[WikiEN-l] Punished by Rewards?

[Charlotte Webb]

On 11/5/07, William Pietri <william at scissor.com> wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikimoney

Ah, but unfortunately [[WP:CASH]] is a redirect to the "California
State Highways" project (snort).

> Given the small number of actual transactions, it looks like it was
> never very popular. It's interesting to me that even this wasn't a
> top-down approach, unlike a lot of more common reward systems. But it
> does have another characteristic that the "Punished by Rewards" author
> warns against, which is using rewards to manipulate others for your own
> ends.

Selected concerns regarding a pseudo-economic or "monopoly-money"[1] system:

Origin -- Where does it all come from? Who gets to be the banker? Do
you collect anything for passing "Go" (or by creating new accounts)?

Utility -- What could it be redeemed for? What would be worth spending
it on? Would it draw interest[2]? What about "get out of jail free"
cards?

Inflation -- Would there be a finite amount, or would it be printed at
will like the U.S. Mint does? If it ever is "worth something" would it
become less so, when more of it exists?

[1] MONOPOLY(R) is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
[2] Of course I meant monetary interest, as in money awarded for
already having a lot of money, but psychological interest might also
be worth considering -- questions like whether this actually make
people more likely to contribute, or whether the wacky logistics of a
system like this, particularly if enough people took it seriously,
would cause others to quit in disgust.

Food for thought, bring your own fork (vague pun intended, maybe).

—C.W.