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It's also a barrier for education.

Almost all technological choices I made as a teen were driven by "what hosting can I get for free, as my parents sure as hell won't put down their payment information for that". Back then that usually meant PHP and a max. 50MB MySQL.

by bombcar7 hours ago|

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If you've ever offered an online service, charging "the dollar" reduces a ton of spam/abuse you have to deal with.

by gertop6 hours ago|

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I have been the service provider who had to paywall just to stop the spammers and you're right. But it's also true that kids will be collateral damage (or anyone without a credit card).

In my case, and it was the 90s, I took the time to setup a way to pay by calling a premium (1-900) for $1.49 number so the barrier to entry even for kids was still reasonable.

Maybe in modern day the equivalent is adding Google pay and Apple pay then you cover some kids at least (gift cards and such).

Quite the hassle for the provider, and it will turn away any person who cares about privacy. There's no way to win anymore.

by tensor5 hours ago|

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If a parent can buy their kid a computer, they can pay 1 euro a month for a CDN in the rare case they need it. This is a bad argument.

by zorked3 hours ago|

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I had trouble explaining to my parents what a BBS was. I wouldn't want to explain what a CDN is.

by bombcar4 hours ago|

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I think the point is that many HNer’s had parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t do “computer things”

by hobofan4 hours ago|

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Pay 1 Euro a month... or 1000s if their kid fucks up.

by tensor5 hours ago|

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If entering a credit card is too much you probably aren't a potential customer. Part of keeping a service low cost is keeping services efficient. Having a large pool of people using it for free who will never become customers will force the cost higher for those who do pay.

Good riddance to the "free" model. It's never actually free. You either pay with your data, or have to consume ads, or you're forcing other customers to pay for your free usage.

by fourside8 hours ago|

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I get that credit cards are a barrier of entry but I’m more willing to give providers a break now that AI agents make it much easier to abuse free tiers. It’s also harder for smaller companies to offer free tiers. If we want a more diverse set of service providers we as customers need to be willing to accept some trade-offs.