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> So the business model is asking users for a donation? With people's ever growing concerns about malware, ransomware, privacy invasions and the invasive natur
by cptskippy 8y ago
> So the business model is asking users for a donation?
With people's ever growing concerns about malware, ransomware, privacy invasions and the invasive nature of ads, people are turning to Ad-Blockers so this makes sense. I started using an Ad-Blocker a long time ago and I've always struggled with it because I know it's robbing sites of revenue, and at the same time I felt violated by all the ads I saw whenever I turned it off.
Back in 2017 when the Guardian started showing those big yellow banners at the bottom of articles, I started contributing. If I'm on a site more than a few times a year and they have an option to contribute, I try to.
I really think there's some space for innovation here. I like contributing to journalism and I don't want to setup annual subscriptions for 20 different sites, but I can't easily keep track of which sites I frequent or when I last contributed.
- Freak_NL 8y agoThere is Blendle, but I hate paying per article — it places a restrictive barrier on freely browsing articles. Blendle also misses a lot of quality newspapers (like the Dutch NRC).
- eitland 8y agoI love the original idea of Blendle, low price articles, no payment if you leave within a few seconds. Haven't used it recently since they hadn't too many of the articles I wanted && I have a sneaking suspicion that refunds aren't as easy anymore.
- Doubl 8y agoI tried it and didn't like the model. Paying per article is just crazy, it makes you feel like you have to watch what you're spending all the time. I'd rather a fixed amount that leads me read as much or as little as I choose
- eitland 8y agoIs it somehow worse than browsing a bookshelf in a bookstore or the magazines in a kiosk?
- Doubl 8y agoI don't understand the point you're making. If I was to read the same number of articles in blendle in a month, that I read for my fiver subscription, it would cost a lot more. The model doesn't work for me.
- givehimagun 8y agoNo it's not worse. I think the author you replied to was stating that it's nicer to pay a flat fee and get unlimited viewing (itunes, google play, spotify, netflix, etc). Can we have that for journalism?
- Baeocystin 8y agoI do use Blendle, but my spend has dropped from ~$5/mo when I first signed up to barely a dollar, if that. They really need to get a wider variety of editors to cover topics beyond what would be popular op-eds on the Huff Post.
- Doubl 8y agoI pay a fiver a month for a newspaper subscription. That feels about the right level to me. It's a lot less than I used to pay for physical newspapers but I tend to gauge the value of things in terms of what Spotify and Netflix cost these days.
- OJFord 8y agoI use Netflix when I know I want ti convince myself not to pay, and food & wine to convince myself _to_ pay. The monthly cost of most things that may be of great utility is astonishingly low when you think of what tonight's meal (and I mean ingredients, not eating out) will cost, IMO.
- icebraining 8y agohttps://inkl.com https://inkl.com has a flat monthly plan, besides a pay-per-article.
- aabbcc1241 8y agoThere is Brave (browser) that can contribute to a site by proportion to amount of time you spent on all the sites. You can buy BAT (token) then distribute to the site owner or even authors (e.g. video uploader of youtube, instead of the youtube itself).
- weberc2 8y agoLast I tried Brave it still felt very Beta-esque. Has it improved in the last year?
- samtheprogram 8y agoIt's my daily driver for past 6 months and didn't try it before that, and I haven't had a beta impression at all.
- v0x 8y agoDo they really, though? I recall there was quite some controversy about that: https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1076160882873380870 https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1076160882873380870
- steve19 8y agoThe Guardian specifically does participate in the Brave program.
- eitland 8y ago> Back in 2017 when the Guardian started showing those big yellow banners at the bottom of articles, I started contributing. If I'm on a site more than a few times a year and they have an option to contribute, I try to. Same here. I recommend it, it feels good. Also it makes sure I'm not a hypocrite when I speak up against the current advertising and tracking madness.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y agoI really wish that when I read a really good article, I could click a button and give £1 or something.
- ghostly_s 8y agoYou can do exactly that on the Guardian's site!
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y agoThat's true, I ought to use that less rarely.
- OJFord 8y agoI would use that too, but only if low friction. If I've done it before on The Guardian's site and let it remember my card number, fine, otherwise.. I'm not going through the whole rigamarole for an amount as low as I'd be willing to donate. I suppose that's what Patreon et al. try to address. Nowhere near the critical mass for it not to be high overhead on average though.