3 ms·

I had a go-round on this with Gabe Stein of FastCo.Labs. Since Gittip is anonymous in the particulars I thought maybe that would get around the journalistic con

by whit537 13y ago

I had a go-round on this with Gabe Stein of FastCo.Labs. Since Gittip is anonymous in the particulars I thought maybe that would get around the journalistic conflict of interest, but Gabe articulated how that probably wasn't sufficient because there's always the threat of finding out (as with jashkenas and Khan in this case). Queued up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OerW0Q_2_7o#t=32m03s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OerW0Q_2_7o#t=32m03s Not sure yet what, if anything, is to be done about this. Gabe is experimenting with Gittip as well: https://www.gittip.com/gabestein/ https://www.gittip.com/gabestein/

patcon 13y ago
What if there was a mode that folks could set their accounts to, where they couldn't cash out and could only pass it on to other users? People could go into that mode when they were in a job that frowned upon gifts, and it could be displayed prominently so that allow donors were aware :) Perhaps the system could even convert dollars to some sort of non-monetary "token", which they could pass along to someone who could cash it out, and then there's further reason that it wouldn't be considered a gift?
- whit537 13y ago
  If you don't connect a bank account then this is effectively what happens. Also, it's currently public on your profile whether you've attached a bank account.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    But presumably you could let cash accumulate, and add a bank account later. I think probably passing the money through to a charity is the safest.
- jashkenas 13y ago
  I'm afraid that wouldn't help in this case. The conflict of interest here is the possibility of any appearance of favoritism -- whether you happen to be on the giving or the receiving end of the equation doesn't make much difference. There are sections in that guidebook about donations to political parties. Gittip forwarding would be a similar, albeit grayer, area -- donating to (say) prominent folks from Microsoft Research would be iffy. More so if you then proceeded to work on any Microsoft-related stories in the future.
- rmc 13y ago
  That would still allow bribes. Let's say I'm a jouralist and a good friend of mine is on gittub. Someone can give me money, and I give it all to my friend. I now think very highly of the person who gave that money.

by whit537 13y ago

patcon 13y ago

What if there was a mode that folks could set their accounts to, where they couldn't cash out and could only pass it on to other users? People could go into that mode when they were in a job that frowned upon gifts, and it could be displayed prominently so that allow donors were aware :) Perhaps the system could even convert dollars to some sort of non-monetary "token", which they could pass along to someone who could cash it out, and then there's further reason that it wouldn't be considered a gift?

whit537 13y ago
If you don't connect a bank account then this is effectively what happens. Also, it's currently public on your profile whether you've attached a bank account.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  But presumably you could let cash accumulate, and add a bank account later. I think probably passing the money through to a charity is the safest.
jashkenas 13y ago
I'm afraid that wouldn't help in this case. The conflict of interest here is the possibility of any appearance of favoritism -- whether you happen to be on the giving or the receiving end of the equation doesn't make much difference. There are sections in that guidebook about donations to political parties. Gittip forwarding would be a similar, albeit grayer, area -- donating to (say) prominent folks from Microsoft Research would be iffy. More so if you then proceeded to work on any Microsoft-related stories in the future.
rmc 13y ago
That would still allow bribes. Let's say I'm a jouralist and a good friend of mine is on gittub. Someone can give me money, and I give it all to my friend. I now think very highly of the person who gave that money.