Would you pay for Hacker News?
Would you pay for Hacker News?
Today? No.
In the past? Maybe.
Hacker news used to be the place you’d come for the cutting edge in technology and entrepreneurship surrounded by interesting people pushing the boundaries day by day.
Nowadays it’s none of that. You no longer stumble upon the bleeding edge and most of the comment section is a wasteland of negativity (pot kettle I know).
It seems to be the natural progression of technical communities. Stackoverflow, /r/programming and now Hacker News.
The first years after it started, probably. The last five years or so? No.
Not because there's any change to the site, but because technology has become a ghost town. There are no interesting startups; there's no interesting, burgeoning software technology. It's all tumbleweeds and boarded-up store fronts.
I already pay enough in terms of time, productivity and sanity.
Probably not. It would be somewhat backwards in my opinion. The community members of this site are in many ways performing a crowd-sourcing think-tank for new ideas, business ventures, etc.. even if at times it does not appear that way and sometimes strays deep into rabbit holes.
No. Some of the content is really interesting but not enough to justify paying. And the discussions in my opinion aren’t that much better than Reddit. A few very insightful comments otherwise people censoring opinions and get border line personal attacks over differences in opinions.
No. Due to the moderation and flagging dynamics, this place is an echo chamber and it wouldn't be worth it for me.
No. The moment one needs to pay for HN, an alternative "free" HN would emerge... so why would I pay?
Besides, the authors of HN are already getting paid for this site (e.g., HN is world-wide known by almost every developer out there, startup founders wannabes consider PG a god, etc.)
I'd allowed tech related advertisers to bid on sponsored post, maybe one per hour. So for example, if you pay $1,000 you get to have your website advertised at the top of the page for an hour, and this would of course go up depending on how many people are trying to buy the space
I used to pay for it back when it was printed and came in the mail.
Yes. HN is a breath of fresh air, one of the last places on the Internet governed by the merit of content and discussion. I would pay just to support it (not that it needs it, I think).
No, the community would become significantly more insular if it was paid only. I also don't think I could afford it, honestly.
Yes, it would improve discussion quality
If they paywalled HN, I would finally be free from this place.
If you wait a paid forum, The Well still exists.
I would pay, but I don't think it would be the same if it had a paywall.