4 ms·

I don't know about messaging, but paying per comment would be a really interesting idea. There are a lot of people out there who are very aggressive about posti

I don't know about messaging, but paying per comment would be a really interesting idea. There are a lot of people out there who are very aggressive about posting in tabloid and newspaper comment sections. The comments are usually so argumentative, angry, and spiteful that I have to think that just having the comment itself appear on the page is worth quite a lot to those people.

dmitrygr 9y ago
But YOU wouldn’t pay to participate in a place where they can do that :)
- atomical 9y ago
  My scenario is just me thinking out loud. Most people don't participate in online discussions. It's a very small part of the population that logs onto the internet to critique news articles and spread their agenda. I don't participate in that sort of thing at all.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- sliken 9y ago
  If HN wasn't financially viable would people pay $0.10 to post? Would $0.10 per post decrease participation? Would $0.10 per post significantly offset the cost of running HN? Would $0.10 be enough to improve the forums, maybe have it notify you when your comment was replied to?
  - TylerE 9y ago
    No, because a webforum is not exactly difficult to replicate. The users would all move to whatever free alternative popped up.
    - atomical 9y ago
      HN as a following and prestige at this point. People would pay.
- Buge 9y ago
  There have been a number of websites with a fee to create an account, to prevent spam. Metafilter, Something Awful, Bitcoin Wiki previously. There are also sites meant to be exclusive with fees $1000 and up https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15407144/exclusive-social-media-the-league-best-of-all-worlds-rich-kids https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15407144/exclusive-social... I've also heard proposals of email readers charging fees that senders have to pay, to stop spammers from being able to send them anything. Sometimes it's a computation fee instead of a monetary fee, a proof of work to rate limit spammers.
tylersmith 9y ago
People will pay to not have their data sold and then the companies will sell the data to double down
sliken 9y ago
Well a newspaper is different, few contributors and many readers. Normal chat is either 1 to 1 or a small group of people in a channel/room. Just like email, I'd happily pay a small amount, say $0.10 to email a person the first time. Especially since even a small fee, negligible to most would be catastrophically expensive to spammers. Might also create an income stream so that it would be easier to compete with gmail, microsoft, and yahoo. As spam bots become more common on social and messaging networks I don't see why it couldn't be a similarly effective measure.

dmitrygr 9y ago

But YOU wouldn’t pay to participate in a place where they can do that :)

atomical 9y ago
My scenario is just me thinking out loud. Most people don't participate in online discussions. It's a very small part of the population that logs onto the internet to critique news articles and spread their agenda. I don't participate in that sort of thing at all.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
sliken 9y ago
If HN wasn't financially viable would people pay $0.10 to post? Would $0.10 per post decrease participation? Would $0.10 per post significantly offset the cost of running HN? Would $0.10 be enough to improve the forums, maybe have it notify you when your comment was replied to?
- TylerE 9y ago
  No, because a webforum is not exactly difficult to replicate. The users would all move to whatever free alternative popped up.
  - atomical 9y ago
    HN as a following and prestige at this point. People would pay.
Buge 9y ago
There have been a number of websites with a fee to create an account, to prevent spam. Metafilter, Something Awful, Bitcoin Wiki previously. There are also sites meant to be exclusive with fees $1000 and up https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15407144/exclusive-social-media-the-league-best-of-all-worlds-rich-kids https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15407144/exclusive-social... I've also heard proposals of email readers charging fees that senders have to pay, to stop spammers from being able to send them anything. Sometimes it's a computation fee instead of a monetary fee, a proof of work to rate limit spammers.

tylersmith 9y ago

People will pay to not have their data sold and then the companies will sell the data to double down

sliken 9y ago

Well a newspaper is different, few contributors and many readers. Normal chat is either 1 to 1 or a small group of people in a channel/room. Just like email, I'd happily pay a small amount, say $0.10 to email a person the first time. Especially since even a small fee, negligible to most would be catastrophically expensive to spammers. Might also create an income stream so that it would be easier to compete with gmail, microsoft, and yahoo. As spam bots become more common on social and messaging networks I don't see why it couldn't be a similarly effective measure.