I’ve been watching them work it out on LibraryThing for the last few months – for small sites that make it clear they don’t have the staff or money to do such things but do want to make themselves useful, it seems to work pretty well. They have recently hired a translator for Hindi, which they hadn’t been able to figure out with the group translation work. As they make clear in their Hebrew language post, enthusiasts can help them expand in new areas very quickly, but also take on projects that aren’t financially feasible. There’s a whole group devoted to translation issues too, helping to make it very collaborative.

I think it bothers me on sites like facebook a lot more than sites like LibraryThing, simply because facebook is becoming so much more commercial and impersonal, while LibraryThing continues to be very open to user feedback (even checking on site design issues). Where is that “taking advantage of the user” and where is that showing respect for the user?