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Flattr is closing down (2023)

flattr.com

11–20 of 247 posts

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#11
post #5

Oh wow, I completely forgot about Flattr. Thinking about it again, I quite liked the idea. But I guess it never really caught on enough.

I've used Flattr for a short period of time in early 2010s. I think it's unfortunate that the service picked up steam when most of the published content was moving from self-hosted to centralized social media platforms. Actually with a bit of marketing Flutter would have been better suited nowadays than at that time.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#13
Flattr is the kind of idea that sounds great, that people love talking about - if only they could make a small donation to every website they liked - but that doesn't work because people are fundamentally too selfish. This is why ads are the only viable business model for a kind of "ephemeral website" - something you visit only briefly, derive some short knowledge or pleasure from until you follow a link somewhere else, do not feel the kind of loyalty to that might make you subscribe to something.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#14
post #8

No wonder given the company that acquired the project is rather hotly debated for "removing ads from websites just to reinsert their own." Edit: Not reinsert their own, but having advertisers pay for the pleasure to not be blocked in their "acceptable ads" program.

I somehow link this practice to the Brave browser, but I'm not sure about it. Does anyone know more about it?

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#15
post #8

No wonder given the company that acquired the project is rather hotly debated for "removing ads from websites just to reinsert their own." Edit: Not reinsert their own, but having advertisers pay for the pleasure to not be blocked in their "acceptable ads" program.

Seems more likely that they tried this as a desperate last attempt when things were already going down the drain.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#16

Flattr is the kind of idea that sounds great, that people love talking about - if only they could make a small donation to every website they liked - but that doesn't work because people are fundamentally too selfish. This is why ads are the only viable business model for a kind of "ephemeral website" - something you visit only briefly, derive some short knowledge or pleasure from until you follow a link somewhere el…

Sadly agree. I still wish when it came to news sites there was a micropayment option so I could read a single article for $0.10 or something along those lines.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#17
post #2

I hate to be this guy, but 410 seems a more appropriate code: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/410

> If you don't know whether this condition is temporary or permanent, a 404 status code should be used instead.

Maybe they come back!

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#18
post #11
post #5

Oh wow, I completely forgot about Flattr. Thinking about it again, I quite liked the idea. But I guess it never really caught on enough.

I've used Flattr for a short period of time in early 2010s. I think it's unfortunate that the service picked up steam when most of the published content was moving from self-hosted to centralized social media platforms. Actually with a bit of marketing Flutter would have been better suited nowadays than at that time.

Flattr, not Flutter. Flutter is another popular thing on HN.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#19
post #18
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used Flattr for a short period of time in early 2010s. I think it's unfortunate that the service picked up steam when most of the published content was moving from self-hosted to centralized social media platforms. Actually with a bit of marketing Flutter would have been better suited nowadays than at that time.

Flattr, not Flutter. Flutter is another popular thing on HN.

Thanks. Flutter is almost muscle memory at this point :)

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#20
post #16

Flattr is the kind of idea that sounds great, that people love talking about - if only they could make a small donation to every website they liked - but that doesn't work because people are fundamentally too selfish. This is why ads are the only viable business model for a kind of "ephemeral website" - something you visit only briefly, derive some short knowledge or pleasure from until you follow a link somewhere el…

Sadly agree. I still wish when it came to news sites there was a micropayment option so I could read a single article for $0.10 or something along those lines.

> still wish when it came to news sites there was a micropayment option so I could read a single article for $0.10 or something along those lines.

Same. I'm shocked that the NYT didn't use Flattr on their articles for this.

To access the full version of the NYT currently costs $0.50 a week so it would have been possible the NYT could charge $0.50 per article, or $5 for the year (one time no subscription) through Flattr or something along those lines.

I could definitely see this working at scale.

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