In short, I don't believe we actually need any change to the mechanism;
we just need to lower the minimum and encourage donation at
above-minimum levels.
We should do this by keeping in mind that *the average user will tend
to stick with the defaults.* Therefore, if we set the recommended
pledge level above the minimum, so long as that pledge level is
reasonable (ie, easily within the user's budget), they will stick with
that donation level. I propose the following. Note: numbers are rather
arbitrary, I just wanted to give a concrete example/idea.
let n refer to the number of users.
- Lower the minimum contribution to $1 per 5000 users.
- For small n (< 100), the recommended contribution is $1 per 1000
users.
- For n <= 100, the recommended contribution is the average of other
users' contribution.
- This is presented to the user as "match other users 1:1"
- The user has an option to match at a different rate, but it's not
highlighted visually.
- If a user does opt to change their rate, the following message is
displayed:
- "This will [increase/decrease] the recommended donation[!/.]"
Hopefully this allows for all of the following:
- A social incentive to donate more (increase the recommended donation).
- A way to donate less with a reasonable social "penalty."
- if there's no "penalty," people may try to calculate the "best
deal" of matching, ie, always donate the minimum.
- if there's too much "penalty," it may dissuade people who actually
can't afford it from donating.
- An elegant way to handle higher and lower contribution levels (ie,
adds little complexity).
- An intuitive way to present higher and lower donation levels to users.
Thoughts?
~Stephen
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