How many emails do you think he'll get after the kid does write a love-letter to digg about how awesome Jeff Vogel is?
How many from other Indian and Chinese kids, and how many from scammers and dirtbags?
The unfortunate effect of rewarding a request for a freebie online is that it attracts dirtbags who will drown out the voices of the people you actually want to help.
If you think the stigma against begging will keep people in line, let me congratulate you on your good fortune to date. You clearly have never seen a good thing ruined by dirtbags or met such a dirtbag and heard them crow about how they lied/scammed/cheated their way into a share of someone else's generosity with nary a thought to those crowded out.
I guess that kind of marketing approach is something Jeff should consider as an indy dev, but a possible benefit to him from exposure doesn't seem to have much to do with whether handing out free CD Keys to every email with a SOB story is practical or effective at actually helping the people he would like to help.
The unfortunate effect of rewarding a request for a freebie online is that it attracts dirtbags who will drown out the voices of the people you actually want to help.
If you think the stigma against begging will keep people in line, let me congratulate you on your good fortune to date. You clearly have never seen a good thing ruined by dirtbags or met such a dirtbag and heard them crow about how they lied/scammed/cheated their way into a share of someone else's generosity with nary a thought to those crowded out.