

"Digital Sharecropping"? Hah - itgoon
http://itgoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/digital-sharecropping-hah.html

======
phsr
Jeff is trying to get across is that before you devote an amount of effort
towards something powered by user generated content, you should ask yourself a
few questions.

Near the end of the post, he lists a set of questions you may want to ask
yourself:

    
    
        * What do you get out of the time and effort you've invested in this website? Personally? Professionally? Tangibly? Intangibly?
    
        * Is your content attributed to you, or is it part of a communal pool?
    
        * What rights do you have for the content you've contributed?
    
        * Can your contributions be revoked, deleted, or permanently taken offline without your consent?
    
        * Can you download or archive your contributions?
    
        * Are you comfortable with the business model and goals of the website you're contributing to, and thus directly furthering?
    
    

That is probably the most important part of Jeffs post, and I think IT Goon
missed that part

~~~
itgoon
I didn't miss that part. That's where Jeff posts the criteria _he_ looks at.

His assumption is that those criteria are not just good for _everyone_ who
uses a user-generated-content site, but for _all_ user-generated content.

Mr. Atwood thinks that users should receive more for their efforts, and backs
it up by giving more at the sites he runs. I respect that.

Try running his criteria past the user of a typical MySpace user. I'd bet the
answers run a lot like this:

    
    
      * my friends can see it
      * my name is at the top, so it is me
      * I don't care (excepting serious artists, who should know better by now)
      * yes, if I'm a jerk
      * All I care about are my pictures, and I have copies
      * are they killing children in Rwanda, or something?

------
wglb
Grumpy, I would say. Did we overlook the part where Atwood helps run
Stackoverflow which is entirely powered by user generated content?

I think Jeff raises a good question, but unfortunately uses a bit of a
hysterical headline.

