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Comment by 8f2ab37a-ed6c | Hacker News Reader

I would be pretty happy if you could only post if you paid the $8/mo, the Jaron Lanier vision of a fair and sustainable social media app that charges its users for the service instead of creating the illusion of free through subtle long term ad-based opinion shifting.

Fewer bots, less brigading, ideally no ads, less spam, etc. if done right and thoughtfully.

Sounds like a much more enjoyable Twitter. I would be perfectly happy with paying that, even just to support the business model.

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Considering Twitters global status $8/mo to post would kill it outside more wealthy countries basically instantly.

If I recall correctly, Musk mentioned it would be adjusted to purchasing power parity.

I thought once you have a blue check mark you get to filter out all non-blues, no?

So only ppl with money can tweet? Thats like cash bail.

It's a business, it can do what makes the most sense for it. Only people with money can buy cars, only people with money can go to concerts, only people with money can eat at restaurants. Paying for things is a surprisingly popular model.

There's an argument that if you really wanted an authentic digital public square, that protected your free speech rights, it should be operated by the government. Don't want to be at the mercy of advertisers? Let taxes pay for it. It could be like public access TV. Hell, here's a money making idea for ol Musky: Build a white-labelled version of twitter and lease it to governments.

Wasn't this app.net?

Metafilter has been doing something not too dissimilar for a long time - $5 one-time signup fee. I've never used it but I'm sure some people here have, and I'd be interested to hear what it's like in practice.

Somethingawful was $10 to be able to post on the forums at least as far back as the mid aughts (when I became a "goon"). I don't know if that goes all the way back to 1999, but it's not exactly a new model.

It's a solid model. At least in the recent few years the feeling of an intentionally closed community of people who have skin in the game raised the quality of conversations. Act like a jackass? Great, get a ban and pay another $10, feed Lowtax (RIP).

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