The Agora

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In the spirit of the Ancient Greek Agora, we invite you to join our vibrant community - a contemporary meeting place for the exchange of ideas, inspired by the practices of old. Just as the Agora served as the heart of public life in Ancient Athens, our platform is designed to be the epicenter of meaningful discussion and thought-provoking dialogue.

Here, you are encouraged to speak your mind, share your insights, and engage in stimulating discussions. This is your opportunity to shape and influence our collective journey, just like the free citizens of Athens who gathered at the Agora to make significant decisions that impacted their society.

You're not alone in your quest for knowledge and understanding. In this community, you'll find support from like-minded individuals who, like you, are eager to explore new perspectives, challenge their preconceptions, and grow intellectually.

Remember, every voice matters and your contribution can make a difference. We believe that through open dialogue, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to discovery, we can foster a community that embodies the democratic spirit of the Agora in our modern world.

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founded 1 year ago

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[VOTE] Only donors should be allowed to vote. (self.agora)

submitted 1 year ago by 9999monkeys to c/agora

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I have seen many a democratic initiative ruined by trolls, bot accounts, duplicate accounts, and assholes. The best way to ensure that democracy doesn't spiral into Haiti is to allow only financial contributors of $5 or more to vote (once the boss man has his contributions system up and running). You want to help build this community? OK, then put your money where your mouth is. To be clear, it should still be one vote per person, whether you donate $5 or $500.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As it stands, you could just create another account for $0 rather than paying for their vote. In fact, you could create a whole lot of them.

[–] sorrybookbroke 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a good point. There are other solutions though that are less destructive. We could have timed verification, "karma" limits, lock it behind an application, only select participants, or only community mods which would lower the amount of false voters. Non of these are perfect, but neither is the donation gate.

To echo myself in another comment:

There are countless ways to trick that system and the trolls will be more dedicated than the average user. If someone really wants it a hundred bucks isn’t that hard to get, or to “find”. Especially if crypto is an option. If it’s 5 bucks to vote permanently, then that’s 5 bucks per vote, permanently. A person with more money and more accounts will have outsized power in this community.

[this] selects a specific type of person too. As a dev, I understand how rare it is for a person to move into a paying role on a site.

This minority of the instances population on an already small group will be those who most want power, not the most invested. That’s what 5 dollars gets you. Power. This is a poor idea.

I understand your concern, but I disagree with the direction you'd take it. Only allowing paid users to vote creates a power inbalance and makes the more power hungry much more powerful, without really stopping them from making more accounts. Sure, it costs them more, but there will be much less competition to overcome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I want to be clear that I wasn't necessarily arguing for some type of paid option. Just that what we have now also isn't democracy.

[–] sorrybookbroke 3 points 1 year ago

Either would be a democracy, definitionally, though both are imperfect. I'd agree something needs to be done to fix the imperfections where possible