Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spend about $5-10 a week on Clans. It varies depending on my level of patience. What I like about Clans is that spending money has to do with speeding things up. If you're obsessed, you'll spend a lot of money, if you're treating it casually, not so much. When I want a solid hour or two of gameplay, I'll throw in $5.
HN should introduce a "Reply now? That's only 5 HN dollars!" option. Money for the month goes to some good cause or other, decided by HN. If you chose not to reply you have to wait 5 mins.
That's actually not a bad idea for hot button threads like the firefox CEO one a year ago, it would've forced ppl to think a lot more before replying and kept the discourse at a higher level (bec most ppl would've either waited or not replied at all and those who would pay wouldn't waste their $5 to call someone they never met a bigot or whatever).
Though for where the donation goes it'd probably be best to keep it rotating between non-political causes like Red Cross, AA, etc.