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> This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :( Totally! The internet was better before pay walls / auth walls. I get why we're here today, and I get t
by dbg31415 3y ago
> This version of the Internet is starting to suck. :(
Totally! The internet was better before pay walls / auth walls.
I get why we're here today, and I get that the last phase was just about acquiring an audience, and getting people hooked, and now this part of getting everyone to pay was always the plan, but this part really does suck.
Just feels like all the services lined up to start shitting on users at the same time. Netflix, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, NYT (and all the newspapers really)... you can't watch Amazon Prime without having 300 "buy now" buttons in your face.
This phase of capitalism sucks.
- nagonago 3y agoI remember seeing a documentary way back in 2000 about the internet that said something like "the internet is freely accessible now, but some people believe eventually pay walls will begin to block access to more and more portions of the internet." And I thought how ridiculous, that will never happen, information wants to be free! Well, looks like I was only partially right. Most access is still "free", but at the cost of enshittification.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoInformation wants to be free, but information is power. And some people want to hoard all the power for themselves.
- Sharlin 3y agoAh, the F2P (free-to-play) model. Indeed I’m surprised that microtransactions and pay-to-win type dark patterns have mostly not been adopted on the internet at large. And loot boxes! Can’t forget loot boxes.
- rchaud 3y agoIf P2P micropayments could somehow have succeeded, then a different Internet could have been possible. Tipping content creators directly is impossible without megacorporations taking a cut, be it Apple, Paypal, Patreon etc, and their unit economics work better with recurring payments, which lands us in subscription hell. One would almost be tempted to ask for a cheque in the mail like in the old days.
- johannes1234321 3y agoflattr was an interesting idea of a micropayment approach. Asically a subscription amount and then spread around sites. But I guess for publishers it never produced enough revenue to be worth maintaining the integration.
- robot_no_421 3y agoCryptocurrency almost solves this, but the scaling issues and high knowledge barrier to entry is still holding this idea back.
- rchaud 3y agoIt doesn't solve it at all, I am talking about real money you can spend in a store, not tokens that need to be converted through an exchange into cash each time.
- bornfreddy 3y agoThere are stores where you can pay with cryptocurrencies. That said, GP said "almost". We will see if it ever reaches the point where this word will not be needed.
- robot_no_421 3y agoThe reason why you can't spend it at the store is because the store doesn't accept it. The reason why the store doesn't accept it is because of the aforementioned scaling and complexity issues.
- salawat 3y agoP2P payments/transaction media have been on the way out for decades due to the State's interest in controlling the financial transaction medium as tightly as possible. The database has doomed us all! For it is the Seed of all Evil in the hands of the Wicked! ...and arguably the Good, but misguided!
- NovaDudely 3y agoEmbrace the audience, extend the functionality, then exploit the users.