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There's been talk recently about there being a influx of new users to LessWrong and a desire to prevent this influx from harming the signal-to-noise ratio on LessWrong too much. I wonder: what if it costed something like $1 to make an account? Or $1/month? Some trivial amount of money that serves as a filter for unserious people.
This doesn't work worldwide, so probably a nightmare to set up in a way that handles all the edge cases. Also, destitute students and trivial inconveniences.
2Biff Wiff
Why is that? My impression is that eg. 1 USD to make an account would be a trivial amount for people no matter the country or socioeconomic status (perhaps with a few rare exceptions).
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I think of this as more of a feature than a bug. There'd be some people it'd filter out who we would otherwise have wanted, but the benefits seem to me like they'd outweigh that cost.
Man I think I am providing value to the world by posting and commenting here. If it cost money I would simply stop posting here, and not post anywhere else.
The value flows in both directions. I'm fine not getting paid but paying is sending a signal of "what you do here isn't appreciated".
(Maybe I'd feel different if the money was reimbursed to particularly good posters? But then Goodharts law)