Re: Twirlip of Greymist's One Penny Fee

Robin Hanson (hanson@hss.caltech.edu)
Thu, 3 Oct 96 12:12:35 PDT


QueeneMUSE@aol.com writes:
>I *still* suggest those of you who have clear Extropian values and
>quality judgement, address "junk" as it happens., politely and swiftly
>instead of making scatter shot comments, after. )

The problem with this is that you are asking people to, in economics
lingo, "make voluntary contributions to a public good". We all
benefit when someone takes the time to tell folks their posts are not
up to par, but the cost is borne by that one person. In a small
social group, where we might be able to monitor and reward each other
for putting in such efforts, this can work. But when the group gets
too large, or monitoring is too hard, or some people just won't listen
to such advice, then it can all easily break down.

Robin D. Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/