Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

robinwinslow.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 147 posts

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#131

Post by towaway15463 »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #94
towaway15463 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general idea with micro transactions is that you have some small number of service providers that you use to pay the individual retailers with. You know like how credit cards work.

And that’s the real reason micropayments haven’t caught on—there is no universal one-click payment system for the web. Every payment processor requires at least one redirection away from the content at hand. A micropayment transaction needs to be as easy as clicking “Continue {Reading,Watching,Listening}” and the content resumes without skipping a beat.

Sounds like a solvable problem

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#132

Post by notjustanymike »

bogomipz wrote: post #59
notjustanymike wrote: post #23

> Paywalls offend me. The Internet exists to share knowledge with everyone across the world. You shouldn’t need a subscription, all you should need is an internet connection to access the world’s knowledge. That is some Grade-A willful ignorance. Professional writers who perform their due diligence get paid. Professional photographers who travel and document important causes get paid. Editors who ensure accuracy and…

How about login walls for free content? Most news sites allow for a limited number of free articles a month except that their version of free requires I create an account and log in. So a major news site like the nytimes will always surface to the top of Google search results and if I select their article I am met with: >"Thanks for reading The Times. Create your free account or log in to continue reading." And even…

That content isn't "free". It's a sample, given away at cost by the Times, intended to engage you just enough to become a paying customer. Remember that all this stuff costs money to make, so when it's "free" its purpose is still to make money, one way or another.

The ad model is becoming unsustainable, people are catching on to the "we sell your personal information" approach, so businesses are now exploring the free + friction model in greater depth.

I'm not sure what you expected with the creeping footer. As a free user you don't drive enough revenue for them to sustain their business, so they're forced to introduce friction into the user experience to convert you into a real customer.

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#133

Post by towaway15463 »

chazeon wrote: post #126
tpoacher wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "medium" model could be one way around this. The first 10% or so of the article is visible, after that you need to sign in. Or in this case, pay.

This exactly IS the paywall model, except aggregated. I doubt how expensive this kind of aggregator would be to REALLY allow these media to survive. I heard media on Apple News+ doesn’t get enough money from them.

The point of micro transactions is to get rid of the aggregators that charge larger fees for monthly subscriptions to a basket of content

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#134

Post by towaway15463 »

passivate wrote: post #103
spywaregorilla wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you rely on branding then why not just subscribe the the publisher...

Sure, but it takes time to build brands like NYT, WSJ, WaPo etc. Until then, personal credibility will have to suffice.

Even then I don’t subscribe to any news sites. I want to just roll up and say “I’d like one article today please, here’s a quarter” I refuse to sign up to something I’ll barely use.

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#135

Post by towaway15463 »

zblesk wrote: post #106
towaway15463 wrote: post #30

I’m still waiting for micro transactions. I won’t pay $5 a month for a newspaper I might read one article from but I would gladly pay 25 cents for that one good article. How are there still minimum amounts and fees on transactions when everything is supposedly digitized and networked?

Blendle might be what you're looking for. Check it out: https://blendle.com/ (Today, the landing page loaded in Dutch for me for some reason. No idea why, probably some 'very smart' lang detection gone wrong? Either way, it _is_ available in english, so don't be deterred if that happens to you as well. After logging in, I saw eng again.)

How does it work? Their landing page is vague

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#136

Post by MontyCarloHall »

towaway15463 wrote: post #131
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s the real reason micropayments haven’t caught on—there is no universal one-click payment system for the web. Every payment processor requires at least one redirection away from the content at hand. A micropayment transaction needs to be as easy as clicking “Continue {Reading,Watching,Listening}” and the content resumes without skipping a beat.

Sounds like a solvable problem

Indeed, so why doesn’t it exist yet?

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#137

Post by josephcsible »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #91

> Paywalls offend me. The Internet exists to share knowledge with everyone across the world. You shouldn’t need a subscription, all you should need is an internet connection to access the world’s knowledge. Cool. So remind me how anyone can survive creating high quality content online? Ads? Nope. Privacy nightmare. Subscriptions? Nope. "Offensive". What next? Tips? Please. We already know most people won't pay for co…

Ads don't have to be a privacy nightmare, e.g., highway billboards and broadcast TV. Why can't we have privacy preserving ads on the Web?

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#139

Post by dymk »

javajosh wrote: post #105
dymk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would any of the existing outlets play nice with a service that got their start pirating the outlets’ content?

Stranger things have happened. I mean, would you have imagined in 1942 that within 20 years German and Japan were going to be staunch US allies?

Sure, all it took was the complete decimation of their existing governments. I think the equivalent action would be the 12ft.io domain gets transferred to a different owner with a different business plan.

Re: Hate paywalls? 12ft.io is the answer

#140

Post by interestica »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #94
towaway15463 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general idea with micro transactions is that you have some small number of service providers that you use to pay the individual retailers with. You know like how credit cards work.

And that’s the real reason micropayments haven’t caught on—there is no universal one-click payment system for the web. Every payment processor requires at least one redirection away from the content at hand. A micropayment transaction needs to be as easy as clicking “Continue {Reading,Watching,Listening}” and the content resumes without skipping a beat.

I mean Apple and Google have prepared users for it with the mechanism built into apps when someone wants to upgrade to a premium version or add a subscription. I think the lowest I've seen is 99c but a smaller micropayment using the same system/interface is simple.
Post reply on HN