Would you pay $5/yr for HN?
nostrademons: Probably yes, but think of all the budding college & high school entrepreneurs that that would discourage.$5/year is absolutely nothing now that I'm employed.  But for a kid who doesn't hold the purse strings, it's much more than that.  It's not really the money - most parents also have no trouble sparing $5/year.  It's the hassle of convincing the parents that it's worth it, and not just a random time-waster.Plus, as soon as the 'rents are paying for it, you lose the sense of "this is something I'm doing for me, and it's my own identity and not my parents."  For me, one of the reasons I got into computers was because my parents knew nothing about it, and I was overjoyed when I started getting jobs based on connections I'd made online instead of ones my mom had setup for me.