Jotter had an excellent recommended diary about the size of our
community here at dKos. He did a great job documenting the explosion of diaries and how hard it is for readers to keep up. The notable thing I read on the same day was
this item by planetniner on how to get your diary recommmended. Read both and come back here... Ok, back? Thanks.
Now, in honor of the passing of Milton Friedman, I have a serious proposal for Daily Kos: put down a deposit for the privilege of writing diaries that will be seen by thousands. If it's a good diary, you'll get your deposit back. I call it pay to play diaries. See more below.
Everyone who wants diary posting priveleges can open an account and for every diary, they are debited some deposit amount $X. If they get more than say Y recommends, then the deposit is credited back to their account. Readers are allowed a maximum of Z recommends per day.
I don't know what the right X, Y, and Z values are, but they can be figured out to achieve the best possible community.
This system will take Daily Kos to the next level. Comments are still free and don't require a cash account. Users can still get an allowance of freebies. The number of diaries will go down, but the average quality will go up. Kos will have a new revenue stream that can be used to keep the site going. Most importantly, better diarists will be discovered more easily. The only risk is that the bottom will fall out. Everyone gets turned off and goes away. I don't think that will happen. People have already started their own blogs and that's good. More of that would happen. Daily Kos would be even better.
I know it feels dirty, since it deals with, you know, money, which we're sooo sensitive about, but we already have one currency around here and it's called mojo. Mojo can only be traded in for troll-rating privileges. Money is taking it a step up because you can trade it in for things like ju-ju bees, coffee, and health insurance co-payments. But it's the same concept.
Communities this size need rationing systems. There is the paternalistic rationing ("you get 2 diaries per day, no make that 1 per day") and there are other systems, like the one I'm proposing. The nice thing about pay to play is that good content (as voted on by the end users-- you and me) rises to the top. Vain rants that nobody wants to read become, well, a privelege you have to pay for and they tend to dry up. Someone will always pay for the right to hear themselves speak. Look at Ross Perot. I know I would probably pay just to post my numerous rantings about DC's lack of equal political rights even if 5 people read them, because I'm passionate about that. But generally, self-selection and self-restraint is a good thing.
Before you protest about "free speech is free" and "our currency around here is not money", think about this for a moment. Bandwidth is not free for Kos. He has to pay for it, through advertising and subscriptions. The tech support for keeping this massive site humming through all the surges and steady growth? Not free.
"But", you say, "not all are equally able to pay for this privelege of speech." That's the beauty. If you're writing diaries that are good, that even a small number (Y) of readers like, then you pay NOTHING. It is free. If you are ranting about Diebold machines and there is a community that wants to hear your rant, you're all good. If they're sick of it, you get a little ding ($X) to your wallet.
"But it stifles creativity and risk-taking!" True, it does raise the stakes a bit, but the quality of diaries will improve and nobody will notice the entry fee after they've fine tuned their ability to gauge reader interest. The site can grant freebies (no deposit) as I've mentioned above.
"Diary pimping will grow out of control." With free comments, this is a problem, which I don't have a solution to. Leave your suggestions below.
Jotter noted that massive numbers of daily kos readers lurk. They don't participate. Those people will be made better off by this. Most diarists will be hassled by the initiation (getting a paypal or something set up) but in the end, it becomes no big deal.
I love this site and would pay for it if I had to. Good thing I don't have to. I don't want to pay for anything. I want free coffee at Starbucks. But that's not possible.
So anyway, this is just a suggestion. Let me know what you think. I'd be happy if only two or three people (jotter? kos?) read this, but if you want the whole community to weigh in, hit the Rec button for circulation.
Cheers.
Free DC!
UPDATE: I should clarify that I meant the number of recommends to get your deposit erased could (and should) be very low, like 5, just enough to say that someone out there (and not the poster's sock-puppet other self) cared. Also, I am ok with 50 comments on this diary and only 1 Rec. It means you care, but you are REALLY turned off. Debate is good!
UPDATE 2: I should have sold this as a lazy diarist tax. Anyway, great suggestion by hcc in VA that we donate the proceeds of the lazy/lame diary tax (non-refunded deposits for diaries that nobody recommends, like this one) to pay for the Yearly Kos convention. My thought was that we donate the $$ to literacy programs for children of homeless families.