Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 January 19

= January 19 =

How does this donation site work?
I saw a link to FreeRice over at the language desk. It claims that every answer I get right donates 10 grains of rice to the poor people of the world. How does this work? Rice costs money, but I'm not myself paying a single cent extra when I click on a right answer. The money has to come from somewhere else then, probably from the website's owner. But what's stopping them from donating it to the poor people straight away instead of waiting for people to answer questions about the English language? J I P &#124; Talk 20:23, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I've always assumed the money comes from the advertisements on the page. Advertisers pay per click or per page view. The game/exercise generates page views. The page even says "Sponsored banners displayed on correct answers pay for the rice donated". SemanticMantis (talk) 20:40, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * That makes sense, I noticed I get advertisements from for-profit companies every time I click on a right answer. But still, why does it only happen if I click on a right answer? The advertisers pay the site to make me see their advertisements, and the site uses the income to feed hungry people. So what's stopping them from doing this every time I click on anything at all? J I P  &#124; Talk 20:47, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Their sponsors are listed at World Food Programme: Current private sector donors. Odd thing is, I never see any of these various corporations, brands and banks advertised on the banners. The banners are always advertising WFP itself. (To actually answer your question: right answers are a good measure of an attentive human being successfully advertised to, as opposed to a passer-by or a web crawler or somebody having a fit.) 213.122.64.158 (talk) 20:52, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * That makes perfect sense, thanks. Of course, seeing an advertisement does not guarantee buying the product, but that happens regardless of the advertising medium. J I P  &#124; Talk 20:58, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * As with SemanticMantis after I got an answer right I had a message to the right side "Sponsored banners displayed on correct answers pay for the rice donated", with for me a banner for ellesse time (ellesetime.com). Note that the banner does not show for me until I answer a question correctly (if you answer incorrectly you do seem to keep getting WWF i.e. non sponsored banners which isn't surprising depending how you read the message which is displayed whatever you answer)... Other then what's been mentioned, this sort of thing probably has social marketing appeal. Nil Einne (talk) 00:53, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I only ever get the WFP ones despite (naturally) guessing 100% right all the time. Maybe the internet's advertising agencies have worked out I'm a pauper and given up on me. 81.131.12.91 (talk) 01:57, 20 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Ten grains is pretty negligible. Consider how many hours would you have to click for to pay for a meal?--Shantavira|feed me 07:42, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * It probably depends where your IP geolocates to. I'm surprised though they don't have an advertiser for the UK Nil Einne (talk) 11:11, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I racked up 1000 grains in a couple of minutes, at which point the bowl empties and resets itself (about two seconds each click). That's got to be a handful of dry rice, and so at least a small bowl of cooked rice. BrainyBabe (talk) 15:56, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

It would be more beneficial to click on  where with a single click you can help many organisations where it is the advertisers who pay the bill; you do not need to read or click on the adverts.--85.211.160.26 (talk) 07:53, 20 January 2011 (UTC)