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This seems really really naive. Do you really think a non-profit is going to fight the hordes of spammers, scammers, seo masses, mechanical turk hordes, etc tha

This seems really really naive. Do you really think a non-profit is going to fight the hordes of spammers, scammers, seo masses, mechanical turk hordes, etc that are going to game your system?

daoudc 4y ago
Wikipedia has to deal with similar issues. It's not easy, but it should be possible.
carschno 4y ago
Not sure I missed the sarcasm here. Why would a non-profit not fight spam etc.? Why would a for-profit fight spam do so? I see the largest internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and also Google, fight spam and other harmful content only to the degree absolutely necessary to stay somewhat usable. Which makes sense because it's costly and does not generate profit. I would expect a non-profit, however, to focus much more on fighting harmful content because it centers around the user experience, hence quality of the content. I don't see a guarantee this works in practice, but the respective incentives seem clear.
- joshuamorton 4y ago
  The general answer here is that a nonprofit cannot maintain the (massive) amount of resources it takes to address spam/abuse/blackhat SEO etc, while a for-profit entity ostensibly has a profit motive to do a decent job, and the resources to do so. When a for profit entity is more successful at fighting abuse, their users are happier and they sell more ads and so can devote more resources to fighting spam. When a nonprofit successfully fights spam, they don't get more resources, and the spammers upgrade their toolboxes, because they do have a profit incentive.
  - closedloop129 4y ago
    Like @daoudc writes, Wikipedia shows that the nonprofit can maintain the resources because they attract volunteers. If you create a search engine where users can report spam and get some form of karma for valid reports that is shown in their social network, then it's quite likely that the users have enough momentum to get ahead of the spam.
- nova22033 4y ago
  The SEO operators have a profit incentive. The people who run the non-profit search engine lack a profit incentive. There are very few incentives better than profit..This is going to be a US v/s USSR fight during the cold war..

This seems really really naive. Do you really think a non-profit is going to fight the hordes of spammers, scammers, seo masses, mechanical turk hordes, etc that are going to game your system?

daoudc 4y ago

Wikipedia has to deal with similar issues. It's not easy, but it should be possible.

carschno 4y ago

Not sure I missed the sarcasm here. Why would a non-profit not fight spam etc.? Why would a for-profit fight spam do so? I see the largest internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and also Google, fight spam and other harmful content only to the degree absolutely necessary to stay somewhat usable. Which makes sense because it's costly and does not generate profit. I would expect a non-profit, however, to focus much more on fighting harmful content because it centers around the user experience, hence quality of the content. I don't see a guarantee this works in practice, but the respective incentives seem clear.

joshuamorton 4y ago
The general answer here is that a nonprofit cannot maintain the (massive) amount of resources it takes to address spam/abuse/blackhat SEO etc, while a for-profit entity ostensibly has a profit motive to do a decent job, and the resources to do so. When a for profit entity is more successful at fighting abuse, their users are happier and they sell more ads and so can devote more resources to fighting spam. When a nonprofit successfully fights spam, they don't get more resources, and the spammers upgrade their toolboxes, because they do have a profit incentive.
- closedloop129 4y ago
  Like @daoudc writes, Wikipedia shows that the nonprofit can maintain the resources because they attract volunteers. If you create a search engine where users can report spam and get some form of karma for valid reports that is shown in their social network, then it's quite likely that the users have enough momentum to get ahead of the spam.
nova22033 4y ago
The SEO operators have a profit incentive. The people who run the non-profit search engine lack a profit incentive. There are very few incentives better than profit..This is going to be a US v/s USSR fight during the cold war..