If your goal is to directly incentivise <i>and reward</i> editorial content, then ipso facto, you&#x27;re failing at your goal.<p>More broadly, the problem&#x27;s nontrivial.  Good true talent is rare, and even then, inspiration often uneven.  It&#x27;s quite possible for someone to turn out prodigious amounts of content (see Isaac Asimov, say), and even relatively high-quality content (his was good, though IMO uneven).  But there are others who produce very few works -- Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein all come to mind.<p>Incentivising technological creativity has also been quite rocky -- VC-backed startups, IPO exits, patents, state-granted charters, and patronage are among the models attempted.  Many tremendously innovative individuals died broke, and the inventors of many of our most valuable creations (fire, agriculture, weaving cloth, smelting metals, writing) are entirely forgotten.  Even the roster of great inventors launching the Industrial Revolution, about 200 years ago, shows few who actually prospered <i>by that work</i> -- several died in poverty, others were granted government awards or made money elsewhere, a small handful actually profited directly.<p>I&#x27;ve just run across Joseph Needham&#x27;s absolutely stunning 27 volume <i>History of Science and Civilisation in China</i>, which tells the story of Chinese invention dating back literally thousands of years (don&#x27;t ask for details, as I said, <i>just</i> discovered it, though Needham and the work&#x27;s Wikipedia pages offer substantial background, and Simon Winchester has a biography of Needham giving more detail).  One question I&#x27;ve in mind to take to it is <i>what motivated China&#x27;s inventors?</i><p>Needham himself asked what&#x27;s eponymously called &quot;the Needham Question&quot;:  why didn&#x27;t China, with its tremendous head start, industrialise before the West.<p>Other investigation &#x2F; musing:<p>For content:  a tax &#x2F; universal content syndication
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uotb3&#x2F;a_modest_proposal_universal_online_media_payment&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uotb3&#x2F;a_modes...</a><p>(Phil Hunt and Richard Stallman have markedly similar proposals.)<p>On information, markets, and why they fit poorly:
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;2vm2da&#x2F;why_information_goods_and_markets_are_a_poor_match&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;2vm2da&#x2F;why_inf...</a><p>I can&#x27;t find a post on the IR inventors offhand, which probably is a good sign I need to create one....