Wow. I've had for many years an idea I've called GoodBets to get people who argue on the web to put their money where their mouth is, with the money going to the winner's choice of charity, just as you have with Long Bets. GoodBets would integrate with comment systems, such as this one on HN, so if someone makes some unequivocal statement you think is baloney, you can challenge them with a GoodBet in your reply. They can accept or back down. The benefits are two-fold: discourse would improve[1] and charities would benefit.
The GoodBet website would have two leaderboards: users with most winning bets by dollar and users who donated the most by dollar. That way even the losers win, encouraging participation.
Any chance you could adopt my ideas, either into Long Bets or a fork of it?
Everyone has had that idea. :). Problem is that it doesn't really improve discourse, it just turns trolls into zealots who spend all their time arguing about the exact interpretation of the bet itself.
Note, I am a 7 year user of Intrade(which is undergoing a reboot) with over 100k USD total traded.
I don't have time to build that myself, but if you are interested in building something like that, I'm glad to chat. It could well be that the Long Now would be interested in incorporating that into the Long Bets app.
The GoodBet website would have two leaderboards: users with most winning bets by dollar and users who donated the most by dollar. That way even the losers win, encouraging participation.
Any chance you could adopt my ideas, either into Long Bets or a fork of it?
[1] Partisan Bias Diminishes When Partisans Pay. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/06/554...