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Micropayments are never the solution, and trying to charge for something built by volunteers would indeed detonate the social contract. But so does unrestricte
by pjc50 2y ago
Micropayments are never the solution, and trying to charge for something built by volunteers would indeed detonate the social contract.
But so does unrestricted AI use. I guess the nice things era is over.
- kordlessagain 2y agoThe irony is that Wikimedia already pays for the cost of serving pages — it's just invisible to users because donors cover it. Micropayments via Lightning aren't about "charging for knowledge," they're about sustainable access models in the face of high-frequency bot loads (especially from AI). If AI crawlers are consuming massive resources, it's not unreasonable to explore accountability — not for readers, but for automated extractors. And, even better, those micropayments could be shared with the volunteers. How about a big party for them, or gifts on Amazon for good behavior? How about a simple birthday card? There's a lot that can be done with resources like this!