Reddit users crash One Simple Wish website with ‘tsunami’ of goodwill

Users of Reddit crashed the One Simple Wish website yesterday “with bear hugs”, according to a post dated 14 hours ago in the subreddit r/HumansBeingBros, which celebrates evidence of “people being total bros”. Did Reddit users grant every single wish?

How does One Simple Wish work?

Headquartered in New Jersey, One Simple Wish is a non-profit that uses digital technologies to raise awareness about foster care.

Carers and agents submit wishes on behalf of the children they look after. 

One Simple Wish shares those wishes with the online world, and, per their website, “caring people make the wish come true”.

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Reddit users wipe One Simple Wish’s wishlist

Redditor dartdoug shared a post on Reddit about One Simple Wish’s website which, after just six hours, received over 6K upvotes.

The post, in which the OP said they had paid $200 for a fostered 11-year-old’s bicycle, prompted a “tsunami” of contributions.

One user documented a drop of five available wishes in just two minutes. The number of wishes available to “grant” now stands at zero.

“They actually are getting short on wishes bc of reddit, just imagine all the happy kids!!”

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‘The reddit hug of death is real’

In the words of user urammar, Reddit users “regularly crash websites”. 

One of the most frequently visited sites on the internet, Reddit boasts over 26 million monthly users in the US alone.

Users of the social media site may have crashed One Simple Wish’s website for a period, but not before granting every single wish in its backlog.

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Hours later, Newsweek reported that the organisation was “working to upgrade its site”. The non-profit’s website is now up and running, and bears a message for its Reddit benefactors.

“We’re (literally) overwhelmed by all of your generosity”, the message reads. “Please use the donate button below to help us keep doing what we do – spreading the love!”

Bruno Cooke

Bruno Cooke has been a freelance journalist since 2019, primarily with GRV Media. He was an early contributor to The Focus, and has written for HITC, Groundviews and the Sheffield University newspaper – he earned his MA in Global Journalism there in 2021. He’s the Spoken Word Poetry Editor for The Friday Poem, and self-published his debut novel Reveries in 2019, which his mum called both a “fine read” and “excellent Christmas present”. Bruno has lived in China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines and likes, among other things: bicycle touring, black and white Japanese films, pub quizzes, fermentation and baklava. In 2023, Bruno will set off with his partner on a round-the-world cycle.