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Flattr is closing down (2023)

flattr.com

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Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#121

Post by throwawayq3423 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #84
PurpleRamen wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO their main problems were: they delivered too early, and failed in what they offered. When they started, there was no donation-economy like we have today on Twitch, Ko-fi, and others, nor was there an established support-hivemind like we have with Patreon, Github and others. So people did not know what they should do with it. And on the other side was Flattr a bit annoying to use in the beginning, and had percent…

Having experience with donation only stuff, I can tell you something with the straightest face: Almost nobody who uses a service, even if they use it a lot, actually goes on to donate. It's a real hockey stick graph where 90% of your donations come from 5% of users. Trust me, everyone says they prefer paying/donating over ads, but when you look at the numbers, just about everyone prefers no compensation (and no ads)…

I think the one trick is using subscriptions that people opt into one time and just forget about. Using the dodgy psychology tricks of gym memberships to actually help people.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#123

Post by throwawayq3423 »

k__ wrote: post #64
amadeuspagel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I don't want to solve that problem. I don't want to have a parasocial relationship with the author of every blogpost that I read.

To quote something I literally read 5 minutes ago in "Perhaps the Stars": "everyone has relationships with people far away, who inspire, entertain, role models, and also the people we work so hard for: fans, viewers, the next generation, kids somewhere, posterity. I think those asymmetrical relationships are part of what it means to be human, part of the teamwork. Humanity is teamwork. And the asymmetry doesn’t for a…

>And the asymmetry doesn’t for a second make those relationships any less valid, or less important, or less real.

Not in a author/reader sense, no. But in a social media age where influencers use specific language to appear friendly and familiar? At the very least it's blurring the lines.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#124

Post by dewey »

potyarkin wrote: post #78

Just the other day I was trying to remember "this weird micropayment site I used to donate to What.CD" and could not describe it coherently to a friend. It's kinda cool it was around this long

Was looking for someone to mention that. I remember that I wrote parts of the wiki entry on how to donate through Flattr back then!

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#125

Post by throwawayq3423 »

bawolff wrote: post #80
supriyo-biswas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 dram…

Sometimes i feel like people make too much of the "parasocial" buzzword, as if its new. Entertainers have been doing the pass the hat thing for hundreds of years. It is not a new phenomenom. Historically, it has generally worked for entertainers, and i guess religion. I don't think there are historical paralells to open source really. Maybe it just doesn't work for that sort of thing.

Yes but entertainers always remained on stage, they didn't enter your home (as smart phones allow) and talk to you 1 on 1.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#126

Post by renewiltord »

amelius wrote: post #70
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…

Maybe adblockers could take the role of microdonation platforms. I'd pay $100/yr to have ads removed from every site I visit, and have my $100 distributed among the websites that I visit most.

That was Google Contributor. It would pay min required to win the bid. Wasn't too successful. People very soon realized that you get the same for free with ad blockers.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#127

Post by freediver »

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'd like to push back on this.

It is not that people are too selfish, but that there is not much content truly worth paying for. This is because ads proliferated not just creation of giant amounts of content but they also incentivize quantity over quality.

Second thing that is holding this back is no seamless way to send a payment from your browser to the website (owner). This has to be native in the browser, user-centric and web-centric.

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#128

Post by kiddjones »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #72
goda90 wrote: post #34

I had an idea just like this several years ago and seriously considered doing it as a startup but somehow never heard of Flattr. I'm curious what kind of marketing to website creators did they try. Did anyone try Google Contributor, which was a similar idea?

I've had a similar idea simmering in my head for over 10 years, I even purchased a fitting domain name for it. It's always been a "one of these days" kind of project. My idea is different enough that it might have a shot where Flattr fell flat, but it's exceptionally hard to gather users, even if you build a superb product.

Same here. Similar, but different. It's been one that I've started building out a couple times over 10ish or so years.

I'm pretty sure I'd have a way to combat the issues that Flattr faced, but also, I may be wrong, so is it worth my risk?

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#129

Post by felixg3 »

dewey wrote: post #124
potyarkin wrote: post #78

Just the other day I was trying to remember "this weird micropayment site I used to donate to What.CD" and could not describe it coherently to a friend. It's kinda cool it was around this long

Was looking for someone to mention that. I remember that I wrote parts of the wiki entry on how to donate through Flattr back then!

I think you’ve been my interviewer at what.cd, ~ 2011. Glad to see you here!

Re: Flattr is closing down (2023)

#130

Post by PreachSoup »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #121
Workaccount2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having experience with donation only stuff, I can tell you something with the straightest face: Almost nobody who uses a service, even if they use it a lot, actually goes on to donate. It's a real hockey stick graph where 90% of your donations come from 5% of users. Trust me, everyone says they prefer paying/donating over ads, but when you look at the numbers, just about everyone prefers no compensation (and no ads)…

I think the one trick is using subscriptions that people opt into one time and just forget about. Using the dodgy psychology tricks of gym memberships to actually help people.

If that's the case, not sure if that's better than ads. I'd rather workout in an ads filled gym for free than paying for la fitness gym membership
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