Another possible interpretation is a fund-raising drive of the form “I would publicly commit to paying up to this much conditional on enough other people publicly committing to paying at least as much.”
Another is “if LW (with its content as-is) had been paywalled from the beginning, what annual fee would you be happy to have been paying?”
I also came here to say I didn’t understand this hypothetical at all. If I choose $1000 then what happens to users who don’t want to pay $1000?
Am I supposed to imagine that I am implementing a paywall on LW and choosing what price I would set it at? Of course I would set it at $0.
Another possible interpretation is a fund-raising drive of the form “I would publicly commit to paying up to this much conditional on enough other people publicly committing to paying at least as much.”
Another is “if LW (with its content as-is) had been paywalled from the beginning, what annual fee would you be happy to have been paying?”