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I think this is a problem social media is going to have to solve. Much of the privacy/data mining/etc issues stem from the fact that advertisers are the custome

I think this is a problem social media is going to have to solve. Much of the privacy/data mining/etc issues stem from the fact that advertisers are the customers, not the users. And with the absurd valuations, there's going to be an insane pressure to monetize which is going to lead to some really dodgy business decisions. So there has to be another way. Reddit's gold subscriptions are $3.99 a month. Maybe this is too much? What if Facebook started charging $1 a month to remove ads? What about $0.50? Would people pay it? At that point, it's really not the cost that's an issue, it's the hassle of signing up. I do really like the idea of an aggregator service where the providers receive a cut of the subscription. But is an API (say, restful JSON) so much less bandwidth-intensive on a large scale that this is more viable?

athom 16y ago
You know, I really never wanted to join Facebook in the first place. I only got involved after a couple of friends invited me. After about half a year blowing way too much time on Farm Town, Mafia Wars, etc., I pulled way back, and only drop on occasionally now, usually just when I get the odd notice in my email. If FB started trying to charge me for anything, I'd give 'em the Holy Water and Silver Cross for good. Of course, there's still the matter of what personal information I've actually given them, and the challange of getting it removed, which brings up an interesting thought: How likely might Facebook try to monetize its 'assets' by charging users for its privacy protections? Maybe they'd start offering to close/scrub accounts... for a fee? It reminds me the old joke about the school band's free concert. Admission costs nothing, but you'll pay ten bucks to get out! Given