The Evaporative Cooling Effect in Online Communities
From the article: "In Academia, high school students have to fight to become undergraduates. Undergraduates have to fight to become PhD candidates. PhD candidates have to fight to become adjuncts. Adjuncts have to fight to become tenured and tenured professors have to fight to become Dean. I can’t even think of a single online community that bears even the slightest resemblance to this sort of power structure."<p>Interesting point. Maybe having forms of recognition that are demonstrably difficult to achieve does help outstanding contributors feel more like staying.