142 sats \ 7 replies \ @Scoresby OP 19 Sep \ parent \ on: The Mental Transaction Costs of Zaps bitcoin
Interesting analogy. The voluntary nature of zaps has something to do with why they don't feel like annoying micro transactions.
You also make me wonder how much it matters that they are going to a person. I tend not to zap the bots on here, although as zapping becomes reflexive (I read something interesting and zap it without checking who posted it), I have ended up zapping the @hn quite a few times.
Zapping is kind of a politeness thing now, too. So, maybe I need to account for that.
Why wouldn’t you zap a bot? Behind the scenes, a person (likely) made the bot. Just because they’ve found a way to provide value in an automated fashion shouldn’t devalue their contribution, should it?
reply
Fair point. Perhaps there is an expectation of social interaction and a bot feels more like a one way street.
reply
That’s fair. I don’t expect interaction when I zap something, because zaps are anonymous (generally)
reply
reply
A bot doesn’t, but the creator does. I know bot creators like @ek check in on their bot children to see how they’re behaving
reply
Yeah, thinking about how a particularly generous zap will make someone else feel is definitely an important factor.
reply