[NTLK] Fighting Complacency within the Newton Community

Many data exchanging communities require that every participant at some point
provide some direct contribution by uploading and transmitting data from
their computer to other members of the community. This sharing/participation
requirement is a key factor in helping to keep the whole system going. In file/data
exchanging communities such as bit-torrent, etc, members are penalized for
lack of participation up to a certain minimum standard.

I propose that the Newton Community adopt a similar requirement. Users would
be required to offer up information publicly, based upon their own Newton
experimentation and usage. If a member sought answers on Newtontalk.net at some
point in time, they should also have responded in some helpful, meaningful way
to some other member's posted question at some point as well.

The bottom line would be this: you should NOT be permitted to just lurk in
the background without ever offering anything constructive or productive to the
Community. This is just leeching, and it does not strengthen our Community.
Nor should users of Newtontalk.net be allowed to consistently ask advice and
questions without at some point responding in kind to offer their helpful advice
and observations to another member of the Community.

We would need some kind of baseline, such as requiring every Newtontalk.net
member to respond in a constructive manner a minimum of 3-6 times in a sample
90-day period. If members did not contribute something approaching this minimal
requirement, their account could be frozen until they provided an explanation
(to a designated peer review board) as to why they had not contributed.

There are a lot of very intelligent people who regularly visit Newtontalk:
people with Master's degrees, PhD's, advanced business and technical knowledge,
creative talents, and so forth. Yet, I would venture to guess that 99% of
these talented individuals seldom if ever contribute something back. I don't think
this is a lot to ask. By sharing our knowledge and experience, by creating
new content, and by continually trying to advance the Newton platform, we remain
a strong and supportive community. We all benefit from this.

Matt K.
Detroit, Michigan, USA

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