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New site feature: comment response notificationsNew site feature: comment response notificationsPosted Feb 9, 2004 10:35 UTC (Mon) by ekj (guest, #1524)In reply to: New site feature: comment response notifications by siesel Parent article: New site feature: comment response notifications I agree. It's flippant, and it's stupid. Current inflation-rates are single-digit more or less in the entire world (where I live we've actually got deflation at the moment), thus $5 is, infact, almost exactly as much money now as it was when subscriptions where first introduced. That said, you get the same value for it now as you did back then, also from Lwn. Introduction of newer features to those who pay more in no way takes away from your value. I'm with the skeptical ones on this one though. Before it was can I afford to, and would I like to, support Lwn more? (in the moment, the answers for me are no, yes, inspite of living in western europe.) With this change, I fear that more people will instead start to think; Are those extra features worth the extra money ?. Problem is, either the answer to that is "no", or else you're excluding our poorest members from significant parts of the site. Personally, I will certainly upgrade my subscription the day I get a job. But I'd do so because Lwn deserves it. Because I'd like the nice people who produce this to get a raise. Because I'd like them to some day be able to hire more people. I'd *not* do it for some extra features, and infact I'd strongly dislike a Lwn that separates between it's readers baced on economical possibilities. A reader from the USA that pays $60 pays 0.15% of average yearly income. A reader from India that pays the same is paying 2.6% of the average yearly income, in other words almost 20 times as big a part of his salary. That is the equivalent of an American paying $1000. How many do you honestly think would do that ? Don't you think it's a bit arrogant to say "it's not much money" ? At the very least, please consider a "Readers from countries with a GNP/person under $10K gets all features even at the cheapest rates" Yes I know, Lwn doesn't have many paying readers from such countries, but atleast it's a nice gesture. One of the nice things about Free Software is that people from poorer countries can play along on a level field where your ability to contribute is not limited by lack of cash. I would want Lwn to be the same way.
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