The goal was to create a framework through which people could safely test and report exploits. In addition, 4chan isn't in a financial position to dole out large bounties.
I think the Hall of Fame is worth more than the $20.
This is one of those cases where the $20 is probably worse than $0, though (even though it's non-cash). It's like "hey, friend, will you (help me move|have sex with me|etc)"; more likely to do it as a favor than when $20 is offered. Probably even more likely to do it for $1k than as a favor. $1000>0>$20.
I remember on one of the early StackOverflow podcasts that Joel very specifically wanted to stay away from any kind of monetary compensation for answering questions because as soon as somebody tries to do a $/time equivalency in their head the whole thing looks like a rip-off.
Much better to frame things as a way to show off to peers, help the community, etc.
The Hall of Fame is the really worthwhile part, and has more value to most users than a small amount of cash. Perhaps something like Donald Knuth's reward cheques[1] for TeX bugs would be a better option?
The whole point of 4chan is anonymity, so being in the Hall of Fame is completely useless. In fact, your typical 4channer would probably prefer sheer lulz resulting from hacking 4chan to any monetary reward.
Sorry, I hope I didn't come across as being attackative. It just took a little digging for me to find the terms.
I totally understand that you can't offer a $1,000 bounty, you aren't Google or Facebook.
Would it be possible, however, to take donations (cryptocurrencies?) that can be used specifically for the bounties? I'd put in 50k DOGE towards that, and I'm sure others would too.
Why don't you open source your moderation panel, or at least release screenshots of it? 4chan has had a lot of beautiful code submitted by volunteers every year. It's a shame to keep it all locked up.
rdl|11 years ago
This is one of those cases where the $20 is probably worse than $0, though (even though it's non-cash). It's like "hey, friend, will you (help me move|have sex with me|etc)"; more likely to do it as a favor than when $20 is offered. Probably even more likely to do it for $1k than as a favor. $1000>0>$20.
michaelbuckbee|11 years ago
Much better to frame things as a way to show off to peers, help the community, etc.
koralatov|11 years ago
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_reward_check
Grue3|11 years ago
eggbrain|11 years ago
I totally understand that you can't offer a $1,000 bounty, you aren't Google or Facebook.
Would it be possible, however, to take donations (cryptocurrencies?) that can be used specifically for the bounties? I'd put in 50k DOGE towards that, and I'm sure others would too.
moot|11 years ago
I appreciate the kind gesture, but I really hate accepting donations, and to that end we haven't accepted any in ~8.5 years.
s_q_b|11 years ago
Sir_Cmpwn|11 years ago
koralatov|11 years ago
robobro|11 years ago
moot|11 years ago
All of our codebase (the core application and related tools) has been closed-source from day one. Not sure what you're referring to.