Would you pay for Hacker News?

Yes, for what's worth.

No, if it means other folks would be unable to keep using HN - therefore creating a bias in audience towards folks with money to spent (often great ideas and insights are a result of constraints in resources - this community thrives because of it)

I was rather hoping Hacker News would pay me.

I would not pay. I look at HN primarily because it aggregates good links, not because of the comments, which is somewhat the opposite of reddit.

Most probably not. I would accept ads to keep it for free. Similar to reddit, X, insta etc.

No. Its usefulness is proportional to its size, and a paid version would just mean amplifying the bad sides of this site: elitism and US-centric middle-class posturing. Computing is at its best when it serves humanity as a whole, and this place, being one of the most diverse and large places to talk about computing, benefits from not being only populated by bored Silicon Valley FAANG workers.

On the other hand, as a relatively heavy user, a paywall means I could stop wasting time here and actually start doing some work.

Yes.

So far the only thing on the internets I voluntire to pay is LWN - for quality of articles.

HN is in worse position - it's "just" mass and quality comments which is easier to copy, eg. lobster alredy exist and there "was" slashdot before (but form is somewhat unreadable...).

But if I had a choice - ads or paywall - then paywall is superior for both sides, possibly even the future.

But HN should wait till WW3 ends...

No

Yes.

i will go away