The Goldhat Blog

With all the millions upon millions of links out there, how do you choose? How do you find the stories that inspire you, the news that goes beyond the soundbite and gives you real insights about what’s going on? How do you find advice that’s so convincing that you not only agree with it, but act upon it? Where is that photograph, painting, or poem that has the potential to change your perspective forever?

They’re out there, but for every great link there are a thousand bad ones, and to sort through it all is exhausting. The overabundance of information and the lack of any reliable way to quickly determine the value of what you’re going to read or watch is the internet’s biggest limitation.

Content aggregators like Digg and Reddit have tried to solve this problem by having their users vote on links to content that they like and featuring links that receive the most votes. This filters out a lot of the crap, but despite hundreds of thousands of users and millions of votes, the front pages of these sites are filled with nothing more than five minute distractions: news stories about surfers punching sharks and pictures of cats watching fightened squirrels through screen doors. You’d have to spend an hour browsing through the pages just to find anything that approaches meaningful, quality content.

Votes are an unreliable gauge of quality because the voters must first choose the content they want to read or watch BEFORE voting. If, for example, voters had the choice between watching a one-minute gag video and a 30 minute short indie film, most would opt for the gag video because it requires less of a time commitment. Because more people choose to see the gag video more people will vote for it. Because more people will vote for it, the greater chance it has to be featured on Digg or Reddit. It doesn’t matter that the indie film could be the best thing the voters see all month. It’s much easier to go for (and vote for) the content that provides instant gratification.

Consider a scenario where one user decides to watch the 30 minute film and falls in love with it. If they wanted to promote it they’d vote for it, tweet it or share through facebook or twitter. This would help bring the film to wider audience, but few people will be motivated to watch it because they would risk wasting thirty minutes of their time.

But if that same user decides to make a $20.00 donation on goldhat, THAT will get people’s attention. They’ll want to know what was so great about the video that a user donated such a large amount. They’ll take the time to read the glowing review, and decide that if it was worth $20.00 to one person, it’s certainly worth spending 30 minutes watching the film for free. That $20.00 became more than just an expression of one person’s appreciation for someone’s else art,  it became an endorsement that expressed the film’s value, which can be many times more valuable to an artist than a $20.00 drop in the hat.

If one user is bold enough to toss a twenty into the hat, more users will be encouraged to watch. The more users that watch, the more users donate, and the more users donate, the more artists, writers, and creative people will be encouraged to create and publish works of enduring quality.

It’s up to us to make these donations, to inspire artists to have the courage to make something real and great. If we do this, we can change not only the way people find content on the internet, but we can also improve the quality of the content itself.  It might take a few bucks out of your pocket, but think about how many hours you spend on the internet. Wouldn’t you venture to spend just a few bucks on the off chance that you could make your experience a little better?

All it takes is a penny. Let’s do it.