Relay operators are going to have to start charging eventually (or something has to change). There's no other way to monetize this platform. @Jack can't subsidize development etc forever (unless he wants to).
Charging $1 a year to Tweet and Retweet may not seem like a lot, however optics matter. It sets the stage to charge more in the future, it makes the service no longer free, and most importantly, it makes Twitter no longer the public square where anyone is able to freely talk - a point in which Elon likes to state, but continues to erode.
While on the NOSTR we happily Zap developers more than $1 worth of sats quite often and some could agree that it's a similar task to paying a measily 4000 sats, it's not. It's not a requirement. It's not forced. The NOSTR is completely free and open. The openness is the difference. The NOSTR is the public square.
https://fortune.com/2023/10/17/twitter-x-charging-new-users-1-dollar-year-to-tweet/
Discussion
Still can’t kill the users on random
I remember Will or someone mentioning that he was paying something like $600 monthly just got the Damus relay. That's not including development of the app.
And lets not talk about storage cost
But people don’t want to pay for the experience.
People want to earn cash for their time spent on any platform.
Not a valid argument to charge someone for their content.
Since the platforms need the content to exist.
That’s a fallacy