Not sure whether or not the small fee would do anything other than make it more elitist, and money is not necessarily a predictor of community member quality. T

Not sure whether or not the small fee would do anything other than make it more elitist, and money is not necessarily a predictor of community member quality. The only thing a fee might do is dissuade mass spam bots, but HN doesn't seem to have a spam bot problem. Not that I have a better answer though.