The web's original sin

What is content, what is ad?

What is product, what is payment?

In not-so-distant future, the lines between those two would blur.

Whose 'fault' would be that outcome?

Big players will say, "Can't be helped, consumers want content without paying."

Small consumers will say, "Can't be helped, big players shove ads without giving product."

Wait, is this trend of content-morphing-into-ads a 'fault'?

Isn't it more likely it is a upcoming 'feature'?

Isn't it more likely it is the natural trends of things in the coming age where the private enterprises have swallowed the public space awhole?

Product is ads, content is ads.

Everything is ads.

Art is propaganda in 21th century style, perhaps?

The funny aspect of this trend is this,

Small people always pay.

First, you pay by providing your connectivity (Electricity, gadgets and so on)

Second, you pay by providing your credits (Fiat money by governing states)

Third, you pay by being surveiled.

Fourth, you pay be your attention.

Fifth, you pay by your time.

The emphasis seems to be on the second aspect of paying-the fiat money, while the greater dialogue is needed in the other FOUR aspects.

First, connectivity issue is already being conquered by big players; Google's baloons, drones, lasers, Facebook's 'Free' Basics

Third, the web is built in nature to be surveiled by powerful authority, whether that authority is legal(state) or technical(corporation) are irrelevant, as one submits to the other. Where the state is stronger, the corporation submits; where the corporation is stronger, the state submits.

Fourth, ADHD is not a disease or deviance. It is natural state of modern humanity, as humans are not evolved enough to be this much overwhelmed to consume what is being over-produced. Supply of attention-seeking-media is too much for even 8 billions.

Fifth, the only capital of proles are the time it has. As the labour is irrelevant by upcoming robot labour which never sleeps, tires, eats, shits nor complains about being not paid enough.

Now, this debate of 'adblocking war' is another misdirection by the big players.

You always pay, whether you block some 'ads' to see another 'ads'.

It matters little.

Little guys always pay.

The "hell" scenario is when every page is attempting to monetize content. Not only that, but adverts would charge you to read them, text could be split per word, firewalls would have to be erected for 'financial reasons', and obfuscated pricing that makes the app/IAP scam look like standard sales.

It would erect a paywall around almost everything. And that would be eminently sad, considering costs to access and use the net lower all the time. This would make many areas "rich people only" places.

Instead, we should be looking at systems that reduce costs to create and store. AT least for the second part, I'm looking at IPFS (ipfs.io) for the storage side of the problem. And it seems they've figured it out.

The "create" is still a problem, but it is a problem I think with distributed patronage could solve (payment before creation for established peoples with sufficient social proof, and payment after creation with those with insufficient social proof, and a social proof calculator that adds or subtracts depending on worthiness).

The cardinal sin of the web is that it makes it really easy to take something that someone did for fun (and for free) and copy it for the benefit of people who might want it commercially. By doing this, you may be putting someone who makes a living selling the info you collect for free out of a job. This also means that if you do something for free, then start trying to charge for it, someone else is likely to start offering it for free and undercut you.

But we shouldn't stop people from sharing the results of their labors of love - it just means that the skill the professional had wasn't as valuable as they thought it was. At the same time, we should only do these things so long as we derive enjoyment from them, so if the author hates doing it, he should stop. He owes "the community" nothing.