Sharing and participation...

One of the things we all enjoy doing, is to share. People do that, and tend to go to places where sharing is easy.

We are all social by nature. Sharing what we find, or do, with others is something we like to do. We enjoy discovering new things, and we do we want to share with other people. Not only that, many times we discover new things when other people share what they have with us.

This is why we tend to gather in places where other people go.

I can think of several examples of things I enjoy doing that I discovered because someone shared it with me directly, or at a forum. And also have presented others with my discoveries, and they have liked it.

Yet there are groups that instead of using the need to share we have to their advantage, they try to keep people from doing so. And their efforts are mostly in vain, since people always find a way to share what they like with others.

Instead of trying to stop people from sharing, a mechanism that let's people to share while giving something back in return needs to be found. When people feels like the have a share on whatever is going on, they naturally feel the need to do something to keep it going.

Most importantly, the idea that all must boil down to making people to contribute money needs to change. Why not let people contribute time and effort instead?

There are many ways that people can contribute back, and all are equally valuable. Not everybody will participate equally, or contribute with the same enthusiasm, but the all efforts made by every person who chooses to give back pile up.

So instead of trying to stop people from sharing, lets make them feel part of what they are sharing. This way, they will most likely contribute something back and make things better.