[tim333]

I kind of like it. I mean here we all are on it. And sites like HN can just be written by one person and put up by one person with no permissions. The alternative if the government controlled it would be something like the Apple app store where you have to pay a fee to maybe be allowed to do something.

[palata]

No it would not. We're already in some alternative where the government says that you can't make a website to sell CSAM, for instance. And we all agree that this is a good thing.

The goal of regulations is to prevent undesirable behaviours by making it "too costly" to do. The goal is not to take 30% on every app sale.

[tim333]

The post I replied to was on an internet designed with a "profit motive". What you describe is still basically profit motive with laws to stop bad things. I'm not quite sure what you get if you removed the profit motive. Maybe the app store wasn't a good example. Maybe something like the BBC?

[palata]

My point was that the post you replied to was not saying that the alternative would be that the government would run it for profit. It was just saying that maybe it's better to have rules set by the government than to have the whole thing driven by profit-maximising machines.