I think if anyone were to pay, they should all pay at the same rate, according to their usage.
Moreover, those whose usage is minimal should not pay at all. You might have a threshold – say, if it's $X or less, no need to pay a dime.
So the Indian or African start-up would have access for free, while the search giants might pay what is, from the WMF perspective, a considerable sum (but peanuts for them).
What is vitally important though is that no one should be able to buy a better service just because they are rich. That would just slant the playing field in favour of the existing giants and suppress competition.
That would be an evil thing to do.
But if the above caveats are observed, it might be a good idea.
Andreas
On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 12:09 PM, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Looking for additional revenue sources isn't a bad idea, but charging for premium access is likely to annoy the community to a degree that will
make
the great Visual Editor revolt look like some quiet and polite murmuring.
That's definitely a conversation worth having, as it helps us understand what we want to do, and who we want to be.
Do we want to charge for knowledge? Of course not. But do we want to be able to introduce cool new tools for everyone faster, because e.g. Google is willing to pay for their development if they can use it for some time earlier as "premium"? I don't know yet. Let's talk.
I don't intuitively object to Google paying for some additional features, they ride on the back of our content in many situations, and we don't even know how many people see it (content is cached).
I do, however, believe that if we ever decide to do this, with the community's backing, any charging should resemble grants a bit (there should be a clear time horizon when what we are able to develop as " premium" becomes standard and free; if it is also useful for the general public).
Best,
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