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12ft.io Taken Down

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Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#121

Post by piva00 »

jlarocco wrote: post #91
piva00 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one space where I think some form of microtransaction (in the sub-cents USD) could work: I want to pay per article, not have yet another subscription in the 5-15 USD just because an article interested me. Media consumption habits changed a lot in the Internet-era, we read articles from many different publications, and only very few of those are of interest enough for someone to spend that amount per month. Inste…

I think that argument is begging the question. Media consumption habits changed because that's how the internet was foisted on people - not necesarily because anybody made a choice or were asked what their preferences were. After 30 years on the internet, I've gone full circle. I don't want (and won't) pay per article. 99% of the news articles I read come from a handful of trusted websites (a couple of major news out…

I've gone full circle and not even internet content, I now subscribe to a few physical magazine and enjoy the act of reading them on paper, it's a very different experience than on a screen.

Similarly to my journey through ebooks back when Kindle launched, got very into it for a while but got tired of not being able to share interesting reads with friends, ended up buying physical copies of ebooks I really liked, and in the end just ditched ebooks to have only physical books on my bookshelves.

Which leaves me in this weird position on the internet, I would like to pay for some of the articles I read from publications I respect but have no need nor will to subscribe to online.

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#122

Post by NicuCalcea »

Crespyl wrote: post #101
NicuCalcea wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Micropayments have been tried plenty of times and never succeeded. People say they'd be willing to pay, but they're not.

If it was trivial for me to spend 5 cents for a one off article that someone recommended me, I probably wouldn't mind it at all. Payment processor fees make that essentially impossible, requiring more thought and investment in systems like Flattr to group together the small payments. We need to decouple online payment infrastructure from the duopoly/oligopoly of private corporations that control how and when users ca…

Maybe you wouldn't mind, but nevertheless, it has been tried and didn't work. Here's how it went for Blendle, which had the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Economist, Time, and more on board. It wasn't payment processors that killed it.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/08/the-poster-child-for-micro...

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#124

Post by spicyusername »

Serious question: How do we expect reporters and journalists to be funded if nobody pays?

I'm reading a book about the Watergate scandal, "All the president's men", and one thing I keep wondering is how these journalists would get paid today in the absence of newspaper revenue.

Paywalls are annoying but good journalism isn't free...

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#125

Post by moontear »

Aurornis wrote: post #39
tyzoid wrote: post #25

The problem is there's not really a good way to subscribe to these things. I'd gladly pay a nominal fee (~$6 USD/mo) for access to media, but I'm not about to subscribe individually to each site. Ideally, I'd subscribe to a single service and payment is split across the various sites in proportion to how many articles I read from each site. There was a service that promised this a while back, but IIRC mozilla bought…

> I'd gladly pay a nominal fee (~6/mo) for access to media, but I'm not about to subscribe individually to each site. Ideally, I'd subscribe to a single service and payment is split across the various sites in proportion to how many articles I read from each site. How many sites would you end up splitting that across? For people who click a lot of links on Hacker News or other social media that could be a dozen or mo…

NYT is a good example though - I will not pay for a subscription, since I really don't consume it that much. But I would LOVE to pay for an article / a podcast here and there. Let me pay 50c for this one article and I'd gladly pay for it. Unfortunately this doesn't fit the subscription model and publishers are too afraid (I assume) to offer this additional model since there are a lot of subscribers also paying the full subscription fee and not using the service a lot (just like me).

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#126

Post by mathgeek »

yesfitz wrote: post #29
0x5FC3 wrote: post #3

We all hate adverts, some of us don't like or can't pay. Those who pay, have access to a few publications they enjoy. It would be absurd to pay for all the publications, all the streaming services, but we don't want monopolies either. What could be a solution for this madness?

If you're in the United States, your local public library will have newspaper and magazine subscriptions, both digital and print. If your local library doesn't have what you want, you can check larger libraries in your state to see if you qualify for a library card. Some libraries offer non-resident library cards for a fee (e.g. $50 annually for the New Orleans Public Library). Your library will also have a wide vari…

> It's astounding how radical the public library system is…

As a child of the 80s/90s I absolutely love how both of my generation’s uses of “radical” fit perfectly in this sentence. Well chosen.

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#127

Post by KomoD »

NicuCalcea wrote: post #122
Crespyl wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was trivial for me to spend 5 cents for a one off article that someone recommended me, I probably wouldn't mind it at all. Payment processor fees make that essentially impossible, requiring more thought and investment in systems like Flattr to group together the small payments. We need to decouple online payment infrastructure from the duopoly/oligopoly of private corporations that control how and when users ca…

Maybe you wouldn't mind, but nevertheless, it has been tried and didn't work. Here's how it went for Blendle, which had the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Economist, Time, and more on board. It wasn't payment processors that killed it. https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/08/the-poster-child-for-micro...

Is it really about people not being willing to pay though?

I hadn't even heard of Blendle, had I heard that it was a thing and had the mentioned publishers I would've used it.

I've visited those sites so many times and I've never even seen a mention of Blendle.

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#128

Post by pseudocomposer »

0x5FC3 wrote: post #3

We all hate adverts, some of us don't like or can't pay. Those who pay, have access to a few publications they enjoy. It would be absurd to pay for all the publications, all the streaming services, but we don't want monopolies either. What could be a solution for this madness?

I think something like Apple News (one subscription, many publications) is the best thing we’re likely to get in our current market conditions.

In an ideal world, 10-25¢/article access fees, charged in a clear and uniform way, would probably be the most fair.

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#129

Post by HumblyTossed »

0x5FC3 wrote: post #3

We all hate adverts, some of us don't like or can't pay. Those who pay, have access to a few publications they enjoy. It would be absurd to pay for all the publications, all the streaming services, but we don't want monopolies either. What could be a solution for this madness?

I feel like the major credit card companies really missed the boat with micropayments.

Re: 12ft.io Taken Down

#130

Post by immibis »

jlarocco wrote: post #82
0x5FC3 wrote: post #3

We all hate adverts, some of us don't like or can't pay. Those who pay, have access to a few publications they enjoy. It would be absurd to pay for all the publications, all the streaming services, but we don't want monopolies either. What could be a solution for this madness?

I don't see the problem. Pay for the ones that you find valuable and ignore the rest. Nobody needs, or is entitled to, everything.

> Nobody needs, or is entitled to, everything.

Not even the publishers! But they sure feel entitled.

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