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> If we want to make information available to as many people as possible, an ad-supported model is the way to do it There are alternatives, a good one I see us
by simion314 5y ago
> If we want to make information available to as many people as possible, an ad-supported model is the way to do it
There are alternatives, a good one I see used in Ptreon, the supporters get early access to content, the rest will get it a month later. Let me try find the pros and cons
Cons:
- you need first to find supporters, so for a while you need to work hard to get them
- some supporters might feel entitled to stuff, you need to make sure to be clear about what being a supporter means
- you need to be very clear and transparent , some supporters will not tolerate delays or low quality/quantity updates
Pro:
- you have a predictable revenue model, you don't depend on an algorithm
- you mostly don't have to censor your content (there are exceptions true, but there are alternatives)
- you don't have to promote scams like VPNs, shit games with loot boxes, crypto scams
- you are not forced by an algorithms to release on a certain text/video length , a certain schedule , use certain shitty thumbnails or click-bait titles
- if you make public your content after a month or week etc, your fans that don't have money still get it and will promote it, also influencers will promote it because they know it will be free after a time interval.
This patreon model does not solve everything, just wanted to mention that there are alternatives to shity ads that track and manipulate you. Other alternative would be honest contextual ads, like if you search for printer ink from city A then Google/Bing could show you an ad from a local shop that refils ink cartridges.
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoI think Patreon is great for individual creators and other small scale operations, but I'm skeptical that it can generate enough revenue to sustain larger scale journalistic operations. Organizations like NPR have been attempting a user-contribution model since before the internet, and it works to an extent, but they still have to rely partially on (minimalistic) ads as well as government funding.
- simion314 5y agoSure. Patreon is not a solution for all, but isn't private media already "patronized" by billionaires ? And they use ads to make more money? And for smaller private media like my local radio, they will use local ads and some ads might be of interest to me, the issue most of us have with ads is not that the local car washing place put an ad on radio, but with Google or FB ads because they track you over the internet and profile you, so FB would have a profile for Bob like "middle income, single, straight man, naive, likes tech, likes watches, ...anxious,. insecure, depressive... this is a lot of data that honestly could be use for good but instead it is used to manipulate Bob to join different FB groups, to show Bob different ads for some shit that he would probably buy that is probably bad for him etc. On top of this tracking there is a ton of other JS code to try and ensure there is no bad actor that would try to inflate the numbers of clicks. If you would have some plain ads with text and non animated images then I think most poeple would be happy and not bother to hide the ad. What I think it will happen is some countries will eventually make laws to make tracking opt-in, like the do not track flag in browsers , or at best for advertisers make the user chose at first launch the default for tracking setting