Love the tipjoy concept, but development in this direction seems to be 'slicing a thin pie even more finely'.
Also, there are issues of 'motivation crowding' to consider -- most sites/projects that rely on user contributions could hurt themselves if they made it seem that financial rewards were the main reason to contribute. Cf: Google Answers vs. Yahoo Answers, among others.
The real challenge, I suspect, is creating a cultural expectation that certain kinds of online content/service should be supported by casual tipping. That's a matter to be addressed with marketing/trendmaking/usability/ubiquity/patience, rather than complexifying the process with backend payout-sharing.
Yeah, "motivation crowding" is an interesting problem. I think the lightness of TJ helps that a bit, and for our site, it's an opt-in process so they have to be that sort of person if they want that.
I think you see more confusion in the revenue-sharing models. When you bill it as "We'll pay you for content!" then it really puts people into a mindset of $$$ which can effect how much they want to contribute in their spare time.
I think there's a good chance that won't happen in this model when you say "Hey, you can let people tip you a dime for this content if you want."
Still, I'm interested to see how well our community enjoys it.
One of the things which definitely improve online tipping is making it clear what it will be used for. Making it easier and more visible also helps.
This leads to the question if online tipping is a luxury good. Tipping in restaurants for instance is so ingrained both socially and because the staff need the money that tips may be squeezed in an economic downturn (see http://waiterrant.net/?p=436), but they will hold up. For online content, that remains to be seen, but we can definitely try.
Also, there are issues of 'motivation crowding' to consider -- most sites/projects that rely on user contributions could hurt themselves if they made it seem that financial rewards were the main reason to contribute. Cf: Google Answers vs. Yahoo Answers, among others.
The real challenge, I suspect, is creating a cultural expectation that certain kinds of online content/service should be supported by casual tipping. That's a matter to be addressed with marketing/trendmaking/usability/ubiquity/patience, rather than complexifying the process with backend payout-sharing.