response 2 of 20:

Jan 22 14:12 UTC 2002

I'd say there are also philosophical reasons that Grex has avoided anything
of the kind.  The perks of net access are part of membership only partly as
an encouragement to join for people (like me) who don't have a real ISP.
Practical considerations have actually been more important.

response 4 of 20:

Jan 22 18:01 UTC 2002

What would be the point?  

We'd still need to authenticate individuals just to make sure the 
governance system wasn't being manipulated, and the only reason we ONLY 
provide the internet access functions to paid members is because they're 
the only users who ARE authenticated.  

In other words, what Joe said. (#1)

response 6 of 20:

Jan 22 19:06 UTC 2002

Actually, it's more that the "internet services," such that they are,
accreted themselves to the Grex "membership" through the twists and turns
of history -- in particular by making the ID requirement solve 
both the grex-voter-ID issue and the network-security issue, 
and also through long-ago concerns that we'd be be swamped if we 
opened IRC for wide use.

It's been proposed in the past that Grex allow it's paltry "network
services" to be accessed by people who ID to us but who aren't members.
But I don't think anyone thinks the work involved is worth it.

What problem does the low-cost Arbornet "Citizenship" solve?
How many people have bought "citizenships," currently, or historically?
(Careful, that's a trick question!  :)  )

response 8 of 20:

Jan 22 19:32 UTC 2002

Could someone explain the M-Net system?

response 10 of 20:

Jan 22 20:00 UTC 2002

This may not be completely accurate, since M-net is revising its "support"
command and currently it won't display "membership levels."  And they've
changed things recently.  Off the top of my head...
 
M-net packages its membership offerings as "Patronships" and "Citizenships."
Patrons pay $75 or $80/year (recently lowered from $100) and they 
get various goodies such as more disk space and outbound net services.
Historically Patronships were marketed to people who wanted extra 
phone line access to the system, and later they were sold as a sort of 
budget ISP in the mid-1990s, pre-Web; there's a strong element of 
fee-for-service there that they have never been able to escape.

(It's probably worth noting for the newcomers that the Grex membership
system was intended to contrast with the M-net fee-for-service system.
In 1991 and 1992, Grex *had* no Internet services.
If Grex was going to be really fundamentalist about its founding
principals, it would probably wipe out the outbound network stuff
all together.  As I wrote, history crept in and glommed the network 
stuff onto the existing Grex membership.)

M-net used to offer a lower-priced "Membership" class with slightly 
less access to telephone lines and disk space, for $50/year, 
but this was recently abolished.  This category was created by 
public demand back in the dialup days, but I guess demand for it 
faded as demand for "increased access" to M-net faded.

A few years back, it was decided to try to expand the pool of people 
participating in system governance.  The "citizen" group was created
at a rate of $15/year, and "citizens" get nothing except the ability
to run and vote in Arbornet elections.