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"The Internet wouldn't die. The Internet would continue to thrive, and would probably end up providing a much nicer user experience." I think at this point, yo

"The Internet wouldn't die. The Internet would continue to thrive, and would probably end up providing a much nicer user experience." I think at this point, you would probably see many more pay-only websites. I could easily see the major Internet providers getting together with website owners and charging for premium services almost like bundled cable packages. "Projects like Diaspora would have more chance of succeeding with no competition from privacy abusing ad reliant services like Facebook." In a world without ads, Diaspora still wouldn't succeed. Since they can't sell advertising reliably for money, they would have to either sell products or charge a monthly fee. Most people aren't going to pay a monthly fee for a facebook-like service and without the popularity, it would be just another failed startup.

mike-cardwell 15y ago
I don't understand why you think a distributed social network couldn't work without web adverts? There are plenty of organisations that would derive value from setting up nodes. Universities would. I'd imagine it coming as a free addon to email services and other subscription services.
- paulhauggis 15y ago
  "There are plenty of organisations that would derive value from setting up nodes." I don't think it would ever get to the current levels without some sort of centralization, which costs money. "Universities would. I'd imagine it coming as a free addon to email services and other subscription services." Possibly, but what if you aren't part of a University?
  - mike-cardwell 15y ago
    If centralization is required for a service to grow to a large size, how do you explain email? If email was being designed from scratch today, we'd have people asking why anybody would set up a free to use email service. "Universities" was an example of one type of provider. Setting up a "free to use" node would be useful even for commercial organisations. Think brand recognition. You'd also have charitable organisations doing it for the sake of it. I don't need to supply an exhaustive list to show that it's easily possible.

mike-cardwell 15y ago

I don't understand why you think a distributed social network couldn't work without web adverts? There are plenty of organisations that would derive value from setting up nodes. Universities would. I'd imagine it coming as a free addon to email services and other subscription services.

paulhauggis 15y ago
"There are plenty of organisations that would derive value from setting up nodes." I don't think it would ever get to the current levels without some sort of centralization, which costs money. "Universities would. I'd imagine it coming as a free addon to email services and other subscription services." Possibly, but what if you aren't part of a University?
- mike-cardwell 15y ago
  If centralization is required for a service to grow to a large size, how do you explain email? If email was being designed from scratch today, we'd have people asking why anybody would set up a free to use email service. "Universities" was an example of one type of provider. Setting up a "free to use" node would be useful even for commercial organisations. Think brand recognition. You'd also have charitable organisations doing it for the sake of it. I don't need to supply an exhaustive list to show that it's easily possible.