I recently have been discussing pricing models for quality curation rather than profit per se with a friend. The obvious advantage is that it's a simple, object

I recently have been discussing pricing models for quality curation rather than profit per se with a friend. The obvious advantage is that it's a simple, objective, broadly applicable means to distill a baseline of quality. The obvious disadvantage is that it is biased towards those with the most disposable income (and willingness to spend), which depending on the topic of the forum may or may not correlate with quality of insight/opinion. Based on what I've seen of /r/lounge, I conclude curating a community with price mechanisms alone doesn't lead anywhere interesting. But perhaps it can amplify quality on top of some other mechanism.