A Token Economy for PSG?

The common currency on PSG is attention. We all have a limited amount of time to spend reading email.

When everyone in the group has similar time resources to spend, they all have a similar amount of 'currency'. However, when someone with lots of free time and little experience joins the list, the net effect is to dilute the value of other people's time.

Read the last paragraph again. It's our biggest problem.

(E.g. Goneril has no life outside of chat rooms. She finds PSG and proceeds to convert half of her free time into PSG messages about various and sundry.)

When the value of one's currency goes down, they have less purchasing power. If everyone suddenly can print up their own currency, that's inflationary.

What if we could track each individual's posts and let them make only a limited number of postings over a period of time?

For example: You can post up to 5 messages a day. If you don't use your messages, that's it. (Or maybe I'll let you bank up to 10 messages.) It works this way for everyone. If you try to post message number 6, it comes back to you with a polite note that explains the policy.

Now add to this the possibility of increasing someone's quota based upon independent feedback from other list members.

For example: Cordelia is always sensitive and helpful. Although busy, she manages to provide useful and accurate advice to list members in the subject areas she's familiar with. Over a period of time, enough list members (?how many?) have provided positive feedback about Cordelia that she is granted a higher quota.

Goneril, on the other hand, hasn't provided too much info and is still trying to convert the list into an adult chat room. (with baby talk!) She has received no positive feedback from other members, so her status and the amount of attention she's able to consume is still as limited as the day she joined.

Negative feedback from peers does not affect the quota of a member. IOW, you can only climb based on peer review. Members have nothing to gain by bashing each other.

So, in a sense, I'm proposing a tightening of monetary policy on PSG.

We all know (or at least hope) that brave, yeoman service to the cause of correct information and gentle discourse will be rewarded.

So far, the rewards have been the acclaim of our peers. With the growth of the list and the pool of attention being devoted to it, isn't it possible that 'Bad Money drives out the Good'? I'm of the opinion that there are a lot of long-suffering folks out there who don't give PSG their 'All' for this reason.

Your thoughts?

[a correspondent commented regarding the time it would take to administer such a system... She further remarked that judging 'Merit' based on popularity might not be fair]

Ah, bookkeeping. I agree, since I certainly won't be doing it either.

My idea is to modify Majordomo to take care of this for us.

I also agree with your assessment about popularity. It is a dangerous path to start down. However, it may be a better qualifier than the one we have now -- 'Free time'.

[a correspondent remarked that folks would just post longer/bigger messages...]

I have also thought about the size issue and it could be a problem, but then again, it could just encourage folks to be more careful in editing/cut and paste to produce these longer messages. After all, once you can't post a flurry of miniature 'Me too' or 'I agree' messages, you have to do do something to organize what you want to say or your message will be lost. Witness the posting of an entire DIGEST along with 'I agree' at the bottom.

PSG now has an mechanism which should prevent a DIGEST from being re-posted without editing. The BOUNCE text at the bottom of the DIGEST is searched for, and if found, the message is found. This guarantees that at least *Some* editing must be done before a DIGEST can be reposted to the list.

---

I'm still thinking about this. I really like my definition of the problem, but I'm not sure of the solution yet.

There is a real need for something to provide automatic feedback, allowing us all to relax within a self-regulating system.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 1998

Answers

Greg, "Token Economy" poses several interesting proposals to the ever increasing "community" of PSG. Do I understand that subscribers "free time" will add to its' definition: think seriously and deliberatly before posting or you loose "token e-mail space". When a newbie joins PSG he/she is given a pre-determined amount of "tokens". If you generate interest in your PSG posts from other subscribers, you are upgraded with additional computer space. Will this system work the opposite way? What if you have a week of interesting posts, and the next week you don't, are your token allotments adjusted? Can the list of frequently asked questions, a beginning PSG approach, be expanded and sent automatically when someone subscribes? Often times there are interesting threads which do not hold any current relevance, can these come up automatically when the information would be helpful? Greg, I am the first to admit that I have dabbled in a little excessive "free time". I'm feeling mighty guilty for possibly starting and contributing to "Hee Haw" type posts as Charla Altman so appropriately described them. However, I hope that there is available space AND interest for the lighter side of owning poodles. I am delighted to open posts of stories of people and their relationships with their dog/s. Sincerely, Frances Coss

-- Anonymous, September 21, 1998

Yes, or we will lose PSG

Greg, I would like to see this happen..including a welcome post that directs people to a FAQS page that answers the beginning questions, explains there are no chocolates, teacups or royals (and why) and generally outlines why there is a list. Part of the FAQS could include the standard.

One other thing, there might be a list of "legal" subject headings and if you can't post under one of these, then you just don't post. One of these could possibly be "stories about my dog" or just plain old "chit chat" and if someone had lots of free time, then they could open and read. If not, the old delete key works wonders. I like, Frances, enjoy reading stories about dogs. Who didn't enjoy the Adventures of Zucchero...but if I were extremely busy, I would probably leave them for a day when I had more time to enjoy.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 1998

Greg: I believe that your thoughts on a 'token system' are good ones, and I like the attempt to fix the problem. The comments regarding a FAQ's page, with the teacup, chocolate thing explained, is another good idea. I also believe that a group of 'LAG's" (list admin. gods/goddesses), individuals who rotate daily/weekly, etc., who have the authority to say 'stop this thread - it is getting out of hand and someone may get sued' doing the monitoring is another good idea. (It works well on Showdog-L - 1500 list members).

Beth

-- Anonymous, September 22, 1998

I think that the hardest part of the whole endeavor will be to set a fair criteria for getting "raises" in one's economical purse, then to properly word the meaning in the new welcome file. Perhaps it's time to bring back PSG-PLAN for a little discussion of this subject?

Like the original set of rules for PSG, I think that this will need to have a long period of "adjustment" in order to sort things out and make them fair.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 1998