Donation Pits. How do they work?

I've seen several res with these donation pits. There is usually a sign asking you to throw unwanted item into them (nearly broken tools, spare cobble, dirt). They usually consist of a hole with flowing water going out of sight. At first I thought these would drop the items down to bedrock layer where there would be no players within range to cause them to despawn. I now know an item despawns after being 5 mins within a loaded chunk and all the chunks on a res of a popular shop would be loaded quite often.
Do these donations just despawn and are a futile gesture or do these donation pits have some way of keeping the items spawned?

Good question. I've seen and wondered the same myself... is there some anti-despawn mechanism going on in town so that these "donated" items can actually be gathered later?

They probably only work when the user is near and can collect the items as soon as they are dropped. I wouldn't say there is any way of them being anti-despawning, but tell me if I'm wrong

Negative. This is probably a bad idea to use. If I remember correctly, you CAN setup a shop to accept donations, but it has to be a specific item. I believe it would be something like:

Username

1

:Free

item name

Or you can have a chest with an [access] sign for everyone, but then of course anyone can give or take from that chest. Also, you can have a chest that "sells" dirt (for example) for a certain amount of rupees to be seen as a donation.

The only just thought of something. The items might not despawn if moving and with the use of pistons, a redstone clock and some water you could have the items constantly moving.

Do they work like that or does it count as being inactive no matter what if it's not in your inventory?

But doesn't the item despawn after five minutes, moving or not?

I don't know how they work. They appear pointless if they just let the items despawn.

I think I might need to do some tests.

haha i only use those things when I dont need that item in my inventory and dont wanna go back to my res

Test completed.
Moving items will still despawn.

Well if these donation pits are used to make items despawn then why don't people just make incinerators out of lava?

Ya since items will just despawn I can't see the point of these. The only way you could donate a non specific item was if you could make a chest that people could put into but not take out of

I feel these may be considered donation ports that more or less are for items you don't want but the res owner may gather if online at the time.
Just consider finding the player and throwing the item to them if you insist on donating it without worry of them possibly never receiving it.

I see it as a dumpster... Maybe someone will get it but if not, oh well....