[HN Gopher] Tell HN: Thank You
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Tell HN: Thank You
On Christmas Eve I made a post trying to ensure that all of our
fellow users were at the very least safe and fed over the holiday
weekend. Thanks to your help, I was able to distribute to over 40
people/families nearly $8000 worth of food, hotels and cash. I
will try to ensure we do this type of thing more often; while I was
surprised by the level of need in the community, I was even more
impressed by the desire to help fix it. Thank you everyone.
Author : atdrummond
Score : 363 points
Date : 2022-12-26 18:05 UTC (4 hours ago)
| Kelamir wrote:
| Thank you too! With the war in my country, we're barely meeting
| ends, and couldn't prepare for Christmas. I wasn't sure about
| asking for help, but we've been struggling for a while, and even
| the holidays weren't looking to be any cheer for us. Although I
| doubted that we deserved it - there are many people who have it
| much worse, forced out of their houses, - I still reached out. I
| don't know if it's right of me to do so, but I surely am glad to
| see my family having better holidays.
|
| I feel depressed about life, following news, and the world feels
| ever more grim. Just two days ago I found out that a developer of
| one of my favorite games "Stalker Clear Sky", died in Bakhmut,
| fighting on the front lines... And there are suicide drones and
| rockets flying by my location occasionally. We have regular
| electricity shutdowns.
|
| But this helps. We've bought Christmas presents for my brother,
| got food to last the days, and we'll have a good celebration for
| New Year, what with a cake, meat and other foods of value. It's a
| kindness that makes me feel better about the world and people out
| there.
|
| Thanks :))
| vertis wrote:
| We don't talk about it much on HN but I for one follow very
| closely and have given several thousand euros over the past
| year. This is not to pump myself up (it's the least I could
| do), but rather because you need to know that Ukraine isn't
| alone.
|
| Stay strong.
| leandot wrote:
| Same here, and I know others who do the same, you're not
| alone! Stay strong!
| atdrummond wrote:
| Thank you for this.
| Kelamir wrote:
| I think it's not proper of me to add, but I'll reach out for
| help once more, feeling encouraged: I'd like to find some
| remote work. I have the following skills, among others:
|
| - I am good at language learning, could teach anyone efficient
| techniques in the field, as, apart from my native Ukrainian and
| Russian, I am self-taught at English, German, and a bit higher
| than beginner Japanese. Not only that, but I am also good at
| learning in general, helping out people in Discord for 2 years
| in the Anki community.
|
| - I am a bit higher than beginner at programming. I can manage
| some simple programs, such as a GUI that adds tasks to SQLite
| documents and kills background processes if any tasks
| unfinished.
|
| - I'm good at relationships with people, having worked in
| customer support, and I've read a couple of books on the
| subject. I manage a Discord community, if that is saying
| anything.
|
| If you got any advice, or would like to hire me, email is in
| profile, or write here :) It's frustratingly hard to find any
| work - I don't have certificates, nor work experience in the
| relevant fields. I am also outside a city, so there are few
| local jobs.
|
| Sorry if this is improper(plugging my job seeking in a joyful
| thread like this one). I am trying to survive and feed my
| family.
| vertis wrote:
| If you'd like some small programming jobs I'm sure I can find
| some for you to do while learning. My email is in my profile
| (as is my telegram, keybase).
| atdrummond wrote:
| Don't forget the HN threads for jobs on the 1st.
|
| I'm working on this for you as well; should have more info
| tomorrow!
| moralestapia wrote:
| It was a very nice gesture, thank you for this!
| [deleted]
| zohvek wrote:
| Thats fantastic. Thank you atdrummond.
| oars wrote:
| In my mind, I have an image that the median HN user works at a
| startup or FAANG company, getting paid a generous salary and
| living comfortably enough to not need to worry about these basic
| needs.
|
| Thank you for highlighting that there are others out there who
| down on their luck (to put it mildly), with many things out of
| control. For example, the user who posted from Ukraine really
| struck a chord with me. Who would've thought last Christmas that
| this one would be so different for Ukrainians?
|
| What you have done is amazing. HN is truly a fantastic community.
| I wish everyone a wonderful and happy holidays.
| trollied wrote:
| No, thank YOU.
|
| Amazing.
| sillysaurusx wrote:
| The post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34122118
| bloopernova wrote:
| I feel bad that my immediate thought wasn't "what a wonderful
| gesture" but instead was "how many of those in need were
| scammers?"
|
| It's weird to me that I like to think of myself as a positive
| person but come up with that sort of thing.
| vertis wrote:
| A while back I spent some time working with homelessness
| charities in Australia as part of a corporate sponsorship. It
| was, to say the least, enlightening.
|
| Australia has a very robust framework for dealing with
| homelessness and so a much deeper understanding than a lot of
| countries.
|
| I used to have this perception that you had to be on drugs, etc
| to end up homeless and it's just not true. There is such a
| broad set of circumstances that can lead to homelessness and
| for women in particular the leading cause is domestic violence.
|
| But not having a support network around you (or if you have
| some then it's couchsurfing, which is a form of homelessness),
| is very easy. Plenty of people don't have strong support
| networks to fall back on.
|
| Scammers exist, but we can't let that stop us from helping the
| many many people that need support (even more with the cost of
| living crisis).
| atdrummond wrote:
| Most people frankly went out of their way to assuage that
| concern with their initial e-mail to me. And even if one or two
| wasn't 100% legitimate... I'm OK with that "hit rate". Helping
| those truly in need makes those necessary mistakes worth it.
| bloopernova wrote:
| That's good to hear, thank you.
|
| Thing is, I'm totally OK with some "inefficiency" in public
| programmes like healthcare or food security.
|
| And thank you for being a good person and doing something
| when most people just wish that someone else would take care
| of it.
| epicureanideal wrote:
| Maybe it would be useful to have some kind of organization
| where people down on their luck but truly through no major
| fault of their own could anonymously register and receive some
| assistance. I think more people would be more generous if they
| didn't think it was largely going to scammers.
|
| I'm not saying that we shouldn't help everyone, just saying
| that it would be probably much easier to get more support for
| this.
| keybored wrote:
| If a person was out to scam people by looking for handouts that
| they don't need, the last place they would be prowling would
| probably be a message board for individualist tech entrepeneurs
| and wage worker technologists who don't believe that it's
| possible to make less than 80K USD as a programmer
| (stereotypes).
| carabiner wrote:
| Who are you?
| atdrummond wrote:
| Nobody - but I think anyone has the capacity to make another
| person's day a little bit better.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| I find it incredible that you even put a phone number on your
| HN profile. Wow.
| vertis wrote:
| Not the OP, but it can go both ways I guess. I believe in
| being contactable and subscribe the the patio11 approach.
| If you email me as a human, I'm going to read it and if I
| don't reply it's probably because something interrupted me
| while I was reading it so email again.
|
| I'm happy to be challenged on anything I say and own it
| when I'm wrong, so see no need to be anonymous.
| keybored wrote:
| #humble
| edoceo wrote:
| Nah, you Somebody now. Inspiring.
| sourcecodeplz wrote:
| Well done giant. I followed your thread and was impressed also by
| how many others also offered their assistance.
|
| Very happy to be part of this community.
| [deleted]
| syuil wrote:
| I just checked out that post. Amazing.
|
| The world needs more people like you.
| NickC25 wrote:
| Incredibly commendable and a genuine show of humanity in times
| when one can look around the world and see a complete lack of it.
|
| Well done, you're a top individual. Wish the world had more
| people like you.
| photoGrant wrote:
| I'd be happy to contribute to something yearly in order to help
| during the holidays, this community means a lot to me despite
| knowing mostly no-one and having made no real connections over
| the years. But you've all helped me grow and learn significantly.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| The Hacker News Holiday Fund
| joshxyz wrote:
| Hi, I just wanna confirm this guy is for real.
|
| Sent him a lengthy email about my situation a while ago and he
| immediately responded.
|
| Thank you very much @atdrummond, I'll share these blessings with
| the people here. Happy holidays everyone!
| [deleted]
| nothrowaways wrote:
| Awesome, that's thoughtful. Much more impactful.
| ghiculescu wrote:
| Did you cover the $8000 yourself? I would contribute to that.
| atdrummond wrote:
| I covered the majority. One person sent me a decent sum; I'll
| share their name once they tell me it is OK to do so.
|
| Feel free to email me if you want to. I have some requests for
| help trickling in still and probably have it under control but
| I won't say no to assistance.
| vertis wrote:
| I sent you a message on keybase. Happy to contribute as well.
| atdrummond wrote:
| Sent you an email - I am locked out of my KeyBase for 5
| days for doing an account reset.
| ghiculescu wrote:
| I sent OP $1000
|
| Sharing this here in the hope it inspires others who have the
| means to do the same.
| vertis wrote:
| As did I.
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(page generated 2022-12-26 23:01 UTC)