Re:Reddit Plans Cryptocurrency to Give Back to Its Users Aft...
by ObviousScience on Wednesday October 01, 2014 @12:48AM
(#8392883)
Even attaching a charity financial incentive to what I do is enough to trigger my time-for-money logic and conclude my time would be better spent working, eg, 1 hour of contracting a day instead of 1 hour of redditing a day would do WAY more for charity than my reddit contributions would.
The problem is that once you monetize my time explicitly in any way, it both transforms the class that activity is in (no longer recreational!) and causes me to evaluate how successful that time is at being monetized (worse than mowing my neighbors lawn!)
The reality is that the mere suggestion of reddit doing this has already caused me to start reevaluating my relationship with reddit, because they've made it so obviously commercial.
I think reddit may have seriously blundered in this idea.
Re:Reddit Plans Cryptocurrency to Give Back to Its Users Aft...
by Alex3917 on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @09:46PM
(#8392409)
Exactly, all evidence suggests this could easily reduce user contributions by 50% or more. Why not instead do something that would actually increase intrinsic motivation? E.g. since IIRC people still retain copyright over the writing they publish, why not make it easier for people to turn that content into newspaper articles, blog posts, books, etc.
Re:Reddit Plans Cryptocurrency to Give Back to Its Users Aft...
by DennisP on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @10:44PM
(#8392551)
I'd be happy if I could just download all my comments. Right now it's restricted to the most recent 1000. I've been complaining about this to the admins for years and they keep saying they're working on it.
I see the point Sam's trying to make by doing this, but does Reddit have a contribution problem? Hardly! If millions of people contribute to make a site awesome voluntarily, for no greater reward than the attention of their peers (and a desire to build a great community), introducing a new incentive might very well alter the magic bit that makes Reddit so great.
What about directing this 10% towards philanthropic or political goals instead? So by contributing my time towards making Reddit better, I'd get that attention I want and help make the world a better place.
This could have a dramatic impact on reddit's raison d'être, making it a powerful (and defensible) power for good.