Talk:Random act of kindness

Latest comment: 6 years ago by M. Schledorn in topic Comments

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The second week of February is Random Act of Kindness week. In which country? Chocsaway 18:01, 21 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

--In Canada, it's the second week of the second month. Not sure if it is the same in other countries, though.

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—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.38.191.79 (talk) 22:42, 1 February 2010 (UTC)Reply

Would be nice to have a cite for Anne Herbert's original use of the phrase. I have in my hand a copy of p. 88 from Whole Earth Review, Spring 1995, titled "Handy Tips on How to Behave at the Death of the World", in which the phrase is (sort of) in the penultimate sentence. The last sentence is: "This is your last chance." The question is: was the Whole Earth Review article her first use, or was it somewhere else?

I thought the phrase originated from Danny Wallace himself.

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PLEASE HELP! The source I entered for Note 2 is not what shows up in the notes, and I don't know why. This is the correct source note. http://www.improvisedlife.com/2013/06/11/the-origins-of-random-kindness-and-senselss-acts-of-beauty/ 2604:2000:F209:2700:A57E:61AE:8999:4F0B (talk) 22:32, 12 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

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"collecting ±50,000kgs of canned food" what is that supposed to mean? can anyone make it comprehensible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.118.176.17 (talk) 02:39, 20 July 2008 (UTC)Reply

Done (≈) --Edward130603 (talk) 21:30, 18 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

What's the point? edit

Why, exactly, does this article exist? I think a random act of kindness is pretty self-explanatory. ~ Wikipedian19265478 (talk) 02:54, 20 July 2010 (UTC)Reply

Significant reduction of list edit

I have just been bold and removed much of the list (i.e., 80% of the article), because it's mostly unsourced, it's a spam magnet, and it's non-encyclopedic. It's entirely unclear why many of the groups listed or on the list; that is, doing something charitable or "kind" doesn't necessarily link a person to the concept of a "random act of kindness." In fact, one could argue that any group which intentionally does charitable acts on a regular basis should be excluded from this article by definition, since a planned charity is inherently non-random. Furthermore, most of the entries had no references or only links back to their own website, leading to the question of whether or not the groups/events are at all notable. Some specific details:

  • I see no evidence Pay it Forward is based on RaoK--no reference, not mentioned in book's article.
  • Connecting Amelie to this article is WP:OR--we need a reference explicitly linking the idea to RaoK.
  • I combined all of the radio shows together into a single line; citations are still needed there.
  • I moved the comment about Herbert (with the reference) into the opening section.
  • The music track on Robbie Williams' album is not notable enough to be listed here.
  • And a bunch of other groups that, while they seem interesting and good for the world, had no references, no evidence of notability, and, usually, no clear and direct connection to this article. Some of the groups had links to their own website, but we need something stronger than an self-published source to allow inclusion here.

So, yes, that's a lot of deletion. Any of those items I removed can be re-added, of course, assuming that reliable sources can be found, the groups/entries are notable, and they are directly and clearly connected to the concept of RaoK.

Finally, the section still would be better done in prose than in list form, but I thought I'd do the chopping first, see what comments others have, and then do that type of rewrite later.

Anyone have any comments or thoughts about this move? Qwyrxian (talk) 18:38, 2 January 2011 (UTC)Reply

Discordian Origins edit

"Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty" has long been a key part of Discordian praxis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AlexToowoomba (talkcontribs) 20:46, 26 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

Naming edit

Obviously, the name of this event, is a pun in itself, playing on the often-cited phrase "random act of violence" which has been used by news-organisations around the globe to describe a distinguished kind of events. As these mostly focus negativism and/or destruction, random acts of kindness (notice the rhyme) have been pushed onto stage. --Kebap (talk) 10:04, 26 February 2014 (UTC)Reply

Comments edit

This article has some problems. First of all, as a user pointed out above me, a "random act of kindness" is very self-explanatory. It doesn't need a Wikipedia article. Second, as another user pointed out, the phrase "random act of kindness" is a play on the much more popular phrase "random act of violence". So those two points alone delegitimize the article in my opinion. The mentions and use of this phrase throughout popular media doesn't really warrant the creation of this article, as one (and previously mentioned) it's self-explanatory, and two, almost all sources aren't solely dedicated to the phrase or act itself. Additionally, most of this article constitutes original research (just look at § Negative Effects for starters). Jacedc (talk) 14:12, 3 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

– I'm glad the Wikipedia article is still here, because I wanted to know where the expression came from. I know now, thanks to the article. M. Schledorn (talk) 12:35, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply