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Should you have to pay to opt-in to a RoadTest ?

cstanton

"No"

Is probably what's already on your fingers ready to type in reply, and that's fine.

Each year I took part in "Reddit Secret Santa", where you're matched against another person, who you find information about, and send them a secret santa gift for Christmas.

Someone matches with you, and you hope that they will send you something, after all, they signed up for the Secret Santa.

A few years in a row, I was 'shafted' and wasn't sent anything, sometimes in these cases, you're matched up with a new Secret Santa and then sent something, unfortunately that didn't happen either.

This caused a bit of an uproar in Reddit, while people were happy if they got anything and knew they weren't necessarily entitled to anything, they felt that it wasn't quite in the spirit of things.

So along came the idea of becoming an 'Elf'. You paid $5 to enter the Reddit Secret Santa, and that put you against other people who had also paid $5, the idea being because you'd all invested a base amount in it, you're more inclined to make sure that the person you're matched with will get a present, and you yourself will get a present, and you're supporting Reddit at the same time. Everyone wins and you're invested in it.

This pretty much worked for Reddit, paying into something seems to 'click' with people that you want to be with others, so you're paying the 'premium' to get into that rather than anyone who can sign up and looking for a freebie without paying it forward. A bit capitalist but some people like to support things.

There are other mechanisms that they use for reputation with Secret Santa, when you successfully enter a Secret Santa you gain a token, you gain another token for sending off your 'Parcel', and you gain another token for marking your parcel as received, and you gain another token when your Secret Santee receives your Parcel. You can then 'spend' these tokens to enter another Reddit Secret Santa. Don't do these? Well, you don't get your tokens. Though even this has mechanisms where "what if you just create another account?" and "how do you get tokens if you want to redeem yourself?" - I'm sure some vetting and mechanism is involved there, too, but ultimately there's also weight to paying to opt-in with like-minded people.

Which puts the thought of "Should you have to pay to opt-in to a RoadTest" ?

We've had members over the years that receive equipment, and they run off with it and don't do a RoadTest. This harms the Community, and it harms the suppliers when they provide the hardware (especially if it's early access hardware).

How would this work? I'm not entirely sure.

Would you have to pay-in to apply to the RoadTest?

Would you only pay-in when you're chosen to write the RoadTest review (so before you receive the hardware), would it be a deposit?

Which is reimbursed when you've wrote the RoadTest Review? (I think I'd prefer the deposit idea out of any of these).

Would we only do this for RoadTest kit over a certain value?

We have no plans whatsoever at implementing anything like this, this's the first time I've brought it up to anyone (including to the Community team itself), it's simply a thought passing my mind. We also don't intend on implementing this from any outcome of this conversation - though if I could at least do the 'token/points' system, I'd consider that, handling money is dangerous, but accountability matters.

But perhaps a bit of reflection on the fact that we don't do this will give some people who consider a RoadTest pause for thought.

Thanks to all members of the Community that enters a RoadTest and writes your RoadTest reviews, and those who keep applying for a RoadTest even if you aren't chosen for that particular item. We appreciate you.

Parents

  • I think it might put off a lot of people, especially students and new grads, but still, sometimes raising something like this can make people brainstorm : ) 

    Maybe the issue can be more generalized, into all manner of things where committment should be shown. For instance, the promise that one is not a spammer, and the promise to be helpful, etc., are community activities or qualities which equally benefit from commitment.

    There's some film where just after WW2 a banker goes back to his job, and he approves a loan to a customer who happens to be another WW2 veteran.

    The head of the bank doesn't like it, and questions what was the customer's collateral.

    The WW2 banker then says that the customer had no physical property or valuables, but that he approved the loan based on judgement, because he saw collateral in the guy himself, because during WW2 they had no property other than what was inside them, and that's what they learned to recognise. It was like a peer-to-peer approval.

    Applying that to the current era where there's a ton of spam coming this way with AI, I wonder if forums could be opt-in based on such a scheme, for instance, any new member would need to be approved by someone else (perhaps the approval request goes to three randomly chosen known real users, and if any one of them approves it then the application is accepted. The collateral would be whatever the person typed in the application (the application could even have boxes to fill in to demonstrate genuine interest.

    Granted that doesn't help directly in any way whatsoever for RoadTests, but just trying to think outside the box, how people show their inner collateral as it were! : )

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  • I think it might put off a lot of people, especially students and new grads, but still, sometimes raising something like this can make people brainstorm : ) 

    Maybe the issue can be more generalized, into all manner of things where committment should be shown. For instance, the promise that one is not a spammer, and the promise to be helpful, etc., are community activities or qualities which equally benefit from commitment.

    There's some film where just after WW2 a banker goes back to his job, and he approves a loan to a customer who happens to be another WW2 veteran.

    The head of the bank doesn't like it, and questions what was the customer's collateral.

    The WW2 banker then says that the customer had no physical property or valuables, but that he approved the loan based on judgement, because he saw collateral in the guy himself, because during WW2 they had no property other than what was inside them, and that's what they learned to recognise. It was like a peer-to-peer approval.

    Applying that to the current era where there's a ton of spam coming this way with AI, I wonder if forums could be opt-in based on such a scheme, for instance, any new member would need to be approved by someone else (perhaps the approval request goes to three randomly chosen known real users, and if any one of them approves it then the application is accepted. The collateral would be whatever the person typed in the application (the application could even have boxes to fill in to demonstrate genuine interest.

    Granted that doesn't help directly in any way whatsoever for RoadTests, but just trying to think outside the box, how people show their inner collateral as it were! : )

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