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932 sats \ 16 replies \ @Scoresby OP 29 Jan \ parent \ on: When you post/comment on SN, do you think about how many sats you will earn? meta
But if they were stacker points or six-gun rounds or some other gamified thing but not sats, would you feel differently?
I would, because those things are cheap talk. It's fundamentally important that we're using real fungible assets to signal value.
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This is the magic of SN!
I've been doing a little research into internet tipping outside the bitcoin world, and by far the most common response is that money would ruin the community, or the interaction or something.
And yet here I think the money is an integral part if the experience and it only makes it better. It doesn't ruin anything.
Is it just a bitcoiner thing or what?
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Is it just a bitcoiner thing or what?
Maybe, but I also just think people are really stupid about money and this is probably another thing they're wrong about.
I am interested in why it works so much better here than it even does on nostr. Is it because the posts cost money that we want to tip the creator?
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Nostr was slow to have a client with an integrated wallet, so there was a bit more friction than on here (even if it was just a little. On SN tipping is SO EASY!).
Also SN has the rewards function which is genius.
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It's a good reply. Go check it out, if you somehow made it here.
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It now even has the approval stamp from @Undisciplined on it :)
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Don't think you can pull this stunt and get tipped twice for the same content all the time.
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I've been doing a little research into internet tipping outside the bitcoin world, and by far the most common response is that money would ruin the community, or the interaction or something.And yet here I think the money is an integral part if the experience and it only makes it better. It doesn't ruin anything.Is it just a bitcoiner thing or what?
I think it's also a micropayment and culture thing.
I think if people outside of bitcoin hear "internet tipping" they think about payments > 1 USD since tipping someone just a few cents is unheard of1. "Tipping" might also imply that you should tip because else you're a bad person (related to peer pressure). I think the US has a strong tipping culture where this is the case but I am not from the US so I don't really know from first-hand experiences.
Tipping also implies that you already paid for something imo. So that's like a double negative: it implies you should pay for something and implies that you should pay even more afterwards. I think that's why people think it would ruin the community: Everyone would demand to get paid and more and not paying will be considered rude behavior2.
But with micropayments, it doesn't matter so much that anyone would demand to get paid and everything is still basically free since just zapping 1 sat is also fine3.
It's the scale of micropayments by a lot of individuals that gives the ability to zap people the most value. Earning 1k sats on SN is not much in fiat terms, but knowing that enough people cared to give you 1k sats in total is the value. That is the true frontier.
Footnotes
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Tipping is an awful term.
Micropayments is more accurate, but also kinda technical/financial services sounding. Not exactly fun.
Microtipping is claimed by the nano people (google it), and really isn't better than either of the above.
We do have the analogy of street musicians and busking. When you give them money it isn't usually called a tip. I don't think English has a word for this, actually. It sometimes gets called a donation--but that is awful. But the interaction is the closest I've found to what we are doing on here.
You hit on a lot of what I've been hearing, and I do think most people unfamiliar with zapping just fail to get the idea with the words we use.
I'm becoming a zapping maxi (not in the sense that I'm particularly good at it--im still too stingy, although I've definitely made more on SN since I've been become looser with that zap button--but in the sense that using money (bitcoin) to mediate online interactions is such a better way).
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You're making me think of a concept in economics called "moral crowding out". There are many things in society that are governed by social sanction rather than monetary fines.
Occasionally, when people try to levy a fine to reduce an undesirable behavior the result is more of the behavior, because the social disincentive was "crowded out" by the monetary disincentive and the social disincentive was stronger. Basically, if you tell me being late to pick up my kid costs $5 I might be more willing to be late than when I just know that I'm inconveniencing you and I don't want to be rude.
I think that's sort of what people have in mind when they say things like "money would ruin the community, or the interaction or something". It also reminds me of how many people don't like the idea of paying kids to do chores or homework. They want the behavior to be more intrinsically motivated.
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Basically, if you tell me being late to pick up my kid costs $5 I might be more willing to be late than when I just know that I'm inconveniencing you and I don't want to be rude.
Ohh, yes, this so much.
Since I don't care so much anymore about being everyone's darling (that was previously the case at least IRL), I actually started to think more in monetary terms.
For example, it used to scare me more to get caught and having to admit that I evaded the fare then actually paying the fine. But now, I am less scared since I would either just admit that I didn't buy a ticket (and get it over with) or even try to "talk" my way out of the situation by stalling and then running out of the train when it stops and the doors open since they probably don't care enough to run after me. And if they would run after me, I think I have the moral high ground again lol.
I think that's sort of what people have in mind when they say things like "money would ruin the community, or the interaction or something". It also reminds me of how many people don't like the idea of paying kids to do chores or homework. They want the behavior to be more intrinsically motivated.
Yeah, I think the fiat system really fucked our relationship with money.
"Money is the root of all evil", they say. But they don't know that the real quote was this:
For the love of money is the root of all evil
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"Money is the root of all evil", they say. But they don't know that the real quote was this: For the love of money is the root of all evil
Is that what psychologists call "transference"? Maybe not, but what a great example of blame shifting. We collectively tuned out the part that carried some personal accountability and selectively heard the part that blamed an inanimate object.