Thank you for this. It's easy enough to pick out the faults of an idea, it is much more difficult to suggest alternatives.

#5 is interesting to me as it is very novel. However, as b_b noted, I think it's going to be a tough sell to advertisers. They are going to want the profile of the people suffering their ads, and they aren't going to be too keen on the fact that the users with money are the ones that they aren't targeting. They probably also won't like that their ads in the light of something negative that should be avoided.

The only ads I like on the web are those of the Deck Network. They are the only network that seems to have respect for their hosts and the host's users.

#4 is out because I don't want to treat people like that. It's just not something I want to reflect on on my death bed.

#3 seems to have some support and interest, and I can imagine positive implementations. My biggest qualm with the value added model is that it favors people with money. I want to reward the donation, but not the means of making it. More on that below.

#2 is totally fine by me, but I don't think it will make enough on it's own. NPR gets a good chunk of its revenue outside of the pledge drives, and I suspect that we will need to couple straight donations with another revenue stream.

#1 is a last resort IMO. I think the big reduction of the user base could be mitigated some if members could buy memberships for non-members easily. However, it would be critical to get the numbers right. The model makes a sort of contract with the users, and that contract limits flexibility further on down the line. Once we decide on #1, there is little chance of going back. Also, we have to give up our dreams for DvH or similar developments in that vein, of which we have a few.

Reflecting on this, and the feedback on the experiment for the last few hours has given me a few ideas, all of which need more gestation. This is something that seems interesting to me at the moment:

Take the bit model, and drop the withdrawal mechanism (and the need for bitcoin along with it), then mix it with #3. Consider that the donation ratio was stuck at 50/50 and the max of $1 per share remained. Badges to give, and other rewards[1] were earned based on the creds that were passed on to Hubski via your account. That is, when you donate via shares, 1/2 the money can go towards your rewards, and 1/2 will go towards other people to then be split between their rewards, and the people they share/circledot.

On top of that, there would exist a 'just take my fucking money already' straight donation option.

[1] I prefer most to have rewards that are apparent to the user only. Rewards I do like include: more styles, a personal TMI page, additional feeds, and things of that nature.