You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality • Hacker News Board

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#11

Post by rectang » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:43 PM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #4

ReadCarlBarks wrote: post #2

Most sites use simple cookies or a localStorage entry to limit how many articles you can read in a month. You can bypass this with a private tab or by disabling JavaScript with uBlock Origin: * https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/open-in-temp-container/ * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-... * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...

I mean, yeah? This entirely misses the point of the article. In fact, it couldn't have been a worse shot. I don't know enough about the economics of this stuff, but I'm willing to pay for good online writing. I have a national paper subscription, two magazines and a handful of substacks I subscribe to. But this feel like a price point issue for me. Why is everything $9.99/month (close to $15/month CAD)? Where are all…

I'm willing to sign up for some cheap subscriptions through Apple that I'd be unlikely to make directly because I don't have the energy to scrutinize individual vendors regarding hidden charges, dark patterns, data collection, security breaches, etc.

I agree that the difference between $2.50 and $10.00 is significant, but addressing all the trust issues is too.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#12

Post by paulddraper » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:44 PM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #4

ReadCarlBarks wrote: post #2

Most sites use simple cookies or a localStorage entry to limit how many articles you can read in a month. You can bypass this with a private tab or by disabling JavaScript with uBlock Origin: * https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/open-in-temp-container/ * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-... * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...

I mean, yeah? This entirely misses the point of the article. In fact, it couldn't have been a worse shot. I don't know enough about the economics of this stuff, but I'm willing to pay for good online writing. I have a national paper subscription, two magazines and a handful of substacks I subscribe to. But this feel like a price point issue for me. Why is everything $9.99/month (close to $15/month CAD)? Where are all…

It went the same way as a $5 lunch.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#13

Post by ajb » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:48 PM UTC

thinkingkong wrote: post #8

Its so wild to me that the business models of newspapers and journalism in general just dont translate well to the web. Like I get that people expect content online to be free and the alternative sources of information are freely available but its just so tragic. There are so few journalists who do investigative journalism in countries that are smaller because the ad revenue just isnt there. For example, there are a…

The business model is journalism was advertising and it translated fine to the web. The problem is, it turned out that advertising didn't need journalism. Google ate the newspapers' lunch.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#14

Post by dandandan » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:49 PM UTC

rectang wrote: post #11

itsoktocry wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, yeah? This entirely misses the point of the article. In fact, it couldn't have been a worse shot. I don't know enough about the economics of this stuff, but I'm willing to pay for good online writing. I have a national paper subscription, two magazines and a handful of substacks I subscribe to. But this feel like a price point issue for me. Why is everything $9.99/month (close to $15/month CAD)? Where are all…

I'm willing to sign up for some cheap subscriptions through Apple that I'd be unlikely to make directly because I don't have the energy to scrutinize individual vendors regarding hidden charges, dark patterns, data collection, security breaches, etc. I agree that the difference between $2.50 and $10.00 is significant, but addressing all the trust issues is too.

Apple News+ helps there a lot. $13/mo for articles from a ton of paid outlets. It’s not everything on those sites, but I find that most of the popular articles are available.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#15

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:52 PM UTC

akulbe wrote: post #6

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #5

When I ask older family members where they were or how they reacted when some important event happened, they usually say something like, busy with real life. Being glued to the news is a modern phenomenon, it’s not the required state of being

I stopped watching and reading the news, in general. I have some friends who balked at the idea when I mentioned it. They'd say, "Oh, but how do you keep up on important news?" I don't. My life is better for letting it go. If something is genuinely important, and I really need to know - I always end up finding out somehow.

I think a reasonable barometer for a lot of news is: will this be important or relevant in 1 month? If the answer is "no", then it's probably more entertainment than anything else.

However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. For certain vulnerable groups, keeping up to date with politics and the news might have a tangible impact in their everyday life.

With that being said, I generally don't keep up with the news either.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#16

Post by red_admiral » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:55 PM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #4

ReadCarlBarks wrote: post #2

Most sites use simple cookies or a localStorage entry to limit how many articles you can read in a month. You can bypass this with a private tab or by disabling JavaScript with uBlock Origin: * https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/open-in-temp-container/ * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-... * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...

I mean, yeah? This entirely misses the point of the article. In fact, it couldn't have been a worse shot. I don't know enough about the economics of this stuff, but I'm willing to pay for good online writing. I have a national paper subscription, two magazines and a handful of substacks I subscribe to. But this feel like a price point issue for me. Why is everything $9.99/month (close to $15/month CAD)? Where are all…

Blogger siderea has talked about this a lot in relation to patreon, and the challenges for any platform wanting to replace it.

EDIT: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1824441.html and https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1371510.html

Apparently it comes down to how card processing fees work, as long as there's a constant fixed cost per payment (whether or not there is also a percentage fee), "microtransactions" become uneconomic for the platform.

Apparently the problem with letting people pay say $10 into an account and then dispense $1 a time to read articles is that makes you a "payment processor" in some states which comes with strict regulations and extra costs.

EDIT2: and yes, we've already tried blockchain for that too.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#17

Post by exe34 » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 7:59 PM UTC

red_admiral wrote: post #16

itsoktocry wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, yeah? This entirely misses the point of the article. In fact, it couldn't have been a worse shot. I don't know enough about the economics of this stuff, but I'm willing to pay for good online writing. I have a national paper subscription, two magazines and a handful of substacks I subscribe to. But this feel like a price point issue for me. Why is everything $9.99/month (close to $15/month CAD)? Where are all…

Blogger siderea has talked about this a lot in relation to patreon, and the challenges for any platform wanting to replace it. EDIT: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1824441.html and https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1371510.html Apparently it comes down to how card processing fees work, as long as there's a constant fixed cost per payment (whether or not there is also a percentage fee), "microtransactions" become unecono…

i suppose you could make a $10 donation to the site and they could give you free coupons for articles.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#18

Post by majormajor » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 8:00 PM UTC

ajb wrote: post #13

thinkingkong wrote: post #8

Its so wild to me that the business models of newspapers and journalism in general just dont translate well to the web. Like I get that people expect content online to be free and the alternative sources of information are freely available but its just so tragic. There are so few journalists who do investigative journalism in countries that are smaller because the ad revenue just isnt there. For example, there are a…

The business model is journalism was advertising and it translated fine to the web. The problem is, it turned out that advertising didn't need journalism. Google ate the newspapers' lunch.

The business model was dual revenue streams: subscription (or a la carte day-by-day or month-by-month) + ad revenue, with a few exceptions like broadcast TV (where the coverage tended to be more shallow and lowest-common-denominator compared to the early days of cable TV news).

The online advertising merchants realized they could "curate" and "summarize" the articles, resulting in far fewer ad impressions than if someone had to find things purely through the publication newspaper, and bring the ads forward to their portal instead of solely on the content itself.

AND they capitalized on an early reluctance to charge for things online to push the "ew, who wants to pay" mindset globally.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#19

Post by paulcole » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 8:00 PM UTC

ReadCarlBarks wrote: post #2

Most sites use simple cookies or a localStorage entry to limit how many articles you can read in a month. You can bypass this with a private tab or by disabling JavaScript with uBlock Origin: * https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/open-in-temp-container/ * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-... * https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...

> You can bypass this with a private tab or by disabling JavaScript with uBlock Origin

Dang and this whole time I’ve been deciding which content I value and then paying for it.

Re: You've Read Your Last Free Article, Such Is the Nature of Mortality

#20

Post by majormajor » Sat, Jun 15, 2024, 8:02 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #15

akulbe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped watching and reading the news, in general. I have some friends who balked at the idea when I mentioned it. They'd say, "Oh, but how do you keep up on important news?" I don't. My life is better for letting it go. If something is genuinely important, and I really need to know - I always end up finding out somehow.

I think a reasonable barometer for a lot of news is: will this be important or relevant in 1 month? If the answer is "no", then it's probably more entertainment than anything else. However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. For certain…

Slicing economically (oversimplifying here and ignoring other certain types of vulnerable or feeling-under-attack groups) the people at the bottom and the people at the top don't generally need to worry about the news. The ones at the top will be fine either way. The ones at the bottom will continue to have to scrap along either way. It's the people in the middle who's level of comfort day-to-day could be most affected by political changes, for whom a change in tax rate or inflation or social subsidies could shift comfort into precariousness or vice versa.