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IMO one if the biggest blunders of Moz was not having had the vision to champion the open web by becoming an alternative monitization platform like Patreon. The

IMO one if the biggest blunders of Moz was not having had the vision to champion the open web by becoming an alternative monitization platform like Patreon. The biggest reason why the open web failed and will continue to fail is not because of aggregators like Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter but rather because there's simply no way for people to vote with their wallets. Moz was uniquely positioned to drive such a change between their market share independence affording them the opportunity to create such a market without drawing immediate regulator scrutiny as all the other browser players would have; their failure to do so will ultimately seal legacy and fate.

searchableguy 6y ago
https://webmonetization.org/ https://webmonetization.org/ https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/introducing-our-experiment-web-monetization/ https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/introducing-our-exper... https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/03/web-monetization-coil-and-firefox-reality/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/03/web-monetization-coil-and-...
- andromeduck 6y ago
  Nice to see that there are efforts but until they can roll it out as a core feature with prompts/nudges it's not going to cut it and I'm not entirely sure they have the market/mind share to pull it off these days. Pateron came out in 2013 and has strong community/network effects now, YouTube Red/Spotify also address much the same problem. The current state of affairs is like their idiotic mobile 6 full years after the iPhone came out and at a time when Android/iOS had already won and Microsoft efforts already imploded.
  - jefftk 6y ago
    If they rolled out a payment option for third-party sites as a core feature with prompts and nudges, do you really think the reception would be positive? I expect the comment threads would be full of people telling Firefox to work on being the best browser they can, and not getting in people's way with a payment system that "nobody asked for".
    - Reimersholme 6y ago
      It can still be optional? That I use Firefox daily but had no clue this functionality existed says something...
    - andromeduck 6y ago
      I think that would depend a lot on how it's done. If it were simply a mediator/platform that could be opted-into by the serving site kind of like a pateron ad/button I think that could go a long way. The value-add of pateron being in intermediating the transaction and collecting/collating my top interests in a privacy conscious way.
- chris_f 6y ago
  I came across the Web Monetization standard a couple months ago when I was looking for alternative ways to fund my website [0], but I couldn't find a lot of information on actual implementations, so I decided to add it myself as an experiment. It's actually pretty cool, and earnings from web monetized users now cover ~3% of the operation of the site during the first month of having it implemented. You basically just have to add a meta tag to the site that directs to a payment pointer (you also have to sign up with one of the wallets for the payment pointer). Definitely not getting rich from the implementation, and the earnings are much lower than if I just ran ads, but it is a nice feeling to have the users of the site directly contribute to supporting the product. Plus it is such a low barrier to set it up that there is very little downside to having it added to the site. [0] https://www.runnaroo.com https://www.runnaroo.com
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  Interesting, seems to be Mozilla's version of Flattr ?
alangibson 6y ago
Totally agree. This is why I included the second of the Web's original sins in lack of native payments. We really need cryptocurrencies to succeed here. However I fear that that whole sector has been totally swamped by get rich quick and libertarian wackos with no interest as something as pedestrian as Web Bucks
- leppr 6y ago
  Putting aside the valid complaint about the noise from get-rich-quick opportunists in this field: Implementing simple "Web Bucks" is not pedestrian at all. There are real reasons why all Paypals suck, and you can't simply ignore them and hope to build an open cash alternative unbothered.

searchableguy 6y ago

https://webmonetization.org/ https://webmonetization.org/ https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/introducing-our-experiment-web-monetization/ https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/introducing-our-exper... https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/03/web-monetization-coil-and-firefox-reality/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/03/web-monetization-coil-and-...

andromeduck 6y ago
Nice to see that there are efforts but until they can roll it out as a core feature with prompts/nudges it's not going to cut it and I'm not entirely sure they have the market/mind share to pull it off these days. Pateron came out in 2013 and has strong community/network effects now, YouTube Red/Spotify also address much the same problem. The current state of affairs is like their idiotic mobile 6 full years after the iPhone came out and at a time when Android/iOS had already won and Microsoft efforts already imploded.
- jefftk 6y ago
  If they rolled out a payment option for third-party sites as a core feature with prompts and nudges, do you really think the reception would be positive? I expect the comment threads would be full of people telling Firefox to work on being the best browser they can, and not getting in people's way with a payment system that "nobody asked for".
  - Reimersholme 6y ago
    It can still be optional? That I use Firefox daily but had no clue this functionality existed says something...
  - andromeduck 6y ago
    I think that would depend a lot on how it's done. If it were simply a mediator/platform that could be opted-into by the serving site kind of like a pateron ad/button I think that could go a long way. The value-add of pateron being in intermediating the transaction and collecting/collating my top interests in a privacy conscious way.
chris_f 6y ago
I came across the Web Monetization standard a couple months ago when I was looking for alternative ways to fund my website [0], but I couldn't find a lot of information on actual implementations, so I decided to add it myself as an experiment. It's actually pretty cool, and earnings from web monetized users now cover ~3% of the operation of the site during the first month of having it implemented. You basically just have to add a meta tag to the site that directs to a payment pointer (you also have to sign up with one of the wallets for the payment pointer). Definitely not getting rich from the implementation, and the earnings are much lower than if I just ran ads, but it is a nice feeling to have the users of the site directly contribute to supporting the product. Plus it is such a low barrier to set it up that there is very little downside to having it added to the site. [0] https://www.runnaroo.com https://www.runnaroo.com
BlueTemplar 6y ago
Interesting, seems to be Mozilla's version of Flattr ?

alangibson 6y ago

Totally agree. This is why I included the second of the Web's original sins in lack of native payments. We really need cryptocurrencies to succeed here. However I fear that that whole sector has been totally swamped by get rich quick and libertarian wackos with no interest as something as pedestrian as Web Bucks

leppr 6y ago
Putting aside the valid complaint about the noise from get-rich-quick opportunists in this field: Implementing simple "Web Bucks" is not pedestrian at all. There are real reasons why all Paypals suck, and you can't simply ignore them and hope to build an open cash alternative unbothered.