Prisons and Gardens

Do you buy or sell work on a platform? Like Facebook, or Fiverr?

There are two kinds of platform to buy and sell things on:

Platform prisons, and platform gardens.

This was drawn to my attention after experiencing both in a 24 hour period:

Platform prisons: These are when the platform makes work, and workers, worse.

For instance, Fiverr’s documentation cites that a seller who enables “out of office” will see the feature, quote: “affect[s] your rankings badly, ultimately demoting your Sellings”. It goes on to say, “elements start working negatively for you, possibly making you start from scratch on the return”.

As a result, if you want to use their platform without penalties, you must be available within 24 hours of anyone who messages you at all times; no weekends, no vacations, no breaks to greave a lost one, or go to the hospital, without penalty.

This is a platform prison. It rewards unhealthy behaviour, only displaying the unhealthiest workers to their buyers and marginalising what’s possible as a result.

Platform gardens: These are when the platform makes work, and workers, better.

For instance, on this week’s AMA, we discussed with hundreds of people how platforms can be designed to give participants the opportunity to make their own contributions, augmenting the core material, to reach more of the edges and go deeper for those eager to grow further.

As a result, things aren’t built around time pressure or penalties, but around equipping those who are growing with the ability to help others grow too. We call it a ‘garden’ because we all get to plant seeds and nurture the fruits of our efforts to healthy ripening.

This is a platform garden. It rewards healthy behaviour, only displaying the healthiest work to users and encouraging what’s possible as a result.

We should nurture Platform gardens.

We should demand better from the Platform prisons.

We vote with our voices, our attention, our time, our return, and our money.

Vote wisely.