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I strongly dislike the idea. It reduces deep knowledge to people who can pay for it. The web should be open for anyone. (yeah, Its already not like this, I know

I strongly dislike the idea. It reduces deep knowledge to people who can pay for it. The web should be open for anyone. (yeah, Its already not like this, I know)

airstrike 5y ago
> Nothing is changing with the existing MDN Web Docs content — this content will continue to be free and available to everyone. We want to provide extra value through premium content and features to help make MDN self-sustaining, on a completely opt-in basis. Again, nothing is changing with the existing MDN Web Docs!
- elliekelly 5y ago
  Are there any studies about how long the corporate “nothing is changing” line actually holds true? My gut says maybe 18-24 months? Perhaps I’m cynical but I see “nothing is changing” and I can’t help but assume a change is all but inevitable and they’re just going to slow walk me to it.
ale42 5y ago
As far as I understand, the MDN documenting the standard (HTML5, CSS, etc.) will stay freely accessible as it is. I prefer this than having trackers & ads on the site... which would be completely contrary to their values anyway.
- baggachipz 5y ago
  > As far as I understand, the MDN documenting the standard (HTML5, CSS, etc.) will stay freely accessible as it is. For now. Once you let the monetization genie out of the bottle, Death by a Thousand MBA's is almost certain.
  - airstrike 5y ago
    This false equivalence between MBA degrees and poor management really has to stop. It's a pretty bigoted take and I'm always disappointed to see that on HN, even though I half expect it coming into most threads these days.
    - baggachipz 5y ago
      Found the MBA! In all seriousness though, the MBA in and of itself isn't necessarily "bad". However, the "maximize shareholder value" mantra and the sheer volume of MBA's invading a company are the problem. There are so many now, every one of them looking for a way to appear valuable. The training cements this ever-increasing desire to wring more productivity and efficiency from an organization; the long-term effects of which are usually user-hostile. But it's a slow strangulation, so it never appears immediately sinister to anybody unless they've seen it happen before. People are starting to come around to this, and coupled with the sheer volume of MBA's it's become a meme of sorts. It seems to me these days that "not all MBAs are greedy pricks, but all greedy pricks are MBAs".
offtop5 5y ago
Your other option is W3 which fills their site with ads. If I could, I'd pay Google 50$ a month directly to disable all of their advertising across all sites which use ad sense.
hn8788 5y ago
Nothing is stopping people from writing their own articles on other sites for free. Developers aren't owed free articles to read, and if people want to be compensated for the time spent writing articles, then they should be.
tiagod 5y ago
Agreed. Normally I wouldn't be that surprised at this, but I thought of Mozilla as a nonprofit that wouldn't just gatekeep access to some information to those that have the money to pay for it (Could someone in Iran or Cuba even pay for this if they wanted?)
city41 5y ago
On the flip side, corporations that make a ton of money off of this information, rarely, if ever, voluntarily pay for it. It's a hard problem to solve.

I strongly dislike the idea. It reduces deep knowledge to people who can pay for it. The web should be open for anyone. (yeah, Its already not like this, I know)

airstrike 5y ago

> Nothing is changing with the existing MDN Web Docs content — this content will continue to be free and available to everyone. We want to provide extra value through premium content and features to help make MDN self-sustaining, on a completely opt-in basis. Again, nothing is changing with the existing MDN Web Docs!

elliekelly 5y ago
Are there any studies about how long the corporate “nothing is changing” line actually holds true? My gut says maybe 18-24 months? Perhaps I’m cynical but I see “nothing is changing” and I can’t help but assume a change is all but inevitable and they’re just going to slow walk me to it.

ale42 5y ago

As far as I understand, the MDN documenting the standard (HTML5, CSS, etc.) will stay freely accessible as it is. I prefer this than having trackers & ads on the site... which would be completely contrary to their values anyway.

baggachipz 5y ago
> As far as I understand, the MDN documenting the standard (HTML5, CSS, etc.) will stay freely accessible as it is. For now. Once you let the monetization genie out of the bottle, Death by a Thousand MBA's is almost certain.
- airstrike 5y ago
  This false equivalence between MBA degrees and poor management really has to stop. It's a pretty bigoted take and I'm always disappointed to see that on HN, even though I half expect it coming into most threads these days.
  - baggachipz 5y ago
    Found the MBA! In all seriousness though, the MBA in and of itself isn't necessarily "bad". However, the "maximize shareholder value" mantra and the sheer volume of MBA's invading a company are the problem. There are so many now, every one of them looking for a way to appear valuable. The training cements this ever-increasing desire to wring more productivity and efficiency from an organization; the long-term effects of which are usually user-hostile. But it's a slow strangulation, so it never appears immediately sinister to anybody unless they've seen it happen before. People are starting to come around to this, and coupled with the sheer volume of MBA's it's become a meme of sorts. It seems to me these days that "not all MBAs are greedy pricks, but all greedy pricks are MBAs".

offtop5 5y ago

Your other option is W3 which fills their site with ads. If I could, I'd pay Google 50$ a month directly to disable all of their advertising across all sites which use ad sense.

hn8788 5y ago

Nothing is stopping people from writing their own articles on other sites for free. Developers aren't owed free articles to read, and if people want to be compensated for the time spent writing articles, then they should be.

tiagod 5y ago

Agreed. Normally I wouldn't be that surprised at this, but I thought of Mozilla as a nonprofit that wouldn't just gatekeep access to some information to those that have the money to pay for it (Could someone in Iran or Cuba even pay for this if they wanted?)

city41 5y ago

On the flip side, corporations that make a ton of money off of this information, rarely, if ever, voluntarily pay for it. It's a hard problem to solve.