Do you really want trolls to subscribe?

Posted Nov 22, 2004 17:47 UTC (Mon) by ksmathers (guest, #2353)
In reply to: Do you really want trolls to subscribe? by jimmybgood
Parent article: RFC: Proposed comment policy change

I agree that people pay to post messages, but being a paying customer does indicate a certain level of commitment to the community that those payments support. This difference in commitment levels is historically what has distinguished discussion groups such as BIX, Compuserve, or the Well from free BBS's, Usenet, and their ilk.

The question in my mind is not whether posters should be required to subscribe, but how to encourage the growth of the community if there is no place for potential new members to begin participating in the community to a lesser extent. Not that long ago LWN was about to be extinguished and it was only because a lot of readers cared enough to contribute back in exchange for the value that we thought this community represented that it is still here.

I have no issue with comments being either public or limited to subscribers, but I agree with the poster to whom I am replying that the bare fact that you cannot post as a non-subscriber won't of itself lead to subscriptions. If posting is limited only to subscribers then there will have to be other ways for LWN to attract new members, or it will evenutally stagnate and fail.