sent.

bad_user• 15 years ago

Also see the famous case of Jeff Atwood losing and recovering the articles from codinghorror.com and blog.stackoverflow.com ...

[1] http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/12065/recovering-...

[2] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/international-backu...

cleverjake2• 15 years ago

If there ever was a perfect example of "don't be a free user", this would be it.

jmspring• 15 years ago

Going to http://archive.org the only notification for "donate" is a text link in "announcements". It seems like they could make the link a bit less subtle, but still be tasteful.

I specifically went to the page looking for how to donate (rather than going through the linked to blog post.

Groxx3• 15 years ago

Absolutely. It's the only way to find a huge chunk of the internet, and it's been endlessly useful to me. Second only to Wikipedia, I'd say, though it's a lot less well-known.

groaner2• 15 years ago

I had to dig through their site to find this, as it wasn't immediately noted on their donation page, but they are a 501(c)(3) non-profit and donations should be tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

http://www.archive.org/about/about.php

Groxx3• 15 years ago

FYI: it's on the front page, on the top-right container, labeled "Welcome to the Archive". But the site isn't the best layout on the internet, it's pretty easy to miss.

groaner2• 15 years ago

Wow. Haven't felt so blind in a while! Good catch.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

And some employers will match charity donations, so you may be able to double your contribution!

sneak• 15 years ago

Fell out of the funnel when they asked me to create an account on JustGive. I don't use PayPal.

Give me a form I can type my payment details in, and I'm game.

donw• 15 years ago

Same here; I've asked them if they have any other options, and failing that, I'll just use the check-by-mail feature of my bank.

Sites that do this universally bounce me. If somebody wants to give you money, the worst thing you can do is get in their way.

Angostura• 15 years ago

I went through JustGive and go to the point where I had to set up an account to donate. I'm at work, I have about 2 minutes to slip a donation through. I quit, I may donate again at home tonight if I remember.

VoxPelli• 15 years ago

They have twenty donations waiting for them on Flattr: https://flattr.com/thing/425480

djenryte• 15 years ago

I was walking home yesterday and saw a small sign denoting the Internet Archive building on Clement and Funston St. in Inner Richmond, SF. A bit surreal seeing the Archive of the Internet(!!) housed in white pillared building. And today, here it is on the fp of hn.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=internet+archive&hl=en&...

neilk2• 15 years ago

It's a former Christian Science temple.

maximusprime5• 15 years ago

160 employees? that seems like a lot to me. So no, sorry, I'm not going to donate. I'd rather donate to charities that really need money.

redslazer• 15 years ago

You would be surprised that most charities spend excessive amounts of their donations to raise more money. An online charity that is using its money to employ people is a better charity than one that publishes glossy brochures or takes out advertisements.

maximusprime5• 15 years ago

Archiving things on the internet undoubtedly is useful/interesting. But really there's no reason they couldn't generate revenue for themselves.

But it's not for example saving lives. So personally, I think there are far more deserving charities in need of donations.

There's people dying out there...

pwaring2• 15 years ago

Do you have any figures to back that up? Most charities here in the UK publish their expense ratios (i.e. how much is spent on admin, fundraising, on the actual good cause etc.) and they tend to be fairly efficient.

maximusprime5• 15 years ago

The fact that the OP is signed "The collections team", seems to imply they also spend a fair amount of money to raise more money.

krig2• 15 years ago

I'd also like to know why they have 160 employees. That's more people than any company I've ever worked for. What do all of these people do? I'm genuinely curious.

britta• 15 years ago

The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive) says: "It has a staff of 200, most of whom are book scanners in its book scanning centers. Its main office in San Francisco houses about 30 employees." The site has a list of employees with descriptions: http://www.archive.org/about/bios.php

A blog post about its scanning centers: https://ianews.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/3-million-texts-for-... "More than 100 people digitize books in Internet Archive scanning centers in 27 libraries in 6 countries. At 10 cents a page, we are bringing over 1,000 new books online every day."

mironathetin2• 15 years ago

The internet archive does a really good job. Why isn't it possible to establish a payment for good work in the internet? The fact that everything has to be free lead us to the really evil use/abuse of private data by the likes of Google, Facebook etc.

I think we need a good idea to assure payment also for internet services. Lets face it: nothing is free in this world. It sometimes just looks as if.

Donation send for this time. But if someone has a good idea how to finance good services, please speak. (I think, Mozilla might listen too).

MengYuanLong• 15 years ago

I'm not sure I fully understood your comment but flattr is an interesting platform for paying small sums to pages you enjoy. You may enjoy it if it is new to you. http://www.flattr.com

mironathetin2• 15 years ago

There are ways to collect money. But clients seem to be hesitating. They expect "free" services.

av500• 15 years ago

when I read the headline, I thought they meant content, not money. I was ready to mail them a few harddrives with worthy "stuff"...

cleverjake2• 15 years ago

you should contact Jason Scott, if thats the case. HE acepts all comers - https://twitter.com/textfiles

wootish2• 15 years ago

It would have been nice if they did not have the "minimum $10" clause. I am sure there should be a lot of students and third world people willing to help within their means.

LargeWu• 15 years ago

There are probably processing fees and whatnot that make anything less than $10 useless or even cost them money.

ig1• 15 years ago

If you can't afford $10 then you hold probably just keep the money, you need it more than they do.

wootish2• 15 years ago

Do you realize $10 has a higher value in developing countries? If not, I am surprised you are on HN!

plusbryan• 15 years ago

I had the pleasure of meeting brewster through a free event I was putting on some time ago. He is a remarkably generous man, in all senses of the word. Donation sent.

Please Donate to the Internet Archive

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