Obviously we don't get paid to post the most entertaining things to keep visitors coming back. (I hope you weren't trying to imply that I was saying that?) There are forums that encourage such things to keep hits high and ad revenue coming in. I don't believe I need to point out these. I'm sure you can come up with a few examples yourself.
Perhaps you should define "such things". Because yeah...otherwise it looks like that's what you're saying.
Again, you focused on the money to the "player" which was not my point. The sites could encourage people to post absurd things, jokes, or other information in order to generate hits. The users don't have to get paid for the site to make money.
Now that we've established what you're still trying to drag out as an analogy, let me point out that again this disproves the validity of the analogy. Sports players *do* get paid for their exploits, and those exploits in turn put money in the owners' pockets. There's a self-interest loop there that works against attempts to rid ANY professional team sport of doping.
Since you're so keen on clinging to the sports = internet forum analogy, let me put it this way: if Toady derived most of his income from site visits, and many of the site visits were to read what I posted, and in the process of trying to top myself I started posting inflammatory material that broke the forum guidelines...do you think I'd get a permaban? Because that would be killing the golden goose. (Granted, with Toady he still might do it because Tarn is awesome that way and not a money-grubbing CEO.)
Likewise, when Mark McGuire was hitting homeruns like they were prizes out of a Cracker Jack box and tens of thousands of people were buying St. Louis Cardinals merchandise as a result....do you think maybe the Cardinals' owners are going to have a vested interest in NOT investigating claims of steroid use and/or covering up evidence?
You're saying it's possible, I'm saying it's possible in the same way that it's possible that Kim Jong Il decides to step down peacefully and let everyone in North Korea have a pony. It's technically possible in that there are no laws of physics or man against it, but not bloody likely to happen.
[W]hy on Earth would YouTube ever block anything those people put up, if they're generating massive hits?
They wouldn't. And I never said they would. I simply said they could.
Face it, you used a poor analogy and now you're arguing yourself blue in the face rather than simply say, "Yeah, I could have picked a better analogy."