diversity
I know you probably thought you were making an analogy, but it really just seemed like you were changing the subject. There's nothing unrealistic that lowering the cost (in time) of something will cause more people to buy it (volunteer their time).
Talking about changing the topic! There are only a few cases where "lowering the cost (in time) of something will cause more people to buy it (volunteer their time)." will apply, as in "working with LiquidThreads costs 4× as long as the regular way, so I will only rarely bother". In most other cases the analogy is pointless.
Of course there is a real cost (in money) in contributing anything at an encyclopedic level, but there is not much that would reduce that cost. It might be possible to prevent the increase of cost added by the community. - Brya 05:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
There's a lot we can do to reduce the cost of contributing. Basically, anything that makes it easier or faster, and anything that reduces wasted effort.
Well, a lot depends on what is meant by "contribute". The costs of contributing content at an encyclopedic level cannot be much influenced by anything done within Wikipedia. But, yes, the cost in time for a user working off a list of tasks-to-do, or of things-missing can probably be reduced. However, it is not unlikely that this will add to the real costs for those who belong to the first group. - Brya 05:20, 18 May 2010 (UTC)