Perhaps there should be a more direct way for people and organizations to contribute money to the docs (or a paid App or other value add) but the docs themselves shouldn't be closed off.
It doesn't have to. The content could remain out in the open.
Although you are correct in that I am suggesting a paywall there are other ways this could work:
- Subscribers could set MDN project priorities in terms of which technologies get focus, topic expansion, expanded example code, etc.
- Early access to incomplete documentation could be given to subscribers.
- Issues with documentation or example code coming from subscribers could get priority treatment.
- Offline versions of the documentation could be subscriber exclusive.
The bottom line is that a tragedy of the commons situation needs to be avoided. Is a paywall really worse than letting bit-rot settle in on the existing MDN content?
There's no need to lockout the poor teenagers who are wanting to explore web tech for themselves.