Ask HN: Increase the annual cost of domain names to $40-50. would you vote yes?

Personally, I feel that $40-$50 is a huge number.

Look at some of the most visited websites; google.com, Facebook.com, twitter.com, yahoo.com… Those are not "good domains". Prior to the ascension of the web, they weren't even words in most people's lexicon. If there's anything we can learn from the web, it's that "a good domain" is not a big factor in the success of a product. Consequently, increasing the price would only restrict the number of websites; it would not increase quality.

There are a lot of students in economically backward countries who won't be able to shell out $50 for a hobby project. I remember my first domain name which I purchased as soon as I got a card capable of internet transactions. I certainly wouldn't have went ahead with that purchase if it costed $50.

Well, what does "success" look like to you? Let's make it $50 and say that it "works" - what does that mean?

Answer that and I'll spend the time to ask follow-ups. I don't feel like investing 20 minutes to come up with a well thought out answer when you likely spent all of two minutes writing out the initial thought.

The Whole world doesn't run on dollars you know. No to this.

Exchange rates would make it unfeasible

I like the low barrier to enry. (read low cost). I think a lot of hobbyists probably wouldn't be around, and as others have mentioned the undeveloped countries would have a harder time getting domains.

I like the idea that my son could register a domain on cheaply and use it to learn.