6 ms·

What if they say it's $20 a month? And it's just facebook. Google also asks for $20, Reddit too, etc. It won't be cheap.

akerro 8y ago
We already donate to reddit.
letsgetphysITal 8y ago
Google services with guaranteed no tracking and profiling? $20 is cheap.
- ccozan 8y ago
  Huh? A Google Suite account is 4 euros a month. No tracking and profiling.
xxs 8y ago
So you are stipulating an account worth is 240USD a year at facebook? Instead of 20, why won't you say 100, make it round. Seriously though, behemoths do fall and if facebook ceases to exist there will be no harm but good in my book.
- dhimes 8y ago
  The number that's been kicked around for he value of North American user is about $50/year. So $5/month will cover it.
  - CaptainZapp 8y ago
    The problem is that even if I pay Facebook this company is so utterly untrustworthy that I don't believe for one second that they wouldn't run their data sucking shenanigans on paid accounts.
    - iainmerrick 8y ago
      I agree, but at least if the ad market is much smaller, the data will have that much less value. Various companies will probably still gather and sell data for even more nefarious purposes, like manipulating elections, but that’s a different battle.
    - gkya 8y ago
      And that's why you want to have regulations. In the case you suggest, you could ask e.g. EFF if you suspected that they are abusing the contract, to sue FB in behalf of the users. Or even kick-start a big court case yourself.
  - adventured 8y ago
    That's not the number that is being kicked around. Facebook will yield more than $100 per active user in the US and Canada for fiscal 2018. That's going to $200 from here over the next six or seven years (it doubled from 2015 to 2017). No meaningful number of users are paying $15 per month out of pocket for Facebook. Google search is similarly worth a lot per user in the US. People would be irate if they had to pay $10 or $20 per month to use search engines after commonly enjoying the free utility of that for the last two decades.
    - lukeschlather 8y ago
      Per daily active user or monthly active user? I also think it's conceivable in a more equitable arrangement with paid subscriptions that you could easily have a sizable number of paying users not being active in a given month.
    - dhimes 8y ago
      Last time someone claimed they knew the numbers I asked them to explain how. They disappeared without replying. So I'll ask you the same thing. If you divide revenue by users you get between $1-$2 USD. I need to know how NA are 50-100 times that.
      - maxerickson 8y ago
        Facebook publishes revenue per MAU on page 37 of their 2017 annual report: https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx Note that it is reported quarterly (I had some numbers but took them out when I realized I was using 1 quarter instead of the year).
        dhimes 8y ago
        OK thanks. Indeed, $100 isn't a bad number to use.
- jhall1468 8y ago
  I've seen this so many times, but if this future comes I think there will be a lot of angry ass people complaining about the $100s of dollars it costs to make the internet useful.
  - adventured 8y ago
    Every recipe site runs on ads as one example. Now five million recipes across 1,000 prominent sites are to be locked behind paywalls, and you must pay $5 per month for access to each site due to the extreme drop in traffic they suffer (nobody is signing up to pay except at the largest sites, smaller sites have to charge more to make up for that, they implode accordingly). The result: 973 of those sites disappear. Diversity of choice just collapsed. Starting a new recipe site or blog just got 100x more difficult. But hey, in Communist Internet, who needs lots of recipe sites.
    - mynewtb 8y ago
      What do you think the creative work is for running a recipe site? And what about the technical work/costs? I guess you mean the kind where either there are users providing those for free or it uses a huge number of compiled one, not some person inventing new ones. I would wager that 970 of those sites can be run for virtually no cost, either maintained by loyal community or the wide internet.
      - fiter 8y ago
        Many recipe sites are basically blogs, so yes, there is a lot of cost associated with each of them. I do not know if they tend to make money their money on ads or on books or on other methods.
    - gkya 8y ago
      First of all, ethical ads are possible, and more so on a website already very targeted like a recipes website. I can easily guess what sorts of ads would be useful. Furthermore, I agree the sibling commenter in that these sorts of websites usually just publish what community submits anyways, so we can have a bunch of wikis instead. P.S.: Everybody should know the difference between trying to overcome the status quo which is selling yourself to companies and hoping that they do not abuse you, and things like communism or government overreach. And if businesses will lose money or get closed if they stop bad, malevolent practices of theirs, good riddance. Let the sanity get the better of them.
burger_moon 8y ago
I would actually pay a small amount to have a read-only account for facebook that doesn't track me at all. I don't want to post anything, but I would like to view stuff more easily on the platform. Especially since so many events are organized through fb.
- em3rgent0rdr 8y ago
  Have you tried the mobile site with JavaScript disabled. Or have to tried Facebook command line where you can simply query for posts in the terminal?
pjc50 8y ago
Are you saying the free market doesn't apply to pricing for these services?
sanxiyn 8y ago
I am more than willing to pay $20 a month for both Google and Facebook. Do you hear me? Take my money!
- wstrange 8y ago
  Google gsuite pricing is $5 / month for the basic version.
iainmerrick 8y ago
That model already works for streaming TV! At least it’s working pretty well for Netflix, Amazon, HBO... (It’s definitely not ideal for viewers, but at least now it’s easy to get TV without ads.)

akerro 8y ago

We already donate to reddit.

letsgetphysITal 8y ago

Google services with guaranteed no tracking and profiling? $20 is cheap.

ccozan 8y ago
Huh? A Google Suite account is 4 euros a month. No tracking and profiling.

xxs 8y ago

So you are stipulating an account worth is 240USD a year at facebook? Instead of 20, why won't you say 100, make it round. Seriously though, behemoths do fall and if facebook ceases to exist there will be no harm but good in my book.

dhimes 8y ago
The number that's been kicked around for he value of North American user is about $50/year. So $5/month will cover it.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  The problem is that even if I pay Facebook this company is so utterly untrustworthy that I don't believe for one second that they wouldn't run their data sucking shenanigans on paid accounts.
  - iainmerrick 8y ago
    I agree, but at least if the ad market is much smaller, the data will have that much less value. Various companies will probably still gather and sell data for even more nefarious purposes, like manipulating elections, but that’s a different battle.
  - gkya 8y ago
    And that's why you want to have regulations. In the case you suggest, you could ask e.g. EFF if you suspected that they are abusing the contract, to sue FB in behalf of the users. Or even kick-start a big court case yourself.
- adventured 8y ago
  That's not the number that is being kicked around. Facebook will yield more than $100 per active user in the US and Canada for fiscal 2018. That's going to $200 from here over the next six or seven years (it doubled from 2015 to 2017). No meaningful number of users are paying $15 per month out of pocket for Facebook. Google search is similarly worth a lot per user in the US. People would be irate if they had to pay $10 or $20 per month to use search engines after commonly enjoying the free utility of that for the last two decades.
  - lukeschlather 8y ago
    Per daily active user or monthly active user? I also think it's conceivable in a more equitable arrangement with paid subscriptions that you could easily have a sizable number of paying users not being active in a given month.
  - dhimes 8y ago
    Last time someone claimed they knew the numbers I asked them to explain how. They disappeared without replying. So I'll ask you the same thing. If you divide revenue by users you get between $1-$2 USD. I need to know how NA are 50-100 times that.
    - maxerickson 8y ago
      Facebook publishes revenue per MAU on page 37 of their 2017 annual report: https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx Note that it is reported quarterly (I had some numbers but took them out when I realized I was using 1 quarter instead of the year).
      - dhimes 8y ago
        OK thanks. Indeed, $100 isn't a bad number to use.
jhall1468 8y ago
I've seen this so many times, but if this future comes I think there will be a lot of angry ass people complaining about the $100s of dollars it costs to make the internet useful.
- adventured 8y ago
  Every recipe site runs on ads as one example. Now five million recipes across 1,000 prominent sites are to be locked behind paywalls, and you must pay $5 per month for access to each site due to the extreme drop in traffic they suffer (nobody is signing up to pay except at the largest sites, smaller sites have to charge more to make up for that, they implode accordingly). The result: 973 of those sites disappear. Diversity of choice just collapsed. Starting a new recipe site or blog just got 100x more difficult. But hey, in Communist Internet, who needs lots of recipe sites.
  - mynewtb 8y ago
    What do you think the creative work is for running a recipe site? And what about the technical work/costs? I guess you mean the kind where either there are users providing those for free or it uses a huge number of compiled one, not some person inventing new ones. I would wager that 970 of those sites can be run for virtually no cost, either maintained by loyal community or the wide internet.
    - fiter 8y ago
      Many recipe sites are basically blogs, so yes, there is a lot of cost associated with each of them. I do not know if they tend to make money their money on ads or on books or on other methods.
  - gkya 8y ago
    First of all, ethical ads are possible, and more so on a website already very targeted like a recipes website. I can easily guess what sorts of ads would be useful. Furthermore, I agree the sibling commenter in that these sorts of websites usually just publish what community submits anyways, so we can have a bunch of wikis instead. P.S.: Everybody should know the difference between trying to overcome the status quo which is selling yourself to companies and hoping that they do not abuse you, and things like communism or government overreach. And if businesses will lose money or get closed if they stop bad, malevolent practices of theirs, good riddance. Let the sanity get the better of them.

burger_moon 8y ago

I would actually pay a small amount to have a read-only account for facebook that doesn't track me at all. I don't want to post anything, but I would like to view stuff more easily on the platform. Especially since so many events are organized through fb.

em3rgent0rdr 8y ago
Have you tried the mobile site with JavaScript disabled. Or have to tried Facebook command line where you can simply query for posts in the terminal?

pjc50 8y ago

Are you saying the free market doesn't apply to pricing for these services?

sanxiyn 8y ago

I am more than willing to pay $20 a month for both Google and Facebook. Do you hear me? Take my money!

wstrange 8y ago
Google gsuite pricing is $5 / month for the basic version.

iainmerrick 8y ago

That model already works for streaming TV! At least it’s working pretty well for Netflix, Amazon, HBO... (It’s definitely not ideal for viewers, but at least now it’s easy to get TV without ads.)