On the docs point: another failure mode is stale docs after protocol changes. The fix that worked for other projects is treating docs like code - every schema change ships a docs diff in the same PR, and CI fails if an example in the README does not run. Docs rot is a build problem, not a writing problem.

> the cost to post *is* the value-add

thats ignoring the how it creates value, it's up or downstream of *something*

Perhaps the value added is curation, or amplification, or access... but its nothing by itself. It's a cog in a system.

> It's just not very moatable

Google ad-words is pay to post, they have a great moat through their distribution. 

> considering that nobody but us

Don't get too high on your own supply, Yall's was probably busier at it's peak than SN has ever been... and that's purely because its the place for people looking for an excuse to pay with Lightning, which is extremely niche and speaks nothing to the mechanics of whether paying-to-post ads value. 

SN carrying that torch, where Yall's was basically just a side experiment and not a product, is evidence there's enough people interested in playing with Lightning to create a niche community around that. 

Pay to post exists in a number of forms already, not just the ad-words example, but even things like patreon and substack are selling poasting with various value-adds. 

There's been plenty afoot here specifically of late that indicates the opposite of your theory, that pay-to-post is little more than a metric in a larger web-of-trust and needs to lean into WoT more because pay-to-post has too many problems even here https://stacker.news/items/1573794/r/justin_shocknet?commentId=1574022

> I don't think I follow this.

Every question or solution has a what, a why, and a how. Pay-to-post can only be one.

justin_shocknet

I think you are pretty spot-on with a lot your observations here. And my general attitude (spoken as someone who never has to deal with infrastructure...) is bring on the scrapers.

Chicken-egg problem, reddit afaik doesn't have any value-add to warrant charging to post.

Maybe I'm too far down the SN rabbit hole, but I can easily believe that the cost to post 

 the value-add. It's just not very moatable -- although considering that nobody but us seems to have made it work, who knows?

Pay-to-post is the shallow end of the pool, the "what" that ignores the how and the why

Reddit is moving to “a logged-in-only experience,” CEO says

Scoresby

I think you are pretty spot-on with a lot your observations here. And my general attitude (spoken as someone who never has to deal with infrastructure...) is bring on the scrapers. 

> Chicken-egg problem, reddit afaik doesn't have any value-add to warrant charging to post.

Maybe I'm too far down the SN rabbit hole, but I can easily believe that the cost to post *is* the value-add. It's just not very moatable -- although considering that nobody but us seems to have made it work, who knows?

> Pay-to-post is the shallow end of the pool, the "what" that ignores the how and the why

I don't think I follow this.