Do you think the Mahalo Dollar value should fluctuate with Mahalo, or should it stay the same as 75 cents per dollar always? Why or why not?

I would like it if the Mahalo Dollar was even with the US Dollar for simplicities sake. Right now a MD is worth $0.75 US .. why not just call a duck a duck and say $0.75 to begin with? A default funded question is now $0.50M why not just make it the $0.37 and call it a day?

No more fluctuations no more questions on cashing out or how much is a Mahalo dollar worth.. just one easy conversion step.. money for money. Mahalo is not the NYSE or a commodities market or NASDAQ. I do not see a need for "market traffic balancing" or "traffic specific currency value".

I like things simple and I am sure that most folks would .. when they are new at least.. prefer a simple 1 to 1 conversion ratio.

It would make marginal difference to traffic to the site. Think of this in terms of stocks. The buying price would always be the same (people earning Mahalo dollars or buying them via CC or PP).

The only thing that would vary would be the cashout price, or selling price. The higher selling price would drive people to request payments on those days the value was high (if Mahalo honored the value when payout was requested). Now, if you varied the purchase price, say .85 dollars to one mahalo dollar, or something, more non users may come to the site, but more than likely this would just drive people to ask more questions or buy more mahalo dollars.

And this analysis would only hold if the cashout value was held constant while the buying price fluctuated. I think the value should stay the same because: 1) It's the simplest way. Mahalo's weakness (and strength) is its complexity.

This would only make it worse. 2) It's a good way for Mahalo to make money. People come in to pay for answers, and the answerers make some money too, but so does Mahalo.

This will allow Mahalo to better project revenue and manage their site vision accordingly. Mahalo can already drive traffic to MA by featuring or asking their own questions. Users can drive traffic to the site by voting for questions, or forwarding/featuring questions on their own blogger/Facebook/Twitter accounts.

I'd come down on the side of a strong "no". There is already sufficient flexibility for Mahalo in their being able to change the M$1 = US$0.75 conversion rate at any time for any reason or no reason. However, if they were to make such changes on a regular basis this would foster uncertainty among members which is not a positive thing, to say the least.In the stock market, you have to have a "risk premium" to get people to invest in stocks.

At Mahalo there is no premium that would compensate for this new uncertainty or risk that you suggest. Finally, there is no "supply and demand" market similar to other markets that would drive such a variability, so it would be completely artificial. While I understand the business reasons to making the cost of a M$1 be US$1 to avoid a psychological barrier from dissuading potential M$ buyers from purchasing M$'s, and understand why Mahalo keeps an "exchange rate" of M$1 = US$0.75 to dissuade people who purchased M$'s from cashing them out, making the exchange rate fluctuate would seem to have only drawbacks, with no benefits.

Some disadvantages of fluctuating Mahalo Dollar: 1. Complexity Peoples just get confused. Peoples may be wary whether to cashout.It will become some kind of share market.

2. Hard to find a way to set Mahalo Dollar conversion rate There is more supply of Mahalo Dollar (supply from Mahalo for task, answer etc.) here but not much demand. Not many peoples will buy Mahalo Dollar to ask question.

If it is to follow market system, lots of supply but no demand, it will drop to 0.3. Confusion on value Mahaloians will lose a yardstick to value if the conversion rate fluctuates. Some may do a task, answer a question for US2 but not for US0.5.

Some sites do have similar schemes.1. Profit sharing points The points will be like shares. At the end of the year, profit will be divided and then distributed.

Disadvantages for Mahaloians : risk of getting nothing for efforts, dilutions (too many points, too few profits), get payment only after profit result is out.2.No virtual dollar but profit sharing only Some e-publishing sites don’t pay but the writer gets a share of future revenue of the page. Disadvantage of 1-to-1 conversion rate of M$ and USD for Mahalo: 1. It will virtually be a no min payout limit system Even if I have only M$1, I can just put in USD149, make it up to M$150 and cashout USD150.2.It can be a platform for money-laundering (wow!

) There will be troubles from the law side and from the underworld.

The Mahalo Dollar exchange rate will always fluctuate and here is why:Mahalo is a company whose product is questions. Customers (i.e. The community of Mahalonians) will "buy" the question with their answers.

If the answer "meets the price" of the question then that answer's answerer gets the question. So, just as in a normal economy where citizens use their dollars to vote for certain products or services; Mahalo's users vote for questions with their answers. These answer votes in turn affect Mahalo.Com Incorporated.

If people stop voting for Mahalo's product -- if we stop answering questions -- then Mahalo will cease to exist. Now, the question becomes: How can Mahalo ensure that we continue to "vote" for their company? They have to set the Mahalo Dollar to USD exchange rate according to what they believe will: a) encourage people to participate in buying their product.

B) allow Mahalo to maximize profits. Maximizing profits is really the key here. Mahalo must set the price of its product at the point at which Marginal Cost equals Marginal Revinue.

This is basic economics 101 and as such, is the reason why the Mahalo Dollar will always fluctuate. Here are some examples to help solidify my answer: If one Mahalo Dollar was only worth a penny, would you continue to answer questions without any change in quantity or quality as you do now? Today 75 cents may be enough incentive to promote Mahalo's product but what if in the future people learn that Mahalo makes a lot more money than they originally did and they want a piece of that pie.

So they stop answering as many questions and lower the quality of their answers. Mahalo can then say either: a) We have enough money on hand. Let's give these guys a higher "dividend" and see if we can grow our profits.

Or b) These guys are out of their minds. Let's hold our ground by keeping the Mahalo Dollar Exchange rate the same.

I say just keep it .50 cents at this point and call it a day. Why confuse new and established members with the default amount for questions constantly going up or down.

Like I have said time and again it should be based on a users loyalty to the site. I would like to think that we have some way of creating a nest egg for ourselves here. Doing so by increasing our point level and participation in the site.

I don't think thats such a crazy idea.

" Somehow, it sometimes feels bad that you earn $M 1.00 for an answer and then paid $USD 0.75 for it. That gives birth to a sort of dissatisfaction. I see no justification for it.

It is neither that they are keeping $M 0.25 as commission because what the site is earning is totally independent of the value of an answer. I presume that the site earns from Ad revenues and page clicks. I do not agree with fluctuation.

Rather, I think value of 1 Mahalo Dollar should be kept straight 1 USD and it should not change. That will certainly bring more traffic and hence more revenue to the site. That's my opinion.

Thanks.

Huh - I just always thought of it as some sort of exchange rate - like when you travel. Not a very favorable one, but there are comparable examples. The exchange rate in Grand Cayman (for instance) is 20% higher.

That is, you get ¢80 on the dollar when you buy stuff there. You sorta get used to it. To my knowledge, that particular exchange rate has not fluxed in a very long time.

I also perceive it as a percentage cut. We get 75%, they get 25%. I could be way off here, and this is not a blanket formula for Mahalonomics.

Just something to go by. Doesn't bug me that much, but I'm sometimes curious how and why they came up with it.

I think Mahalo Dollar value profitable enough.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.