The problem with what the article suggests is that the penalty for not paying is the destruction of the usefulness of the service, that's unacceptable.
People log in to facebook precisely because people do 10 status updates a day, and post an ungodly number of notes, and join a ridiculous number of groups. If you restrict these, even if some people are willing to pay, the network is no longer compelling, and usage will drop, and you send yourself into a death spiral.
Clearly facebook's monetization does not lie in charging for an account, that is IMHO one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard.
Oh, and the author is completely off his rocker if he thinks you can get 5% of people to subscribe to a pay-facebook. Think 1%, max.
People log in to facebook precisely because people do 10 status updates a day, and post an ungodly number of notes, and join a ridiculous number of groups. If you restrict these, even if some people are willing to pay, the network is no longer compelling, and usage will drop, and you send yourself into a death spiral.
Clearly facebook's monetization does not lie in charging for an account, that is IMHO one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard.
Oh, and the author is completely off his rocker if he thinks you can get 5% of people to subscribe to a pay-facebook. Think 1%, max.