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

How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

sethmlarson.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 146 posts

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#31

Post by Drakim »

gr4vityWall wrote: post #26

I don't see much of a point. If someone makes a website and wants people to be able to send money to them for that, a link on that website should work just fine. I'm failing to see the benefit of a HTML meta tag related to that. > I wish I could click a button to easily send a "tip" to someone who created something I enjoy or to browse other options for supporting them. I believe most people invested in getting donat…

Plus, to me it seems like this could be ripe for abuse. If you are reading a great post on something, how do you know if the HTML meta tag actually would go to the author of that post, or the hosting platform instead (who sneakily puts in that meta tag on all their hosted content).

With an explicit button, you have to read and acknowledge who you are giving to.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#32

Post by paxys »

The open web is a platform for freeloaders. Since day 1 the expectation is that whatever is accessible will be free. And whatever isn't will be made free by whatever means necessary. Web content creators/publishers don't bother with micropayments infrastructure because no one is going to pay. Ads are a proven business model and they are going to stay.

There are other platforms where micropayments have in fact been solved – see Twitch, OnlyFans, YouTube, Substack, Patreon, IAP on iOS/Android, WeChat, Gaming. That's where the innovation in the space will be because that's where the money is.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#33

Post by grues-dinner »

This is the one thing that I actually thought cryptocurrency would help - getting small adhoc payments out from under the bootheel of Mastercard and Visa, and especially for international transfers that cross between, say, the MC/Visa duopoly regions into other ones like the Asian ecosystems.

But instead it's slow, inconsistent, inconvenient, balkanised, dripping with scams, criminals and bad actors and still involves substantial transfer fees and volatility on top of that. At this point it's a market for lemons: any new cryptocurrency venture is almost entirely indistinguishable from something that already ended up being at best a non-starter, but often just a scam.

As a vehicle for speculation, arbitrage and scams, it's a masterpiece. As a currency (you know, like in the name), it's, put lightly, not great, especially if you live in the developed world.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#34

Post by sneak »

This is a relatively straightforward problem to solve. There is a “payment required” HTTP status code and lightning network micropayments are very easy to set up and use.

The problem is that payments that cannot be centrally surveilled and centrally vetoed (without burden of proof of probable cause, usually) are actually illegal to implement.

To do anything like this requires strong ID and KYC for payer and recipient and that isn’t what bare URLs and the web are about.

All of the cool applications of online payments that would spread quickly and efficiently are illegal.

It’s truly sad.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#35

Post by idle_zealot »

paxys wrote: post #32

The open web is a platform for freeloaders. Since day 1 the expectation is that whatever is accessible will be free. And whatever isn't will be made free by whatever means necessary. Web content creators/publishers don't bother with micropayments infrastructure because no one is going to pay. Ads are a proven business model and they are going to stay. There are other platforms where micropayments have in fact been so…

> That's where the innovation in the space will be because that's where the money is.

Agreed completely, assuming that "innovation" is a euphemism for "grifting". These platforms are completely dominated by rent-seeking and borderline fraudulent garbage. I'd take a web ring over the front page of the App Store in any context.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#36

Post by dpkirchner »

jorvi wrote: post #28
carlosjobim wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they block legitimate ads on creator websites and then put their own ads in front and offer creators a cut. It's an outright racket and scam.

It’s so funny how the Brave haters will constantly outright lie just to get their point. > Do Brave Ads replace ads on websites? What do Brave Ads look like? > No, Brave Ads do not replace the ads that the Brave Browser blocks on web pages (like banner ads). You can find a list of Brave’s ad formats here. > What do Brave Ads look like? > You can choose which ones you’d like to see: images on the new tab page, cards i…

From https://archive.is/W0k4j (an archive of a page on brave.com)

> Step Two: Brave Replaces Ads We recognize that ads pay for most of our web content. Ads are not going away. So we replace the bad ads with Brave Ads, which we use to pay publishers and users.

Maybe they don't replace ads now but they seem to have done it in the past. Or at least talked about doing it.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#37

Post by waxpancake »

The Web Monetization API was another recent effort to try to make this, the latest of many attempts. See previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39274455

My guess is that 1. there’s virtually no demand from potential supporters for a more convenient way to pay creators than existing payment/subscription apps, and 2. relatively few creators have direct control over their own internet presence anymore, so any solution that requires modifying a web page is dead in the water.

Any new attempt to pay creators that doesn’t factor these two realities in will likely fail, because it just makes things harder than existing solutions.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#39

Post by jorvi »

dpkirchner wrote: post #36
jorvi wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s so funny how the Brave haters will constantly outright lie just to get their point. > Do Brave Ads replace ads on websites? What do Brave Ads look like? > No, Brave Ads do not replace the ads that the Brave Browser blocks on web pages (like banner ads). You can find a list of Brave’s ad formats here. > What do Brave Ads look like? > You can choose which ones you’d like to see: images on the new tab page, cards i…

From https://archive.is/W0k4j (an archive of a page on brave.com) > Step Two: Brave Replaces Ads We recognize that ads pay for most of our web content. Ads are not going away. So we replace the bad ads with Brave Ads, which we use to pay publishers and users. Maybe they don't replace ads now but they seem to have done it in the past. Or at least talked about doing it.

(Other commenter already pointed it out).

Really man, drop the crusade. Look at Brave their tech blog (Project Sugarcoat for example, something directly meant to make page ad hiding more cosmetically pleasing). Or the fact that their defaults are more private than Firefox its defaults.

For the weird missteps they did in the past (appending their affiliate link on crypto sites and one other scandal that eludes me), they’re a really good org / product now.

Re: How do I pay the publisher of a web page?

#40

Post by montenegrohugo »

Honestly this is one of the main usecases of crypto, in my opinion. And it's only in 2024 where the transaction costs are cheap enough that it's worth it.

Still, fragmentation of crypto makes the whole experience shitty - but we've been working on this to fix that: https://docs.peanut.to/checkout-api

Post reply on HN