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Flattr is closing down (2023)

flattr.com

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Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#51

Post by lnxg33k1 »

gaiagraphia wrote: post #50

I currently "subscribe" to the Financial Times because I use Revolut Metal. I understand it has higher quality content than elsewhere, and enjoy reading articles from there now and again, but I never would've paid for it. I wonder if 'bundling' is a way forward for content creators? Use x bank/isp/ridesharing app/delivery service, and you automatically get subscriptions to these creators. Instead of governments spend…

News should be paid for by people using it, making news dependent on government funding is bad, making news dependent on corporations is even worse, I tend to point the start of the decline of information and so democracy and plurality to the advent of blogs, free websites etc.

Independent information that serves people, is funded by the people

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#52

Post by infecto »

dageshi wrote: post #26
colesantiago wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Flat…

We have to assume they have considered this in the past and come to the conclusion it just doesn't work. I suspect tying a purchasing decision to every page visit just leads to people automatically backing out of the page with a very low conversion rate because it's just too annoying to decide whether to pay for something you're not sure the value of. Despite all the gnashing of teeth, nothing competes with ads on th…

Since most news publications are failing businesses I would not immediately assume they have considered all avenues of monetization.

I agree that ads have historically made a lot of money...but I am thinking of the paywalled industry. I am probably in the minority but I would be interested if any of the major publications had data on this kind of strategy. I realize there have been products including Flattr that did this but again I never saw it being using on a NYT level publication.

Instead of me reading an archive link or just not reading the article at all I would be happy to pay some cents to consume it.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#53

Post by infecto »

eknkc wrote: post #24
colesantiago wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Flat…

I come across paywalled articles at least a couple of times a week. I’d gladly pay $0.50 for most of them to access the single article. It just needs to be easy, don’t make me create an account a subscription and shit like that. Things like cryptocurrencies could work great for these kinds of transactions. Shame it became what it is now.

Thats the boat I am in. I don't even care if they show me ads too, I just want to get around the paywall but I don't want to pay for a subscription.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#54

Post by infecto »

LadyCailin wrote: post #44
infecto wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is, or anyways there was, but the model didn’t work. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blendle It still exists, sort of, you can download the app, but it’s all in Dutch now, and doesn’t work on a pay-per-article model anymore, it’s unclear to me what their model is now, since I don’t speak Dutch. In any case, what you’re asking for exactly was a thing before, and failed, so I assume that’s why you can’t do it - i…

This is one of those things where I wonder if it was too early for its success? I don't know the answer but it feels like it could have been. I have never seen it used on US based media unfortunately.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#55

Post by bigbluedots »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #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 el…

Ok, hear me out: Here is how to remove all unwanted ads from the Internet. ISPs move to subscription-based billing - a flat base fee to cover their own costs and some profit, plus a 'content' fee that is divided among the sites visited and the bandwidth used. The 'content' fee goes to a global rights association that distributes it to creators.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#56

Post by supriyo-biswas »

TheFragenTaken wrote: post #31
amadeuspagel wrote: post #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 el…

Twitch subscriptions and Patreon has shown, that if you bind a website/project to a creator, and you get benefits for donating/subscribing, that you can have a very viable business model. Both as a creator, and as a platform to facilitate it. Most websites, and indeed open source projects are pretty faceless, and require limited interaction with it's creator. I believe, if you somehow "solve" that problem first, peop…

> Twitch subscriptions and Patreon has shown, that if you bind a website/project to a creator

> Most websites, and indeed open source projects are pretty faceless, and require limited interaction with it's creator

This is ultimately a polite way of saying that the "author" (which can be a content creator, a OSS maintainer) needs to establish a parasocial relationship, use a self-aggrandizing approach, and create drama to entertain its users.

This does work for content creators on Youtube, Patreon or Onlyfans, but ultimately detracts from the mission of delivering quality content that is useful or positively entertaining for the consumers of said content. The fans created in this way can go on to defend your failings or can be taken advantage of in a weakness, as can be seen in the case of the LTT sexual harassment allegation case and the health situation of Physics Girl.

However, I see no way for this to work in an open-source project, because users of an open source project mostly care about the functionality provided. Creating a parasocial relationship is mostly not viable in this space due to limited interaction, as you pointed out.

I've seen a few instances of OSS project maintainers using a chest-thumping, holier-than-thou approach to create drama, and said projects have either mostly become irrelevant over time or the open source project has continued to get attention only because the character of the maintainer has been buried and not well known to most.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#57

Post by [deleted] »

snapcaster wrote: post #49
jmyeet wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitch loses money because Amazon has decided to make Twitch lose money. Why? Because Amazon is charging themselves for the infrastructure Twitch uses (ie AWS). It does that to justify cutting revenue splits (of subscriptions and ads) and increasing ad density. The minimum ad density now is generally 4 minutes per hour. Example: say I'm Pottery Barn and I sell furniture in the US. I sell a table for $500. It costs $1…

Can you expand on this? You're saying Twitch is only unprofitable in an accounting sense but would be a viable business if on its own? Saying their AWS costs are $0 seems like it would be even more "fake"

[deleted]

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#58

Post by prmoustache »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #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 el…

I see a lot of people either proposing using paypal, patreon or ko-fi to receive donations.

How did flattr differ from these services?

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#59

Post by colesantiago »

geokon wrote: post #35
amadeuspagel wrote: post #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 el…

I know HN froths at the mouth on this topic.. But Cryptominers/Hashcash are also an alternative. It's only been made non-viable due to the major players who depend on ad-supremacy making sure all browsers fingerprint and block them

No.

We shouldn't have to make the world infinitely worse place and waste billions in energy just to squeeze out a cent in 'magic internet money' to give to another person.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#60

Post by tonyedgecombe »

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #51
gaiagraphia wrote: post #50

I currently "subscribe" to the Financial Times because I use Revolut Metal. I understand it has higher quality content than elsewhere, and enjoy reading articles from there now and again, but I never would've paid for it. I wonder if 'bundling' is a way forward for content creators? Use x bank/isp/ridesharing app/delivery service, and you automatically get subscriptions to these creators. Instead of governments spend…

News should be paid for by people using it, making news dependent on government funding is bad, making news dependent on corporations is even worse, I tend to point the start of the decline of information and so democracy and plurality to the advent of blogs, free websites etc. Independent information that serves people, is funded by the people

>making news dependent on government funding is bad

I wonder if having the government hand out tokens that you can spend on whatever media you want would be better.

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