Hijexx wrote:
] Decius: It is not that easy to figure out the original poster.

Oh, I agree that this is a problem, and it will be fixed, but until then if you are going to call someone a fuckface and a homo, etc, you ought to be sure you're nailing the right person. Its hard to have sympathy for someone's confusion when they are being belligerent and personally offensive.

] As for the issue itself, I don't need to be told I am a jerk
] if I don't do this or that. I'm glad you're concerned, but
] you should have found a nicer way to convey it to others.

Clearly my post has been misunderstood, and for that I apologize. You guys are taking this way more personally and way more seriously then it was intended to be taken.

I don't work for any of these charities, I'm not associated with any cause, I have no vested interest in raising this money, and I don't really think you're a jerk if you don't donate.

This post was essentially a straight forward explanation of how I felt about this. I had been toying for several days with the idea of memeing this donations page. The problem was that when that idea popped into my head I realized that I could not, in good conscience, meme that page if I did not donate, and so I needed to decide if I wanted to do that, and I never came to a conclusion about it. When someone else memed the page it pushed the issue, and I realized that I should donate. I felt like failing to do so up to that point was poor on my part, and that feeling prompted the jerk commentary.

This was an emergency that was not predictable and is not a persistent problem, in a society where people do not have insurance. They really do need help in the form of one off financial donations. This is not a systemic problem like poverty in America, which requires long term solutions. Nor due I buy into things I've heard from several different people about how these people are responsible for their fates because they lived near the sea. There is a reasonable risk that the exact same thing will occur on the East Coast of the U.S. in the coming decades, and you don't hear people complaining that everyone in New York and New Jersey is "stupid for living near the water..." This one of the only times you'll ever see where a one off donation of $20 out of your pocket really is exactly what is needed, and really is the right way to handle the problem.

RE: Tsunami Relief