Update billing FAQ

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 title: Billing FAQ
 ---
 
-I'm Drew DeVault, and I maintain sr.ht and wrote this FAQ. You can reach me any
-time for any reason via [sir@cmpwn.com](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com). I usually respond
-within a few hours if I'm awake. I'm also generally available for chat on IRC:
-join [#sr.ht on irc.freenode.net][irc]. Let me know if you have any questions.
+I am Drew DeVault, and I maintain sr.ht. You can reach me at any time, for any
+reason, via [sir@cmpwn.com](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com). If you have any questions
+about billing on sr.ht, please reach out.
 
-[irc]: https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23sr.ht&uio=d4
+# Who has to pay for an account?
 
-## Why do I have to pay for sr.ht when GitHub, GitLab, etc are free?
+In short, everyone who can afford to.
 
-Providing high-quality services for the free and open-source community cannot be
-done for free. There are lots of ways services like sr.ht can be funded. Most
-are funded through venture capital, which is why you see them in the news after
-raising millions of dollars to support their growth. These services are
-incentivized to create a return for their investors, and can be expected to
-optimize towards that end.
+SourceHut is currently under development, and during this phase, payment is
+optional. It helps to support the project, but we understand that you may have
+reservations about paying for an incomplete service. However, once the beta
+begins, payment will become mandatory for all maintainers.
 
-On the other hand, sr.ht is funded entirely by its users. This creates a much
-healthier relationship between you and the service. I am only accountable to
-you, and my only concern is with making the service as useful as possible for
-you. sr.ht's business model is designed explicitly to prioritize user needs over
-investor needs.
+*Note: due to its high risk for abuse, submitting CI jobs will be limited to
+paid accounts in the near future. See [builds.sr.ht billing change
+planning](/ops/builds.sr.ht-migraiton.md) for details.*
 
-Your subscription fee stays in open-source: sr.ht is 100% free software, mostly
-licensed under the GNU Affero General Public license (aka AGPL 3.0). I integrate
-patches from the community and we work together to build the best open-source
-service we can. Your fee pays for the cost of operations and to keep someone
-online to maintain the site, develop features, and provide support for a
-reliable site.
+Note the difference between *maintainers* and *contributors*. Only the former
+is required to pay. In other words, if you host your project with us, you will
+be expected to have a paid account.
 
-## What are the differences in the plans? Which should I pick?
+**You will have to pay to**:
 
-There are no differences between the plans, all of them have equal access to
-sr.ht's services. You should choose the plan which best matches your financial
-needs and investment in sr.ht.
+- Set up bug trackers
+- Set up mailing lists
+- Host git or hg repositories
+- List your project on the hub
+- Submit CI builds
 
-## What are the limitations on free accounts?
+And so on. However, we will **not** ask *contributors* to pay. You will always
+be able to register for a sr.ht account and participate in projects hosted with
+us without having to pay for your account. In fact, many of our features work
+without registering for an account at all.
 
-During the alpha, free accounts are not limited in any way. After the alpha,
-free accounts will not be allowed to own resources, including git repositories,
-bug trackers, mailing lists, etc, nor submit builds on builds.sr.ht. They will,
-however, be able to contribute to projects maintained by paying users.
+**You will NOT have to pay to**:
 
-## I can't afford an account. Am I out of luck?
+- Submit bug reports
+- Send patches or questions
+- Browse or download software
 
-Just send me an email explaining your circumstances and I'll help you out. Part
-of the fees from paid accounts are used to subsidize users who aren't able to
-pay.
+You do not have to register for an account at all to do these things; you can
+submit tickets and patches and so on with an unregistered email address.
 
-## Earning service credits for contributing to sr.ht
+# I'm not sure I can afford it.
 
-As an open source project, sr.ht accepts patches from its users. In exchange for
-having nontrivial patches merged to sr.ht, free service can be issued to your
-account. [Send me an email](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com) to claim your account credit
-after your patch is merged.
+It is not our intention to price anyone out of using the service. If the minimum
+fees are too high for your financial needs, then you can simply [send us an
+email](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com) explaining your situation, and you will be issued
+free service, no questions asked. sr.ht users from many walks of life have been
+granted free service: students, users with issues using their currency of
+choice, people between jobs, and so on.
+
+Users can also earn free service credits by contributing to sr.ht itself.
+SourceHut is a free and open source project itself, and each non-trivial patch
+you land in sr.ht earns you one month of free service.
 
 [Read more about contributing to sr.ht here](/installation.md).
 
-## Can I cancel or change my plan?
+# What are the differences between each plan?
+
+There is no difference between any of the plans: they all have access to the
+same level of service, and the same service limits. You should choose whichever
+plan best represents your financial ability and your level of investment in
+sr.ht. It's a kind of honor system: pay what you think the service is worth to
+you.
+
+# Why should I pay when GitHub, GitLab, etc, are free?
+
+Hosting these services is not free, or even cheap. The money has to come from
+somewhere.
+
+Each of these companies is financially supported by venture capital, in the form
+of large investments from a small number of people. If you use their services
+for free, or even if you pay the modest fees for their paid plans, they are not
+incentivized to serve you. They are bidden to their investors, and at their
+behest, they may implement changes you don't like: invasive tracking, selling
+your data, and so on.
+
+SourceHut has not accepted, and will never accept, any outside investments. Our
+sole source of revenue is from sr.ht users making their account payments. This
+incentivizes us to only consider your needs, and not to use you as a resource to
+be exploited. The financial relationship is much more responsible for both
+parties.
+
+Unlike GitHub and GitLab, your sr.ht subscription fee stays in open-source.
+sr.ht is 100% free software, mostly licensed under the GNU Affero General Public
+license (aka AGPL 3.0). We incorporate changes from the community and work
+together to build the best service possible. Your payment provides for the cost
+of operations, keeping someone online to maintain teh site, developing new
+features, and providing reliable service. We promise to only invest our profits
+in free software or free culture efforts, and we already sponsor many such
+projects.
+
+# Can I cancel or change my plan?
 
 Yes, you can cancel or modify your plan at any time. Visit the [billing
-page](https://meta.sr.ht/billing) to make changes. Your current billing period
-will be completed and the changes will take place at the start of the next one.
+page](https://meta.sr.ht/billing) to make changes. You will not be charged until
+the service period you've already paid for expires.
 
-## Can I get an invoice?
+# What will happen when I stop paying?
 
-You can download invoices from the [billing page](https://meta.sr.ht/billing).
+During the alpha, there are no consequences for non-payment.
+
+After the alpha:
+
+Your data will not disappear overnight.
+
+The delinquency process is as follows:
 
-## How much money does sr.ht have/spend/make?
+- An email reminder will be sent to inform you that your account is past due
+- After two weeks, your resources may become read only (e.g. you can `git clone`
+  but not `git push`).
+- After eight weeks, your case will be manually reviewed. We may choose to
+  provide you with a complete export of your data and close your account. Note
+  that this data export can be re-imported into sr.ht again should you choose to
+  register for another account, or can be taken to a third-party instance, with
+  little to no information loss.
 
-We publish quarterly financial reports on the sr.ht-discuss mailing list - you can
-read them here:
+# Will pricing change after the alpha?
 
-[Financial
-reports](https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sr.ht-discuss?search=financial+report)
+Yes. The exact numbers have not been decided upon. There will be a generous
+period of consultation with the community and advance warning before any pricing
+changes take effect.
+
+# Can I get an invoice?
+
+You can download invoices from the [billing page](https://meta.sr.ht/billing).
 
-## Can I deploy sr.ht on my own infrastructure instead of paying for an account?
+# Can I deploy sr.ht on my own infrastructure instead of paying for an account?
 
 Yep! [Here are instructions](https://man.sr.ht/installation.md).
 
-## Do you offer paid support plans?
+# Do you offer paid support plans?
 
-Yep! Paid support is available for both users of the hosted service and users
-who deploy sr.ht to their own infrastructure. [Send me an
-email](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com) summarizing your needs.
+No, not at the moment.