But how will charging to open the classifieds for new members make them less anonymous? It's not like the mods/admins have the legal basis to release their personal information (i.e. PayPal account info) to the public, so they're just as anonymous to us as they would have been before.
The new member wishing access to the classifieds would require a PayPal account, and PayPal does have its own verification process. If you buy or sell something using PayPal, and something goes very wrong (fraudulently wrong) you at least have some recourse. The mods/owners wouldn't release personal information, but at least they would know that there was some minimum standard of verification performed by PayPal.
The only people who they wouldn't be anonymous to would be the mods/admins.
Exactly. It's not like you would have your identity posted to everyone, just the people who should be in possession of that information. Users would still have some anonymity, but not so much that they could be shills, or sock puppets, or act fraudulently.
And now that I think about it, mods already have the power to stop people from spamming their way to 60 posts. It's called MODERATING! If they notice a new member that is blatantly spamming their way to 60 posts, they can simply delete the spam, their post count is reduced, and they have to actually post something worth while.
You raise a very valid point. The only problems with that method are: it could be very subjective, and will require a lot more effort (which could be directed more productively elsewhere) and raises no funds for GH. Also, if you get a flood of people in advance of a 4Grabs drawing, that's going to very taxing on the mods.
And if the typical "good" new GH user isn't trying to get their 60 posts as fast as possible, then isn't it obvious that they aren't here just for the classifieds and are perfectly content to wait it out until they reach that milestone?
They
may be content. What if they're not? Let's say we get a new member who contributes a lot, but manages to do it with brevity.
This chills me to the bone. This great new member contributes a new interface, a fantastic series of writeups, but they're at 45 posts. We should have a system that lets them make a small donation and immediately get access, if they so choose. Why should they have to wait, even if they are willing to do so? We should slant the game board in favor of rewarding new members that fit our vision of what the community should be.
Maybe a hybrid system? Reach 100 posts (non-spam)
or pay $2-$3 to be verified and get immediate access?
Anyway, we can just agree to disagree on the matter. No system will end up being perfect, that's for certain.