Waaay back in the 90s in Seattle there was a great comedy show called Almost Live that aired on Saturday nights. One of the ongoing sketches - besides the Middle Management Suck-ups, the High-Fivin' White Guys, and Bill Nye the Science Guy - was a segment called The Lame List (or, “What’s Weak this Week”).
A group of long-haired, heavy metal-type guys, sometimes including Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, would consider a topic (Jobs that Start in the Morning; Girls that Won't Pick You Up at 3 AM) and pronounce its lameness. For extreme cases they would stand in a circle and shake their heads up and down, hair flying, chanting Lame! Lame! Lame!
That is how I feel about the Tip system. I don't even like seeing the icon. I would like a way to opt out of it completely: turn off tipping for my blog and everywhere I go. It just instantly cheapened the whole experience.
I'm not opposed to making money but surely there are more graceful, creative ways to do it.
Here is a proposal: take the money that Salon has spent and will spend to develop and maintain the tipping system. Use it to fund a featured spot on Salon, however much that will buy - once a week? twice a month? Then pick something from Open Salon to feature there. Make the selection process simple - Editor's choice - and give the money to the deserving and happy author. Writers here will get a wider audience and a little cash. Salon gets to pick the creme de la creme from the offerings here. And we all get to move on to more important matters in the Lame List: John McCain’s ads, mock trials at Guantanamo.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Kate Bishop
Julie Delio
Steve Blevins
Auxarc
Laurel, not Lauren
SeattleK8
Salon.com
Comments
One of the subway hubs is at Bryant Park and 42nd St.
If you go down the steps into the subway here, there's a long, long tunnel, which leads to the turnstiles; it takes you from 6th to 7th Ave., or the other way round.
Anyway, in that long tunnel there is, quite often, a subway musician playing off to the side. The acoustics of course bounce the sound down the tunnel to your ears, well before you see the musician.
Then the musician comes into view; and of course there's spare change in a guitar case, or some other container.
Tips.
Many people walk by in both directions. A few will drop something. But there's never much there.
Right now, sorry to say, as I think of OS's proposal, this is what comes to mind.
I don't think I'd count on paying my mortgage by competing for writing work here; but, as a writer, wherever I do it, I mean to do business.
Here is another thing I don't get: Tipping is based on a percentage of the value of the service. How could you ever calculate that, and how could a writer interpret it - would a $1 tip make you feel better or worse about what you've written?
Another suggestion: I would pay more for my Premium subscription to subsidize what's going on here. Have two levels of Premium: one that includes membership in OS and one that doesn't. So long as none of us has to tip anyone ;)
Still, the plan does not suggest a fee structure for contributors, even though there are "promises" about more something or other, down the road, along the way, when we get there.
And nobody's going to get rich from it. It's more like a little, hey, we liked what you wrote, so here's a little something.
I just want to get my free $10 for setting up the account so that I can start tipping folks!
Over time, are you less likely to engage with people who never tip you?
I guess if OS gets so big that it doesn't feel like friends tipping friends, it doesn't matter. But then we will have lost something too.
And my friendship is never based on money. If you tip me, great, if you don't, that doesn't mean I'm not going to like you.
I'm not doing this for money. I'm doing it for fun.
Harmless,...right?
What a great way to prune the branches of conent by those who are illustrating thEIR content for product. Natural order of things dictates that this would bring a greater proportion of decent sounding content for who can not accept a "tip." $ or otherwise.
Tony Venuti experiential, social philospher
InPolitically Correct and BEYOND PUKE
KFNX, NewsTalk Radio 1100am,
streamed live Monday's 10am - 11am
http:www.beyondpuke.com
I wrote this shortly after the Tippem system was implemented. My feelings about it haven't changed much since then ;) Though it hasn't had as much impact on the dynamics here as I'd feared; probably because not many people use it (as far as I know) - some because of the same privacy/security concerns you expressed.
Anyway, cheers, welcome to OS, and thanks for stopping by -