Today I received the following mail from Amazon:<\/p>\n
Dear *****@goer.org,\n\nGreetings from the Amazon Honor System.\n\nWe wanted to let you know that we have initiated transfer of the\nbalance of your Amazon Honor System account to your checking account.\nIt may take your bank several business days to record the transfer.\n\n$1.40\n\nHere is the receipt for the transfer:\n------------------------------------------\nDate: 07-Apr-2009\nAmount: $1.40\nLast Digits: ****\n------------------------------------------\n\nYour Amazon Honor System balance will be automatically transferred to\nyour checking account every 14 days. You may also transfer the funds to\nyour checking account manually if your account balance is at least $1.00.\n\nTo view your account summary at any time, visit:\nhttp:\/\/s1.amazon.com\/exec\/varzea\/fx-account\/your-account\n\nThank you for participating in the Amazon Honor System.\n\nBest regards,\n\nAmazon.com Customer Service\n<\/code><\/pre>\nAt first, I was like, “whaa-a?” But then I remembered \u2014 oh yeah, the Amazon Honor System! It was all the rage six, seven, eight years back. Remember how all those warbloggers in late 2001 had these plaintive little buttons in their sidebars, “Hi, $username! Please donate to this blog!” (I was like, whoa, freaky!<\/em> How is this blog talking to me<\/em>?)<\/p>\nWell, all good things come to an end, and it looks like the payment system that helped launch the blogosphere as we know it \u2014 thanks Amazon! \u2014 is finally shutting down<\/a>.<\/p>\nI had to scratch my head to remember why I<\/em> was getting a notification from Amazon. I mean, I’m not a pathetic warblogger \u2014 I can actually afford to pay for my website my own damn self. But then I remembered… the infamous Save Ken Lay campaign of 2002<\/a>! Against all odds, it turns out that people were not immune to Linda Lay’s heartfelt plea about her husband’s plight. These generous souls managed to scrape together a grand total of $1.40 to help Mr. and Mrs. Lay in their hour of need. I think we’ve all learned a lesson here: never underestimate the power of the Internet to help people come together and make the world just a little brighter.<\/p>\n