Wouldn’t that proposal harm minnows that are creating genuine content but don’t reach the sufficient threshold? Wouldn’t they deserve to get at least the few pennies so they can grow slowly but steadily? Most of the comments only end up being on those few pennies. For example when I want to reward activity on my blog by upvotes i do so with about 10%-30% which is about 0,04-0,12 bucks. That very well could be a limit that even spam comments manage to get.
Anyway i believe that it WOULD help with the spam. The more important question is, what harm it would do.
Just throwing ideas... What if it was 'payment withheld' for the first few months like a trial period until someone passes muster (doesn't get flagged all the time as Spam).
That might work, if earnings were placed in savings to be collected, if they stick around 90 days or whatever and are proven to not be a spammer...
Now that is a REALLY good idea! Yes that would solve the problem I outlined. The only problem left would be: How to set the right threshold in order for the minnows not to get dis-incentivized because they have to wait so long for their payment.
When I first started many of my early jobs, there was a trial period with some percentage withheld. It is common isn't it? Perhaps it would actually incentivize som, maybe 50 percent withheld and if they don't pass 3 months adequately, the other 50 gets burned. I would have to think more on it but without a cost to spam, plagiarise and act like an ass until caught, it is going to be the wild west. The problem is that action is always corrective rather than preventative and it requires the community to catch and act, something the community doesn't do very well at the moment.
Yeah, this is a better proposal here!
Actually, I have included this idea in my comment above, it was a pretty good one!