User:Pcb21/Sysops should pay
|
|
The current server slowdown has got me, and I'm sure others too, thinking about how Wikipedia can keep on growing.
1) Ads. a) What serious proposals are there? Google's AdSense https://www.google.com/adsense/ seems a possibility? b) Join an affilate program for books/movies? Is Amazon the only game in town for affilates? They are patent evil!
2) How about this one. Sysops should pay to be sysops! 150 sysops at $20 a year... might make a small small dent in things.
PRO: Wikimedia has a little more funding PRO: Sysops become linked to a credit card... thus dissuading the nightmare scenario of a vandal sysop (seems more likely than it used to be, given the now easier election method). PRO: Heavy users of the site pay for it.
CON: Plutocracy would replace democracy (if you can't pay, for whatever reason, including not being 18, you can't play) CON: Would surely create a deeper US and THEM divide between sysops and non-sysops. CON: Would surely decrease editorial integrity. If someone came along willing to pony up the cash, then it would hard to turn them down on journalistic grounds from being an admin.
Perhaps better to keep 'paying' contributors separate from sysops... how about extra features for subscribers... a la the Slashdot subscription model there couldn't be any decrease in facilities for non-subscribers... so what incentive could be added?
- Ability to run SQL queries? Sysops can actually do this now if they look hard enough, despite us being told it is switched off. And it is hard to do properly, so probably won't be a killer reason.
- Have special pages (which are actually wrapped and click-and-go SQL queries) turned on again. Inc. page counters.
- Promises for the future. Free CD of Wikipedia 1.0 whenever it arrives.