Commonmass' thoughtful proposal to hire Ministry of Truth so he can continue to espouse progressive causes without paying the price of abject poverty inspires me to share a few observations from a recent blogquest, starting from BoingBoing.
BoingBoing has always been one of my favorite blogsites because of the cool name, and a similarly quirky point of view. Somewhere under their main level I saw a writer with a Paypal Icon at the bottom of every article.
A second has a button you can click that automatically deposits 25 cents in his account. I did not notice which financial institution processes this, but is notiable because it is such a small amount I could imagine easily spending five dollars a night.
This could be easily implemented with a blessing from Markos and the community, saying it would be okay if Daily Kos did this. Then writers who wanted to experiment could add the token.
We should probably vote so the community gets express an endorsement or not.
Readers preferring brevity can skip right to the poll should do so now.
Readers who enjoy garralous bloviation and want to read about possible "Mojo-Dollars" can contine.
PS One advantage of a system like this, over a regular paycheck, is that writers might maintain a tad more independence from blog owners. We wouldn’t want to turn Markos, and the Daily Kos, into “the Man.”
Also, anyone familiar with how brutal members of our community can be to one another can only imagine how much pressure any paid writers would be under if we all thought they were "our" paid representative. All special interest groups would have an interest in “swaying” such writers to our agenda.
However, we could discuss all such idea more later and easily add, or replace these simply starting icons.
Later, we could also discuss an experiment where, if he felt the idea were good enough to approve, and implement, Markos could take some percentage of the gross revenues and allocate then to "writers' bonus," and divide it up according to Mojo, or numbers of recs, and accumulated in an account, for distribution, only if the number was higher than ten dollars per quarter, otherwise, you could use it as a special extra "rec button" to funnel it to writers of your choice.
But let's take one idea at a time.
So tonight's poll is do you think this first idea of allowing, or encouraging writers to include a Paypal Icon so as readers we can donate money to to support our favorite writers?
And, there would be no restriction on Markos, or the financial powers that be now in the increasingly corporate Daily Kos, from either secretly, or conspicuously, making similar donation, through the same accounts, at their own discretion, to motivate and support those writers they believe enrich, and add net present value of cash-flow to the Daily Kos balance sheet.
This would encourage them to see the act of donations to talented writers, and activists, as part of a long-term strategic plan of cultivating and appreciating what would still be a volunteer writing force.
But, unlike salaries, would not lock Daily Kos into cash-flow commitments that might become unsustainable, if advertising revenues slip in the future.
In addition to any warm, and fuzzy happy sentiment these voluntary donations may engender, such contributions can also be seen as investments in the most important assist Daily Kos has -- our readers, writers, and activists community members, on a return-on-investment logic.
Imagine how much extra fun we could have if we had buttons where we could easily and quickly show our financial appreciation to any community member who either writes posts, or even comments, but seem worthy of our easy financial contributions for any reason we feel motivated by?
Who knows, maybe one evening when Soros, or the Gates are reading DailyKos they may tap in $50,000 for their favorite progressive bloggers for the advancement of civilization, humanity, and progressive causes?
A small quick, symbolic step in the right, (write?), direction?