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Money works for some things. It worked for Metafilter. It would not work for Hacker News, where until recently the best thing it had going for it was how nobody
by zimbabwe 17y ago
Money works for some things. It worked for Metafilter. It would not work for Hacker News, where until recently the best thing it had going for it was how nobody knew about it. Its apathy towards gaining users gave it a real edge.
But hackers are often the penniless idealist sort, and you need that sort to complement the actual businesspeople. As I said: college students are valuable for this site. And for something as generic as a social news site, money isn't worth it unless there's something very specific gained for the purchase, and there are already pay-for social news sites taking our valuable cash.
- DenisM 17y agoSo we need the hackers (people who hack instead of talking about nosense such as evil operssion by $evil-du-jour or who shared data with riaa etc) and (aspiring) busines people. How do we build a filter to keep everyone else out? I'm coming up short on ideas. Recommendation-only memebership?
- zimbabwe 17y agoAn IRC panel, perhaps? Private torrent sites handle things that way. Prospective members go on Mibbit and ask IRC for an invite, and the IRC people determine if the person seems like a cool person. No outright rejection, since anybody can send an invitation email, and the community retains some control of the proceedings. Of course, that gives the IRC channel a lot of power. That might not be a good thing.
- DenisM 17y agoWhat do they look for? You can't look just for technical skills (consider slashdot). I suppose you have to look for other things such as absense of zealotry, absense of intention to conform/conflict and pursuit of that which works? Yeah, that's it. That's what I'm looking for in an ideal community - relentless pursuit of that which works. This describes both the hackers and the business people.
- zimbabwe 17y agoThat's kind of what I'd figure. Nothing tech-focused: just people deciding whether they want a particular person as a constant presence on the web site.
- chaosmachine 17y agoI think charging a $1 registration fee would kill spam pretty effectively without too much downside.
- zimbabwe 17y agoUntil very recently, I had no faculty for buying things online. It wasn't poverty, it was lack of a credit card. So I have a latent bias against blunt user fees without any trial first. That may be coloring my opinion here.
- chaosmachine 17y agoIt's possible to get a PayPal account with just a bank account, so that's one solution. Alternatively, perhaps a "submit a paragraph explaining why you want an account" screen could also be used for people who won't/can't pay $1. Someone would have to weed through the entries, though (maybe make it open to votes, like stories).
- wlievens 17y agoPeople will probably lynch me for this, but I think SomethingAwful is a fine example of how a money barrier for membership works really well.