There is a great philosophical rift between those who try to “game” the system, and those whom transform the system into a game. Let’s refer to these as:
the low road
aka gaming the system, any short sighted strategy
the high road
transform the system into a game,
creating a new system, longer term strategy
The Design Spectrum from Low to High
In respect to web pages, email contacts, software and other media here is a loose hierarchy of design methodologies
- the lowest of roads is represented by viral attacks used to steal systems
- next up is relentless spamming to implant spyware for account/data theft not much different than stealing systems
- Even more benign low roads are loaded with annoying ads and short term payoffs. Undesired advertisements appeal to many because they’re the easiest choice at the moment. They promise the potential of a quick payoff.
- the low road of MLM, pyramid or ponzi schemes is the next low road. These systems and strategies take money from those who enter the system later or resell a product purchased to many others with the sole intent being making money off of those who enter the “pyramid” later
- middle of the road is represented by web landing pages covered with banners, popups and/or other unwanted advertisements. This strategy includes some valued content that may balance against the attention interuption levied against readers
- finally the high road has only a few simple contextual ads and sells only what it’s readers are really interested in, content is king
To see how self limiting gaming the system is, you need only look further ahead in time. Even the best of the low road corrodes trust and likely ends badly. Within social media there is potential for anyone’s voice to echo throughout all of cyberspace and to be recognized. This idea has not been missed by those who would profit from stealing our attention. These cyber spammers are charlatans whose only goal when interacting is converting readers into unwitting victims. They have no interest in having genuine conversations or showing gratitude. Unfortunately even the “non-evil” Google is helping foster only the middle road with a profit path that is reliant on advertising (they’re doing their best to practice the high road though). As long as unrequested ads saturate our web pages the cyber salesmen will leverage our curiosity into revenue. Even recognizing how this detracts from the quality and honesty of information flow, reluctantly I too have participated middle of the road tactics by chasing after affiliate sales as one of only a few potential income sources from writing web content.
It’s Time for a Change
It is incumbent upon us to determine new ways to reward honesty and information on the web, in order to make a significant improvement to profitable web strategies. We must celebrate would be media and content creators by supporting not only their products with fair value but by even more generously spreading their message throughout our own network of friends and associates. We need to collectively and creatively come up with a solution for rewarding entertaining or informative content with more than a side glance at an undesired banner ad.
As content creators, we must give, then give again. By continually giving our time and creating media of value to our readers we empower our personal brand, our preeminence, and become known as generous beyond expectations (my favorite attribute). The optimal game theory is no longer Tit for Tat for content developers, it’s Give and Give Again.
(For more on this concept, please check out Seth Godin’s thoughts on travelling the low road/high road analogy)
