[jaxn]

I will be interested to see how they keep people from gaming the system.

Once you get someone to support your site the goal will be to get them to visit your site as many times as possible in a month. I think this will lead to increased sensationalism and gimmicks.

Also, visits are typically delimited by a period of inactivity (say, 30 minutes). I can think of several ways off the top of my head that publishers could manipulate that inactivity window to create additional visits (thus increasing their slice of the pie).

It is an interesting idea, but as always, the devil is in the details.

[gustaf]

In general sites with a behavior of more repeat usage benefit more. For example I visit hacker news more than NYtimes or New York review of books. Hackers News updates every minute, new york review of book once a month or whatever...

[ABrandt]

Gaming this type of system is certainly possible, but I can identify a few factors that would limit this.

For one, no matter how large "their slice of the pie" is, the publishers won't make much if the user doesn't feel that the content is valuable. Thus, blogs and what not will still be encouraged to deliver quality content to truly increase earnings.

I agree, however, that basing payout on the number of visits to a "supported" site is flawed. I could see myself supporting a site, forgetting that I did so, and then end up paying much more than I had intended. No thanks.

[ryanwaggoner]

You only pay whatever you set your fixed monthly total Kachingle subscription to be (say $10). The number of visits just allocates what percentage of that fee goes where. The idea is that once you decide to support a site, you don't have to think about how to divvy up your support; it's based on your usage patterns.