Non-Governmental Imagination

I checked back on the 59 smartest orgs online site today, and was surprised to see that many charities had lost votes (Interplast had gone from five to two), the bottom-dwelling groups are now at zero points instead of -1, and the option to vote down a charity was gone.

Huh. Maybe some people went a little too crazy go nuts with the downward arrows. I hope the Powers That Be didn’t take my previous post about people gaming the system as a castigation of the system.

I’d be curious to see which nonprofits would have been down based on merit (or lack thereof) alone had there not been a benefit to voting a group up. I didn’t vote any organizations down, but I wonder if there was a limit as to how many groups you could dock. If there was, there’s a greater chance of the groups at the bottom earning their rank.

Oh well. It was a great idea to have those down arrows, and it’s a shame that the system got abused. I certainly learn more from bad examples than good ones. The lesson that curling irons are hot is a particularly memorable one.

Speaking of cleverness, it was really a great idea to pick the number 59. It’s so random, arbitrary and prime that it makes the site and all related commentary super findable.

Tags: 59, net2, squidoo, charities, nptech, get active