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Nobody wants to pay for anything. If you ask them how they want to pay, they’ll say “I don’t want to.” But given a choice of paywalls or ads, most people opt f

Nobody wants to pay for anything. If you ask them how they want to pay, they’ll say “I don’t want to.” But given a choice of paywalls or ads, most people opt for ads most of the time. Doesn’t mean they want ads, just that they apparently dislike ads less than actually paying.

ImPostingOnHN 2y ago
You are correct: if someone is presented with a false dichotomy of "ads vs. paying", and they choose ads, that doesn't mean they want ads, it means ads was the least bad option in the false dichotomy. I also don't think it's constructive to conflate providing a service with making a profit. Plenty of people are happy doing just the former. If someone want to make more money, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a foregone conclusion that they do, or must, or that the service is contingent on it. Those are all decisions made by each individual provider.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  > I also don't think it's constructive to conflate providing a service with making a profit. Plenty of people are happy doing just the former. Can confirm. I spent years in the late 2000's running a phpBB board to enable discussion on a niche hobby. I spent probably a few thousand dollars on it over several years, we eventually waned in traffic and gave it up as everyone was moving to reddit. I never saw a penny of profit from that, nor expected it: some of our older members were happy to kick some cash my way to offset server costs. As a result, we had a community that was robust, friendly, open to everyone and 100% free to use. No scummy ads, no tracking, no surveillance, no "sponsored posts," none of it. It was glorious and I miss it every day. I would've happily taken donations to offset the costs, but I never saw it as a money-making operation. Nowadays it feels basically unheard of to do anything online without the expectation of making money.
- shermantanktop 2y ago
  Sure. I was making a general observation about ads vs. subscriptions out on the open internet where sites generally cost money to run, and sometimes the owners attempt to make a salary from their time, or even make a profit. Lots of ways to change that need for revenue, but once you are hitting 100k+ daily visitors, it’s hard to avoid. I run multiple small sites for free, and do a number of other activities for free that someone might get paid for. But I know that I’m doing it because I want to and can stop anytime. Revenue also creates continuity by creating a financial obligation…even while it reduces the passion element of motivation.

ImPostingOnHN 2y ago

You are correct: if someone is presented with a false dichotomy of "ads vs. paying", and they choose ads, that doesn't mean they want ads, it means ads was the least bad option in the false dichotomy. I also don't think it's constructive to conflate providing a service with making a profit. Plenty of people are happy doing just the former. If someone want to make more money, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a foregone conclusion that they do, or must, or that the service is contingent on it. Those are all decisions made by each individual provider.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
> I also don't think it's constructive to conflate providing a service with making a profit. Plenty of people are happy doing just the former. Can confirm. I spent years in the late 2000's running a phpBB board to enable discussion on a niche hobby. I spent probably a few thousand dollars on it over several years, we eventually waned in traffic and gave it up as everyone was moving to reddit. I never saw a penny of profit from that, nor expected it: some of our older members were happy to kick some cash my way to offset server costs. As a result, we had a community that was robust, friendly, open to everyone and 100% free to use. No scummy ads, no tracking, no surveillance, no "sponsored posts," none of it. It was glorious and I miss it every day. I would've happily taken donations to offset the costs, but I never saw it as a money-making operation. Nowadays it feels basically unheard of to do anything online without the expectation of making money.
shermantanktop 2y ago
Sure. I was making a general observation about ads vs. subscriptions out on the open internet where sites generally cost money to run, and sometimes the owners attempt to make a salary from their time, or even make a profit. Lots of ways to change that need for revenue, but once you are hitting 100k+ daily visitors, it’s hard to avoid. I run multiple small sites for free, and do a number of other activities for free that someone might get paid for. But I know that I’m doing it because I want to and can stop anytime. Revenue also creates continuity by creating a financial obligation…even while it reduces the passion element of motivation.