Expert: Katie - 9/18/2007

Question
Hi Katie:

This subject may have been previously asked & answered but I was unable to find any reference to it. Although I know & understand the free policy of this site, I was wondering if it's ever been considered giving questioners the option to "tip" an expert for an answer or series of answers when they may feel it's truly deserving? I realize there are pay sites & I've worked & continue to work for a few but find the atmosphere in most of those to be highly competitive & political. I truly enjoy helping people here but would also appreciate the occasional tip or bonus, even if it were only a very small amount -- for example, on justanswer.com, all my earnings go to the Humane Society of the US but they add up & the charity benefits). I've had on-going Q &A scenarios that require literally hours of my time & research but at the same time I feel truly invested in the problem & want to continue to help. I was just wondering if providing the questioner the opportunity to tip the expert if they feel so inclined was a possibility? Or would it be a logistical & technological nightmare? Thanks for allowing me to vent!

Answer
The subject of tips hasn't come up before, but the subject of pay sites has:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/AllExperts-com-3324/Free-expert-advice.htm

There are no plans to add any monetary transaction processing capabilities to this site.
AllExperts has a paid, full-time staff of only 2 people (the other team members are About.com employees who donate their time and skills because they believe in this "service"). You are right, it would be a logistic & technological nightmare to undertake such a project with our current resources. But more importantly, doing so would contradict the spirit of community, of "paying it forward" that keeps this site up and running everyday.

Please note that it's always been our policy that volunteers keep 100% of any revenue they make from questioners who later become clients. We also won't stop you from sending them your PayPal account info (some volunteers already do so). While we don't facilitate or encourage it, we won't interfere unless we get 3 or more valid complaints from questioners.