My view is that a whole lot of human interactions are self-rewarding. People like to explain, be explained to, argue, and generally be part of things.
If you don’t pay, you only get people who like doing X. From their perspective, not being paid provides a sense of freedom. (If you don’t pay me, I can write about topics I like. If you paid me, it would imply an obligation to write about topics you like.)
There is always a risk that people will do an unpaid job from wrong reasons. People may volunteer as authors because they have a product to sell, or volunteer as moderators because they want to win the virtual space for their political tribe.
But if you start paying, then on top of this there is a risk of attracting people who don’t care about the project, and just want the money.
I think it makes sense to pay if you want someone to do a full-time job, such as rewriting the LessWrong software from scratch. Or maybe a moderator on Reddit. Basically, if you want guaranteed nontrivial amount of work, to be done even when it stops being fun.
If you don’t pay, you only get people who like doing X. From their perspective, not being paid provides a sense of freedom. (If you don’t pay me, I can write about topics I like. If you paid me, it would imply an obligation to write about topics you like.)
There is always a risk that people will do an unpaid job from wrong reasons. People may volunteer as authors because they have a product to sell, or volunteer as moderators because they want to win the virtual space for their political tribe.
But if you start paying, then on top of this there is a risk of attracting people who don’t care about the project, and just want the money.
I think it makes sense to pay if you want someone to do a full-time job, such as rewriting the LessWrong software from scratch. Or maybe a moderator on Reddit. Basically, if you want guaranteed nontrivial amount of work, to be done even when it stops being fun.