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This is going to be a shameless plug here. I'm also frustrated by how paywalls work, having to endlessly subscribe to yet another newspaper or newsletter, just
by holistio 2y ago
This is going to be a shameless plug here.
I'm also frustrated by how paywalls work, having to endlessly subscribe to yet another newspaper or newsletter, just because you want to read one article.
But this approach is... stealing. When it comes to big media like the NYT, it might not feel like it is, but at the end of the day, it's people doing the background research, writing the content, editing, etc.
This is _not_ the solution.
Our alternative in the making offers a legal, fair alternative: buy and sell content by the piece.
It's available at https://vernus.one https://vernus.one
If you have a blog or newsletter, or if you're a journalist, I'm happy to help in setting up your publication and start earning in a transparent manner.
- m000 2y agoCan I get my money back if it turns out that some NYT article was outright lies, probably already paid for by some undisclosed shady entity?
- holistio 2y agoI wish you could. I'd like Vernus to champion indie journalism, mainstream media is dying before our eyes anyway.
- napoleoncomplex 2y agoDo you get your money back if you go to the store and buy some new food/fruit/snack you don't like the taste of? No, you throw it away, and probably won't buy it again. If you don't like NYT, don't buy from them. If NYT is like an avocado for you, sometimes ripe and delicious, sometimes unripe, sometimes rotten, you get to decide how often you're gonna buy avocados, or if you'll develop your own methods of avocado testing before buying to increase your odds. In no case do you get to take the avocado skin back to the store asking for a refund.
- rafram 2y agoTrader Joe’s will give you your money back if you buy something and don’t like it.
- holistio 2y agoI think the original question has some logic. If the content is untruthful, it isn't in analogy with a fruit that you don't like, it's in analogy with a rotten fruit. I expect a refund if a rotten fruit is delivered. Really hard to implement with content.
- napoleoncomplex 2y agoPerhaps a simpler analogy, you see a new bag/flavour of chips in the store, "super crunchy" "delicious", you buy it, go home, tastes horrible, barely crunchy, do you get to take it back and get your money back?
- austinjp 2y agoYep! Local stores are 'happy' to refund since they tend to value customers. Megacorps... not so much.
- holistio 2y agoMisleading advertising is so common, I wouldn't really fret over it. If it says super crunchy and you assess the crunchiness is merely average, well, that's your perception. But if it says it's paprika flavoured and it turns out to be sauerkraut, you gotta bring it back to the store.
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoToo salesy
- holistio 2y agoMy comment or the site? If the former, I acknowledge that, I got a bit triggered by YACTS (yet another content theft service). If the latter, I'm genuinely curious and happy to make changes to our copy. Paywallskip seems to stealsy to me FWIW.
- Ancapistani 2y agoDisputing the space and then resolving the mess is a tried and true tactic in this industry. Just because this site isn’t directly paying the content providers now doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Providing it free, even with ambiguous legality, can allow them to build enough of a following to give them leverage in future negotiations.
- holistio 2y agoIt's not directly not paying, it's not paying at all. I don't see how this is different from disputing the banking sector by conducting a heist.
- alex_suzuki 2y agoI agree with your take, but pitching your own solution as part of it significantly lowers the appeal of your comment, at least for me.
- newswasboring 2y agoWhy? This is HN no? The entire point of this community is to provide technology solutions (mostly through companies). If any place should welcome this, it should be HN.
- alex_suzuki 2y agoYou are right of course. I think it was something in the wording that turned me off. It was an instinctive reaction that I now regret.
- holistio 2y agoI couldn't really care less. If you look at the middle part of the domain between news. and .com, it might remind you that this is a community of people building stuff, learning to sell it, improving upon the feedback. I don't really see how pitching a legal solution in a thread below the pitch of an obviously illegal, or at least unethical one is problematic.