That's not a popular opinion, and likely construed as 'writer-bashing'. It isn't, it's unsustainable economics bashing. People here seem to miss the point that devcoin prices on value. It swings to low prices and never really recovers as a function of pay, and then a function of the lowest common denominator. If the real world pays $X for 1,000 words then any equivalent dvc payment > X will be sold and the price will revert over time. All else being equal, at some point each/most rounds market mechanics work to drop the price to a level commensurate with or closer to what 1,000 words may be worth. And then lower because a lot of devtome writers aren't professional writers or, to put it politely, writers.
Would better quality writing do anything to address the issues you raise or do you see the whole thing as unworkable?
For a developer looking at a writers work, it must seem to have very little value- development is worth so much more based on the amount of money that development can generate and I am not saying developers are bad for seeing things as developers, I am just trying to understand how value is determined in this setting.
Artists and Writers have always needed sponsorship and patrons. A lot of Authors are paid in advance for words they have not written yet, in order to help them to write more, (If they are lucky and talented) and countries like Ireland recognise their value by releasing them from income tax obligations and giving their work value before a single word is written.
I don't know how other writers feel, but some of the pieces I have on Devtome are works that mean a lot to me. One novel took me ten years to compile because it includes my poetry, paintings and graphic art as well. (I am still editing part two and have not finished painting one of the pictures because I spend too much time hanging out in forums lol)
While I will get paid for the number of words, and the images I upload, any value they had to me - or to anyone else reading them - I have now "given" to the Devcoin community. The license I agreed to means I can never take that work back, I can re-use it but I can never take back the commitment I made to the community, any more than a developer can take back his source code.
I would like to think that the goal is that a writers value to the community is not valued in the DVC share alone, but also as a contribution to the resources/assets of a community. Otherwise I just gave a huge part of myself to something that amounts to a glorified blog paying me for posts to drive up traffic.
Please don't take offence at that comment, I am trying to illustrate a point and I am not attacking Devtome in any way, my opinion is just my opinion and I am not assuming to be speaking for any other writer. I am trying to understand because I have a vested interest in this
I am also not trying to suggest developers should be valued any less, just that maybe it isn't about writers as such, but about how the community determines the value of all its contributors?