Please note that the Donation Box has been closed, so the blelow is now of somewhat academic interest.
Let me state explicitly the fundamental premise this writeup is based upon:
It costs real dollars to run Everything2. Hardware, electricity, administration: it adds up in a hurry.
To a lesser extent, it is also
assumes
It would be best if those who contribute the least quality to the database were to contribute the most money to it's operation, and vice versa.
The
suggestion below certainly meets both of these
criteria. It may not be a good one, but perhaps it could start some
discussion.
This idea sounds somewhat
blasphemous at first, but if my understanding of
troll psychology is sound, I think
it just might work.
The short version is this : let people spend real money to buy cools and upvotes for their own write-ups. I'll use dollars in the examples, my apologies to those who use other currencies.
I'm thinking something on the order of $10 for an upvote and $100 for a C!. You want a reputation of 100 for you writeup on snot? $1000.00 and it's yours. Want to make sure everybody knows how cool you are, by having all your nodes cooled? Just click on the paypal icon.
Possible questions :
Why would someone pay something for nothing?
Because they're stupid. Blockstackers Intergalactic will spend their money much more intelligently.
This sounds great! What other stuff could we dupe people into paying for?
Think of all the stuff that newbies and trolls complain about, and charge for it. How about
- Buying XP?
- Protection money? Pay Klaproth not to nuke a write-up for a month, or pay the EDB to reduce your sentence.
- The ability to cast additional votes on the same persons write-up?
- A picture on your home node (forever or for a month)
- Some extra votes or C!'s.
Won't this disrupt the whole power structure of Everything?
Nope. Remember that XP and votes and cools don't really mean anything. We've all seen how tenuous the connection is between any of the E2 numbers and real quality.
Anyway, making
the unwashed masses pay their own way is always a
good idea. I bet there's something here that would work.
Comments? Questions? Rebuttals?