bogus comments on Open thread, Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 2015 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Gondolinian 26 January 2015 12:46AM

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Comment author: bogus 28 January 2015 06:01:47PM 0 points [-]

Not sure how communism is relevant here. Snowdrift.coop's mechanism is entirely private and voluntary, and assuming that it works properly, it's incentive properties are superior to typical charities or governments.

Comment author: Lumifer 28 January 2015 06:05:27PM *  2 points [-]

Not sure how communism is relevant here

To quote from Snowdrift's site:

I kept thinking: All of the funding that goes to proprietary software could, in principle, go to Free Software; all of the funding for copyright restricted music and educational resources could, in principle, go to works licensed with Creative Commons. The value to society would be greater if everyone has access and ability to build upon the work of others.

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it's incentive properties are superior to typical charities or governments

That remains to be seen. Its incentive properties are basically "winner take all". Maybe they should have called the project Snowball, not Snowdrift.

Comment author: bogus 28 January 2015 06:38:20PM 1 point [-]

All of the funding that goes to proprietary software could, in principle, go to Free Software; all of the funding for copyright restricted music and educational resources could, in principle, go to works licensed with Creative Commons.

How is this wrong? Kickstarter, IndieGogo and similar projects have boosted the funding of FLOSS software and CC artworks/educational works significantly. Snowdrift.coop is simply an extension of that model.

The 'winner take all' properties of Snowdrift.coop are overstated. If you think a project is raising 'too much', you're free to compensate by reducing your stake, although this will nullify the incentive effect of your contribution. There is no way of escaping this - the same change in incentives happens on Kickstarter when "the goal" is reached. Here, the "goal" of contributions is fuzzy and entirely determined by funders' choices.

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