The old rule of thumb is that you should spend three months' salary on an engagement ring -- but they never said anything about spending other peoples' salaries.

Yet that is what William Oliver, a 30-year old in Atlanta, is trying to do. He's crowdfunding the purchase of a $15,000 ring for his girlfriend, Alexandra. Yes, sadly, this is real. You can read his GoFundMe page and weep.

It’s perfectly lovely that he’s excited to propose -- though he's clearly ruined any element of surprise for his beloved. The off-putting part is that $15,000 is a lotof money to spend when you’re asking other people to foot the bill. But Oliver seems to think it's the duty of those who've championed his relationship to chip in:

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"I've decided to get some help by making this a trending approach. This will raise awareness about the difference between the love we share and the love people have for us. Money for the engagement is your chance to get involved. I've heard everything from 'I Love Yall' to 'You need to put a Ring On It' etc etc.”

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Hmm. That doesn't exactly justify why complete strangers would want to chip in, and that seems to be his ultimate goal since he mentions getting this thing trending a bunch of times.

On that front, at least, he has succeeded: his campaign istrending. At the moment it's been shared more than 12,000 times. Unfortunately that isn’t really translating into a flood of donations. So far he’s only raised a paltry $594 toward his goal.

Looks like Alexandra is gonna have wait a while on the ring of her dreams.

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