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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

I'll take that one! Sure it is. It's a web of interlocking double binds that squeeze you like a python squeezes a rat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_bind – a concept, btw, that Gregory Bateson came up with to explain what makes people go crazy.

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AOL used to charge by the hour, and discovered an unintended side effect when they switched to flat-rate pricing. Mods in the ancien regime had been compensated by getting free online time, but under the new system, that became worthless, and there was a wave of mods quitting because somewhere-around-minimum-wage had been sufficient compensation for the double binds before, but they weren't about to volunteer to deal with the worst of forums.

I just saw this. That's fascinating. Is it written about online?

Good question. My sources were oral; I'll see what I can dig up this weekend.

https://www.wired.com/1999/10/volunteers/ "Everything changed in December of 1996, when AOL moved to a flat-rate pricing system: unlimited access for $19.95 a month. Gone were the profits from hours spent in chat. Worse, chatty members clogged AOL's servers and threatened to crash the system. Gone too were many of the volunteers. Without the hundreds of dollars worth of free hours, more than half left."

Just saw this now. Will check it out. Thanks!

Ah that does seem stressful. I do appreciate that you moderate here though, HN is much better for it!

Thank you! It is a learning experience for the rat.

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