$3 is more of a psychological barrier to people than 'free' is, though, and it's entirely possible that this would lead to an increase in paid accounts from people who want a trial first! On the other hand, it's a lot of coding for unknown reward -- none of LJ's payment system is open source and therefore we can't legally use it, so we'd have to code a system like this from scratch. (Also, there are apparently bugs with LJ's version that will let you game the trial and keep the paid benefits for free, or so I hear.)

So, I am officially on the fence about this (usually I will either move business suggestions straight to Bugzilla if they'll work for us, and reject them with an explanation out of the queue if they won't, but if I have no strong opinion or if I have strong opinions in both directions, I'll let it out for discussion) and can possibly be swayed with a strong argument in either direction.

(Also, I quote from a blog entry made by the guy who owns/operates Pinboard: "It was my experience that people approached an online purchase of six dollars with the same deliberation and thoughtfulness they might bring to bear when buying a new car. Prospective users would hand-wring for weeks on Twitter and send us closely-worded, punctilious lists of questions before creating an account." He is so, so very right.)