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Why don't you accept donations?

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Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#141

Post by boudin »

binwiederhier wrote: post #67
approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

I have never used an ad blocker and have resisted installing it many times. My thinking always was: I'd rather have a web with ads than a web in which I have to pay for content and sign up to 800 different websites with 800 different accounts. A website that I've frequented a lot, the German news website spiegel.de, has converted to pay only mostly, and i now can't use it anymore. I am not saying that's the fault of…

I find this quite more complex than that. This is not just a different revenue source, it's a different business model.

If you don't click on ads, you don't bring any money so you night as well install an adblocker.

When your revenue source is ads, it becomes a conflicting content with your own content. You need people to stop paying attention to your content, lool at ads and deciding to leave your site for it. Ads network can also have an say on your content by controling your income source.

Paying a news website directly brings them independance and allows the site to focus on content, those 2 things are at the core of journalism.

If I were you, I would reconsider a subscription if you really liked the spiegel.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#142

Post by herbst »

chrismcb wrote: post #119
nocturnial wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite viewpoint about ads. I don't think we should reward a business model which relies on the premise that humans like to watch ads. I never had someone tell me to drive slower because they wanted to take a closer look at a billboard. Never had I had to rewind a video because someone missed an ad. etc... etc... Let's be honest. If someone told you to do any of the above things regularly and consistentl…

Of course people watch ads. It is (or used to be#one reason outdoor watch the Superbowl. The world would actually be a boring place without ads. The problem is when they are over done or deliver malware.

I honestly only know that from movies. I don't think I know anyone who actually watches these ads. I am not in America tho

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#143

Post by herbst »

haspok wrote: post #139
binwiederhier wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never used an ad blocker and have resisted installing it many times. My thinking always was: I'd rather have a web with ads than a web in which I have to pay for content and sign up to 800 different websites with 800 different accounts. A website that I've frequented a lot, the German news website spiegel.de, has converted to pay only mostly, and i now can't use it anymore. I am not saying that's the fault of…

You can take a look at american television to see how that works. There are more ads than actual content, and the quality of the content is... well, you be the judge of that. If someone says they won't do something because they can't pay the bills unless they finance it via ad revenue, I'm fine with that. I'm not convinced that the world is losing any value because of this. (Or put it in another way: would Gabriel Ga…

I recently changed my YouTube app to one that skips creator ads. I am sure I saved way over a few hours in the last week's plus I really don't care about VPNs and mobile games. That time was 100% wasted before.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#144

Post by lwouis »

fregante wrote: post #118
BeetleB wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing wrong with not accepting rewards for your work.

It's kind of weird to work for free though, isn't it? Sure it's something we like doing, but I really see no reason to reject free money. For uBlock this free money would be a fairly large amount, I'm sure. Even if that'd require some legal setup, I assume those fees will be largely covered.

Money as the end-all-be-all is pretty new. I notice it a lot in American culture in particular.

People have dedicated their life to all sorts of endeavors in the past, and still do of course. Big religions are a prime source of people doing large amounts of work for no money.

It's quite odd to me to think that any activity i engage in should be to accumulate these tokens. Something i do stuff for the process itself. Sometimes to get a smile from people. Sometimes to see more beauty around me. Etc

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#145

Post by herbst »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #127
approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

uBlock + PiHole = dream team. I was surprised to see how crappy the internet has become when I accidentally left my pihole disabled the other day. Maybe we should just reset it (the internet)? Start over with a new kind of browser without ads, extensions, no JS, no CSS etc.. just a dumb renderer. The current bloat is getting embarrassing.

This is my stack too, at home.

Pi-Hole is blocking so much telemetry in my phone that I am honestly afraid of using it outside my network. I don't even take internet with me, because I want my phone to be somewhat safe as the only reason I have one are banking apps and authentifications.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#146

Post by executesorder66 »

binwiederhier wrote: post #67
approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

I have never used an ad blocker and have resisted installing it many times. My thinking always was: I'd rather have a web with ads than a web in which I have to pay for content and sign up to 800 different websites with 800 different accounts. A website that I've frequented a lot, the German news website spiegel.de, has converted to pay only mostly, and i now can't use it anymore. I am not saying that's the fault of…

> a web in which I have to pay for content and sign up to 800 different websites with 800 different accounts

I can assure you that there will never be a future where that happens. Even if everyone that uses a browser installed an adblocker right now and never removed it again, if every website was paywalled, they would have to choose between closing down or unpaywalling again. Because as you say, you, and everyone else isn't going to pay to use every individual website that they visit.

So just use an adblocker. Fuck the ad industry.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#147

Post by herbst »

Krasnol wrote: post #125
approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

I'm honestly afraid what will happen if this project dies. And it will die...all good digital things die one day. We'll start again with all kinds of half broken forks and fakes....scarry..

Some lists the project uses are maintained for longer than than ublock or even adblock extensions were a thing.

I remember back when building your own pihole was the only way to go and opera just rolled out native link blocking.

It won't die, only change maybe

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#148

Post by dkdk8283 »

fartcannon wrote: post #70
binwiederhier wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never used an ad blocker and have resisted installing it many times. My thinking always was: I'd rather have a web with ads than a web in which I have to pay for content and sign up to 800 different websites with 800 different accounts. A website that I've frequented a lot, the German news website spiegel.de, has converted to pay only mostly, and i now can't use it anymore. I am not saying that's the fault of…

Greed doesn't stop. It doesnt say, 'this, but no more. our shareholders have enough'. We'd be here with or without as blockers. It would just be worse without.

I liked the old internet where people posted content out of passion not for money. The quality has suffered and many think they have a right to get paid.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#150

Post by quickthrower2 »

snarf21 wrote: post #8
smnrchrds wrote: post #6

> no donations = no expectations No donations should result in no expectations , but unfortunately all sorts of people will have all sorts of expectations from you when you release an open-source project, donations or not.

I've done a similar thing with a few past employers after I've moved on. "Hey, can you explain this code to the new person?". In some cases, I'd be glad to do a 1 hour call or whatever. They frequently ask me to submit a bill for my time and I always refuse. I don't want to turn into some kind of staff augmentation and be at their beck and call "because they are paying". Way better to think of it as a gift and I get…

There’s a lot of debate on this. So here is my spin. Charge them $1000 to not turn up. Why? Because by not turning up they get used to figuring it out without you which is long term more valuable for resilience and beneficial to them.
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