Autocorrect strikes again! #nomakeupselfie donation mix-ups.

[Yuno Gasai]

Well-meaning individuals have accidentally sent donations to the wrong charities courtesy of autocorrect. Some donations that were intended for Cancer Research UK ended up being sent to either Unicef or the WWF.

More than £2m has been raised after the craze of taking a self-portrait with no make-up spread virally.

But those texting "DONATE" rather than "BEAT" found their money sent to the wrong charity.

Others accidentally enquired about adopting a polar bear from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

UN agency Unicef told the BBC that so far £18,625 has been identified as being accidentally pledged.

It said it was now working with Cancer Research UK to transfer the funds donated so they can be used as intended.

Mike Flynn, director of individual giving at Unicef UK, said it was a "genuine mix-up".

"Unicef believes this error has occurred due to those interested in donating to the #nomakeupselfie campaign sharing the text keyword 'DONATE' - rather than the keyword 'BEAT' - and the text number 70099, which has then been repeated across social media.

"'DONATE to 70099' is an SMS keyword and shortcode combination that Unicef have sole use of, specifically for any members of the public who contact us and wish to donate to us via SMS."

[small]Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26723457[/small]

I don't know about anyone else, but this story made my morning - and it's served the dual purpose of reminding people that other charities like Unicef and the World Wildlife Fund exist!

Escapists, have you ever donated to charity? Which one did you choose, and why?

 

[Queen Michael]

Doctors without borders. They seemed like decent people, and helping the poor to avoid dying seemed like a decent idea. Right now I'm trying to find out how I can do one of those Sponsor-a-homeless-from-London things. Links would be welcome.

 

[Jamash]

I've never understood these Autocorrect mistakes, mostly because I don't understand how Autocorrect functions.

The impression I get from people's cursing and blaming of Autocorrect is that it changes words after you've sent the text... is this true, or does it just change the words as you type and people don't proofread what they've written before sending it?

 

[loc978]

Most recently... Habitat for Humanity and a few food banks. I used to donate blood to... I forget the program's name, something about soldiers helping soldiers... back when I was in the army.

I tend to donate my time more than my money, as I've got more of the former than the latter.

Have to chuckle at those autocorrect mistakes, thoough... I still text full words with a full physical keyboard, myself. Never dealt with autocorrect.

 

[Vrach]

Ok, hold up, hold up. Are you telling me I can ADOPT a motherfucking polar bear FOR CHARITY? Cause I would LOVE to adopt a motherfucking polar bear for charity!

OT: Few Humble Bundles (didn't pay much though, so nothing to really "brag" about there, mostly did it for myself, though I love their work for being charity-aimed and spread it through word of mouth as much as I can), and some random stuff on the street supporting various causes (though I've stopped buying those as I got an inside look at how that money was being stolen through corruption). So not much really, but in fairness, I'm still an unemployed student.

 

[laggyteabag]

How can you determine how much money was accidentally donated, and how much money was willingly donated?

OT: Yeah, I support Humble Bundle every now and again (I wouldn't call it "donating" as you actually receive something) and I also took part in Extra Life 2013 and raised £60, it wasn't a huge amount of money, but every little helps right? I am planning on doing it again this year regardless.

 

[Lizardon]

I've never understood these Autocorrect mistakes, mostly because I don't understand how Autocorrect functions.

The impression I get from people's cursing and blaming of Autocorrect is that it changes words after you've sent the text... is this true, or does it just change the words as you type and people don't proofread what they've written before sending it?

It's the latter, it changes the word it doesn't recognise to what it thinks you were trying to spell after you finish typing it.

So here people would type BEAT into their phone, and apparently some auto-correct programs interpret that they are trying to type BEAR.

If people re-read their messages before sending this sort of thing wouldn't happen.


As for charities, my most recent donations would have been to Child's Play during Loading Ready Run's Desert Bus for Hope.
I would highly recommend everyone to tune in to the stream and participate in the chatroom, challenges and giveaways. It's a great time for a great cause.

 

[pokeplayer984]

You see, this is pretty much the reason I DON'T have autocorrect on my smart phone. It ensures stuff like this doesn't happen. As far as I'm concerned, the world is better off without that function.

I don't do charities all that much. I'm sadly tight for money just for myself these days. I'd love to give, but I don't have the cash.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

Doctors without borders. They seemed like decent people, and helping the poor to avoid dying seemed like a decent idea. Right now I'm trying to find out how I can do one of those Sponsor-a-homeless-from-London things. Links would be welcome.

I don't know about directly sponsoring an individual, but Shelter not only offers help and support to homeless people, it also provides free legal advice to people about housing and tenancy law, and helps people at risk of becoming homeless. They also campaign to get the government to adopt policies that prevent homelessness in the first place.

They helped me out last year when my landlord was being dodgy. They're a great charity and they are based in the UK. http://england.shelter.org.uk/

 

[FPLOON]

Recently, it's been the Humble Bundle... (So many keys... so many not even activated yet...)

Other than that, most of the charities that I end up donating towards are mainly video-game related... except that one time I donated to a group of up-and-coming musicians, but I don't really count that since all that money did was give them a chance to visit certain cons so that they can perform their music and stuff...

Also, if autocorrect is THAT sensitive, then temporary disable it (if "possible") so that you know that the next "fuck up" is all on you... #justsaiyen