Well, the whole design of costs and rewards that @k00b has built is very smart.

Having said that, I would point out specially:

• The fact that postings costs something keeps a lot of trash profiles away. Generally speaking, things being free attracts all sorts of idiots. The moment you charge anything, even if it's just one cent, you get rid of a lot of that population. This filter is probably the single most important thing that I appreciate of stacker.news. I would even be in favor of making posts much more expensive (1,000 or even 10,000 sats).
• Paying for curating the recent tab is great. When I used other similar platforms, like Reddit, I never ever ever ever went to the fresh/recent/new/whatever sections because why on bloody earth would I waste my time skimming through that pile of shit. Here in stacker.news, at least I get rewarded when I zap good content. And I also can't deny I have some sense of responsibility. I have the power to ignore crap and bring good content to the top, so when I'm in recent, before zapping, I ask myself: is it good for everyone that this makes it to the top?

While the cost to post and the rewards might affect the dynamics of the site, I think it's mostly due to being a small community still. People recognize many of each other's user names and are therefore still more charitable.

I've seen that a lot too, although there is still plenty of the junk that comes with being on the internet and interacting with other people through glass rectangles.

My favorite thing is that a lot of the posts seem to have care put into them that you wouldn't see other places. The small but meaningful financial incentive to create good posts has an effect on how I write on this platform.

Winning Traits of Stacker News

• I agree people sound more human here and I think it’s because they know that their thoughts would be heard and acknowledged, thus helping them to let down their guard and reveal more personal stuff about themselves. I think this culture of reciprocity may arise from the vibrancy of Stacker Saloon and the habit of OPs responding to their respondents. Since I know that someone out there is likely to take my post seriously, I will be motivated to post long prose expounding on my ideas. I mean, sats are a good incentive, but what Stacker News offers is the feeling of being respected. Which Stackers do very well by typing long prose in return, sharing their experiences and offering bits of advice. This doesn’t mean that people always agree with one another. But discourse is largely civil, which makes fertile ground for us to be exposed to different points of view. I learn new things from Stackers every other day and it keeps me coming back.

• Small community
• Shared ethos (mostly)
• Intelligent users because it attracts people interested in difficult subjects like tech and econ

Maybe a controversial take but I don't think the reward system is primarily responsible for the vibe. I think the reward system helps with engagement but I can see how in a different community rewards might actually add to the toxicity

Some important factors that may justify what you say:Some important factors that may justify what you say:

• Rewards in satoshis;
• Still a small community;
• (My perception) Most of the participants are professionally linked to technology. Many are even linked to bitcoin (nos, LN, ...)

I noticed how people around me say something without thinking what they are talking about. Here we have another situation, almost all the community compose its messages with the best words and sentences they ever know, cause say something here costs precious sat. That's why we get the best

sats the standard

I love the idea that every action has value on SN - posting, commenting, polls, e.t.c which is why we keep coming back to it

Couldn't agree more, Reddit just seems like a cess pool of people waiting to jump down your throat. It can be a very hostile place. SN is just better than the others.