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Slashdot Charity Buyers Donate Over $10,000 To the EFF 119

Posted by CmdrTaco from the way-to-everyone dept.
The Slashdot 10 Year Anniversary Charity Auction for the EFF is at an end and the numbers are in. We are still waiting for payment on one of the six items, but the grand total for the auctions is $9186.83. The big surprise was the anonymous reader who bought the Swag Bag AND the Low UID: he decided to donate an extra $1200 beyond his bids! Thanks to Daniel Peacock (who bought Hemos's burnt copy of Watchmen) and Michael Ravnitzk who bought Triton, the case of the first x86 that ran Slashdot in Feb 1998. He then turned around and told us to shelve it, to try to sell it again later. Instead he got a box of shirts. We're still waiting for payment on the email address, but hopefully nobody would be so crappy that they would scam a charity auction. And lastly, we would like to give special thanks to the University of Advancing Technology (here's a Coral Cache link) who paid $3,550.00 for that hyperlink you just read past. They wanted to express their support for Slashdot and for the EFF, and I think both of us appreciate it. Thanks to everyone who bid on items and congratulations to the winners. And the rest of you - don't feel bad that you missed it. You can always make a donation later - the EFF does good work. Tell them Slashdot sent you.
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Slashdot Charity Buyers Donate Over $10,000 To the EFF More

Slashdot Charity Buyers Donate Over $10,000 To the EFF

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  • Did low UID purchaser get a ## or ### ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) * on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @11:55AM (#21172755) Homepage
    Hats off to the dude who chipped in an extra $1,200 for the low UID ... and hopefully he got a two-digit (rather than three digit) UID for his extra $$$ ... ;-)

  • Damn (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @11:56AM (#21172769)
    I knew I should have bid more than $3500 for that goatse link.

    • Re:Damn (Score:4, Insightful)

      by OctoberSky ( 888619 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:30PM (#21173357)
      You could have put in the meaning of life in that hyperlink, wouldn't matter, no one here reads the articles anyway.
      • You could have put in the meaning of life in that hyperlink, wouldn't matter, no one here reads the articles anyway.

        Why would anyone pay to get a link saying 42? :-)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by sootman ( 158191 )
      Save your money. Maybe in 2017 they'll auction off an IMG tag.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) *

        Maybe in 2017 they'll auction off an IMG tag.

        Ha. Funny. I'll tell you what, though, I'd donate some money - hundreds of dollars at least - to a good cause of slashdot's choosing if they would permanently fix the moderation so that moderation isn't anonymous; everyone could see *exactly* who modded what up or down, your average moderator or a slashdot editor/authority. The "low UID" and so forth are essentially useless and require nothing of slashdot either; but they could actually earn a donation fro

        • Did someone not get enough mod points in their halloween loot bag? Will some please give this guy an insightful? He's clearly dying over here.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by sootman ( 158191 )
          Agreed. Other problems:
          - Someone finds a sarcastic joke unfunny and it gets modded "troll" or "flamebait."
          - 3 people think I'm funny and I get a nice "+5, Funny" but one person thinks I'm not that funny and hits me with a "-1, Overrated." What crap. The guidelines say "focus on promoting, not demoting" but I don't think anyone reads those. Everyone just wants to form Slashdot into what they want to see, not realizing that it's (everyone hold hands now) all our differences that make Slashdot great. I see ide

        • Re:Damn (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Mr. Freeman ( 933986 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @03:54PM (#21176407)
          Once moderation becomes non-anonymous, you'll end up with mod wars. Person X mods down person Y, person Y takes it personally and mods down all of person X's comments. This results in person X retaliating, a fuckload of emails to slashdot with the subject "MOD ABUSE!!", and every single user on slashdot is forced to sift though the comments themselves so see which are good and got modded down due to pissing contests, and which are bad and got left at 1-2 because all the mod points were used by people throwing their shit at each other.

          This wouldn't fix the system at all, it would make it worse than useless.

  • I'd support the EFF but ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {sinedtsmot}> on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:00PM (#21172837) Homepage
    [ ] I'm selfish and hate others
    [ ] I like big monopolies
    [X] I'm Canadian and not represented by the EFF in any which way shape or form
    [ ] The EFF tried to kill my daddy
    [ ] I'm paid by the EFF so donating to the EFF is like donating to myself
    [ ] Hey look!

    However,

    [ ] I've started an equivalent EFF in Canada
    [ ] I Joined the equivalent EFF in Canada
    [X] I Bought an EFF hat at Defcon
    [X] I Lost said hat at Toorcon the same year
    [X] I Bought another hat off their website
    [ ] I Regret dealing with the EFF
    • ...except I believe it was a Canadian "anonymous reader who bought the Swag Bag AND the Low UID", so you've gotta select a different option other than "[X] I'm Canadian and not represented by the EFF in any which way shape or form".

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by tearmeapart ( 674637 )
        ...and I have it on good authority* that a Canadian also bought the email address, which was paid for today. Since Canadians appear to be the only people winning these auctions, I guess Canadians care more about what happens in the US more than Americans do.

        * I am assuming I do not have multiple personalities that lie to each other.

        (I realize that my statement of "Canadians care more" will be marked as flamebait, but prove me wrong, d*mnit!)

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by leoxx ( 992 )
      Online Rights Canada [onlinerights.ca], sponsored by the EFF

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Hey, your low UID is awesome!
      • And let me add that while it was mostly due to other factors and thus not a permanent posting, EFF has had a Toronto bureau for the past few years. In addition, I, the chairman of the EFF, am a Canadian Citizen.
        So is Cory Doctorow, who worked hard for us for many years and is still an EFF fellow.

        So we do care, though I won't pretend that most of our focus remains in the USA.
    • Adding some of my own experiences... [ ] I'm selfish and hate others
      [ ] I like big monopolies
      [X] I'm Canadian and not represented by the EFF in any which way shape or form
      [ ] The EFF tried to kill my daddy
      [ ] I'm paid by the EFF so donating to the EFF is like donating to myself
      [ ] Hey look!

      However,

      [ ] I've started an equivalent EFF in Canada
      [ ] I Joined the equivalent EFF in Canada
      [ ] I Bought an EFF hat at Defcon
      [ ] I Lost said hat at Toorcon the same year
      [ ] I Bought another hat off their we

    • Re:I'd support the EFF but ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by ntk ( 974 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @01:55PM (#21174757) Homepage
      Hey, speaking as the EFF's International Coordinator, I protest! We sponsor Online Rights Canada [onlinerights.ca],and don't you recall Sam Bulte (ex-MP) ranting about "EFF members" ruining her day [boingboing.net]?

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      [X] I'm Canadian but I still donated to the EFF. You can legally claim it on your Cdn income tax.

  • EFF? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The EFF is basically the ACLU of the Internet. Plus they manage to lose most of their cases. Should so much money be donated to a far-left/unAmerican organization like that? They get an awful lot of money with little to show for it, could there be a terrorism connection?

  • did I read that right? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:01PM (#21172857) Homepage
    Did UAT just pay to be slashdotted? Did they factor in the cost of the melting server into their bid?

  • Nice of UAT (Score:5, Interesting)

    by moore.dustin ( 942289 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:02PM (#21172871) Homepage
    When I attended the school a couple years back they had a great relationship with the EFF. It is nice to see the school investing in the industry while showing that it is finally moving away from the game design program that consumed much of the schools resources while I attended. I have heard good things about UAT as of late and I hope this only continues that great new trend.
    • I attended UAT during their transition from UACT to UAT. It was a great experience, and I wouldn't have gotten my desired career without it, but tuition is pretty spendy. I suppose most private schools are spendy in comparison to public schools though.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by DenDude ( 922896 )
        psh! I attended when it was still "The Cad Institute". now get off my lawn ya whippersnappers!
  • come on. we have many million dollar people hanging out in here. why only $10k ? rats in pockets ?
    • Those funds might not be liquid necessarily (I wouldn't sell any stock in my company for slashdot swag, no offense), and also, they may have better things to do with their time/money?

      • Re:too little ? (Score:4, Informative)

        by everphilski ( 877346 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:33PM (#21173415) Journal
        Precisely. I have no more than $2000 in the bank at any point in time, my money is in my 401k, roth IRA, kids college funds, overfunded life insurance, home, etc. I do allright but I couldn't cough up more than a few hundred bucks at a time unless it was an emergency ... the secret to being financially secure is not working for money, but making your money work for you.

  • Congratulations University of Advanced Technology. (Score:3, Funny)

    by etedronai ( 35656 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:03PM (#21172877)
    ... You just paid to have your web site brought to it's knees.

  • UAT (Score:4, Funny)

    by orkysoft ( 93727 ) <orkysoftNO@SPAMmyrealbox.com> on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:04PM (#21172907) Journal
    Funny, the story talks about the University of Advanced Technology, but the website calls it the University of Advancing Technology.

    It's almost right, which is pretty good, by Slashdot editing standards ;-)

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Link to your page on Slashdot: $3500

      Extra bandwith cost from Slashdotting: $???? (Thousands? millions?)

      Getting your name messed up by CmdrTaco himself: Priceless!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anne_Nonymous ( 313852 )
      The Electronic Frontier Foundation should start their own school so they could call it EFF-U.

      This might be useful during congressional testimony.

  • A view from a cynical bastard. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iknownuttin ( 1099999 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:13PM (#21173049)
    I looked at the links and I didn't see any accounting of the money: how much received, how it was spent, how much for administration (a perfectly legitimate cost - BUT [see below]), etc....

    I don't mean to make accusations, but where's the money going. I didn't see anything on the links.

    Are the administrators buying Mercedes Benz's with their "pay"?

    Just asking.

    P.S. I have plenty of karma - don't be shy about modding me down. I'm using my karma for good - I think.

  • $10,000 (Score:5, Funny)

    by niceone ( 992278 ) * on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:17PM (#21173119) Journal
    How many minutes of lawyer time does that buy?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by The-Bus ( 138060 )
      Well, if you're hiring Lionel Hutz, the question is, how many sandwiches does that buy? I hear he works on three sandwiches a day. Also, he might live in your car.
    • In my experience about 600.
      (at least at the billing rate that the lawyer who handled my gripe site C&D letter analysis charges).

      -nB

  • The big surprise was the anonymous reader who bought the Swag Bag AND the Low UID:


    Since when do anonymous cowards have UIDs?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by CJ145 ( 1110297 )
      AC's UID is 666.

    • The big surprise was the anonymous reader who bought the Swag Bag AND the Low UID:


      Since when do anonymous cowards have UIDs?
      Hey now! When you put $5K on the table, you're no longer a coward. "Anonymous reader"
  • Looks like rational folks beat out geeks - especially when it comes to a great charity.
  • And what point is there in being an AC with a low /. ID? I'm confused. Ah, I got it, they don't say which ID, so it's an anonymous ID!
  • "advancing technology" by running .aspx pages, IMHO. Advanced technology should not make my browser (latest stable Firefox) barf.
  • ...will pay for a DDoS attack of their own webservers. In any case, good work mates!
  • Why didn't you sell goatse.cx?

  • hohoho (Score:2, Funny)

    by sectionboy ( 930605 )
    Who is the "Anonymous Coward" now?

  • The EFF thanks you (Score:5, Informative)

    by btempleton ( 149110 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @11:46PM (#21179987) Homepage
    On behalf of the E.F.F. I would like to thank the crew at /. for doing this, and all the bidders for showing your geek cred and generousity to bring things up to this level. Our hardworking staff of technologists and lawyers will do great work with this money as we stand up to the NSA, AT&T, the RIAA and many other players trying to take away your rights. You can look at the long list of things we're doing at the www.eff.org web site, as well as past history. That we do all that with our modest staff continues to amaze me, and I'm inside.

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