You can argue about how the system should work until you are blue in the face, but the fact is that if you show up at a restaurant and don’t tip, then you are making your waiter have a bad day.
I would like to set the expectation now that I expect to be compensated 15% of your hourly wage every time you read one of my HN comments.
I assure you that I will have a bad day if you visit HN and read one of my comments without paying.
You can argue that HN should be free to read until you are blue in the face, but the fact is that if you show up in this thread and read my comment and don't pay me, then you are making me have a bad day.
You can like to set any expectation you want, but the expectation to tip waiters is an actual, real expectation and not some kind of fabrication for a thought experiment.
You could also argue that “driving on the right side of the road” is nothing more than an American social convention and choose to ignore it. Let’s face it—there is no logical justification for our society to choose driving on the right side of the road, versus the left.
I assure you that I will have a bad day if you visit HN and read one of my comments without paying.
You can argue that HN should be free to read until you are blue in the face, but the fact is that if you show up in this thread and read my comment and don't pay me, then you are making me have a bad day.