What's the big difference?
Money is a MUCH better motivator.
In particular, making predictions is not costless. To consistently produce good forecasts you need to commit resources to the task -- off-the-cuff opinions are probably not going to make it. Why should serious people commit resources, including their valuable time, if the only benefit they get is seeing their name in big letters on top of a long list?
Well, this is something that can be tested experimentally. It could be statistically tested whether the results of the top predictors resemble random noise.
Some people spend incredible amounts of time on internet, reading about stuff that interests them. I can imagine they could make good predictions in their area. (And there should be a "no vote" option for questions outside of their area.)
Wikipedia exists, despite it doesn't pay its contributors, unlike other encyclopedias. And there is some good stuff there. Also bad stuff... but that's what t...
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