Here is my proposed usage policy, conceived and written 2009.Feb.24:
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Static content is delivered for free, however if you flood the
server with too many requests, for example if you run a botnet to
deliberatly cause an overload of this system, or you run a spider
in an attempt to copy all the static Web pages we offer, the system
administrator may choose to block your IP number or your
entire CIDR.
If you wish to "mirror" this Web site, you need to negotiate a
license with the WebMaster.
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Dynamic content falls into two classes, cheap/quick, and
serious.
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If you don't have an account on this
cooperative system, you
will be granted access only to cheap/quick content, and before
seeing each new dynamically-generated Web page you must answer
another simple Turing question to protect the system from service
request floods by botnets.
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If you do have an account here, and you are logged in:
- Every time you get a service, the cost of that service will be deducted from your account balance.
- You will be able to get access to all our services, both cheap/quick and serious.
- You will be immediately required to answer a simple Turing question to proceed at all, only if your account balance has dropped to zero. However there will be higher thresholds to qualify for particular services. Each such additional services will show in the main after-login menu only if your balance is sufficiently high to qualify for that particular service. Thus the higher your current balance, the more available services will show in the main after-login menu. If a particular service shows in main after-login menu and has clickable link, then you know you have enough funds to use it.
- Answering such a simple Turing question will increment your account balance by approximately 5 seconds, which will be good for approximately 50 to 1000 cheap/quick content requests, such as steps of navigating the Web site and simply viewing the current status of various services.
- Some serious content will be fixed-price, where you see how much it will cost before you click on a link to receive that service.
Other serious content will be arranged by auction: One user requests bids on anybody else providing a service, with a minimum-immediate bid-amount and maximum allowed bid-amount, and others bid to provide it, and lowest bid (less than or equal to the maximum) gets the contract. Bidding the minimum gets the contract immediately, while bidding more than the minimum requires waiting a while to see if you are underbid by somebody else.
The person who requested the bids will be able to view the status of the auction, and later the status of the service being provided, and finally will be able to actually receive the service.
A more detailed description of the auction process, including info about funds you need to put in "escrow" during the bidding process, will be written later if anybody shows serious interest.