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Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

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Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#391

Post by thatcat »

mschuster91 wrote: post #346
roysting wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be the point; WWE USA: Blue Team vs Red Team, The Democracy Simulation Show. Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote.

> Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote. There is one vote that is not meaningless: the primaries. A lot of the issues y'all have is that Democrats and Republicans alike don't bother to vote in the primaries. That is how you got people like MTG or Trump, that is how you get people like Chuck Schumer stuck in office for far too long. AOC/The Squad and Mamdani both proved that it is possible to succeed in a…

After Bernie got shuffled out in 16 I'm not sure anyone cares believes that primaries matter either.

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#392

Post by gertlex »

glitchc wrote: post #318
gertlex wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the category of people that "consume their news" via primarily reading headlines from aggregators (google/apple mobile built-in "news") is significant or no? (this is a big part of my consumption, and is combined with scrolling HN/reddit headlines; often to paywalled sites, which leads me to mostly reading comment discussions on those two sites) (edit: disclaimer after reading a few other comments: I use…

I'm looking at the next generation. Reading the news is unheard of for 30 and under. They prefer to listen to it or watch it.

Ahh, right, definite blind spot for me! (extra so since I'm hearing impaired)

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#394

Post by kelseyfrog »

munificent wrote: post #293
chongli wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there is a viable business model where for each article, readers can pay to unlock it not just for themselves, but for everyone. The price would obviously have to be higher since you aren't just buying it for yourself. But perhaps the sense of "I'm helping build a better-informed world and helping broadcast my values" would encourage people to pay that higher price. What you're asking for is the system we…

> Rich people buy out newspapers to signal-boost their own preferred messages to the public. Right, but micro level difference matters here. If a middle-class person can help an important story reach an audience, that's helpful for democracy. When a billionaire buys a newspaper, it isn't. This is also why I think suggesting it work like a kickstarter where multiple people can pool money to unlock an article would be…

It sounds quite aligned with how assurance contracts[1] work.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assurance_contract

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#395

Post by subpixel »

bobro wrote: post #99
subpixel wrote: post #51

I pay for subscriptions, several, but I am never going to pay one publication a small fee every time I read an article. That model is completely counter-intuitive and punitive to the consumer. What I _would _do is pay a flat fee to subscribe to several publications. That's the only path: to give people more value than they expect for less money than they expect. It could be multi-tiered: the more publications you sub…

>That model is completely counter-intuitive and punitive to the consumer. I disagree with this so much. Paying for a thing once and getting the thing is absolutely intuitive. Subscription models where you pay generally for access over a time period to a broad swath of things is counter-intuitive. I want to read a handful of articles from NYT a month. I will never sign up for a subscription for that, so I just don’t r…

In reality every article worth reading is available for free, using certain urls. So I’m not so much refusing to pay for url access as much as I am deciding to pay for publication and app access.

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#396

Post by akoboldfrying »

contravariant wrote: post #352
akoboldfrying wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interpreted your original post to mean that you found none of micropayments, ads or subscriptions to be acceptable. Now I have the impression that I misinterpreted you -- but I still can't tell what kind(s) of payment you would actually find acceptable. What kind(s) of payment would you find acceptable?

My preference would be free, single payment, subscription. Probably in that order. I don't mind micropayments as a _method_ to achieve any of those, but I don't like them as a replacement for ads. And I don't accept the premise that ads should be replaced with something similar .

Thanks. By "single payment", do you mean one payment for lifetime access? I'm aware of a personal cloud storage provider that offers this, but I don't think it could work for news.

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#397

Post by asdfasvea »

mschuster91 wrote: post #346
roysting wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be the point; WWE USA: Blue Team vs Red Team, The Democracy Simulation Show. Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote.

> Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote. There is one vote that is not meaningless: the primaries. A lot of the issues y'all have is that Democrats and Republicans alike don't bother to vote in the primaries. That is how you got people like MTG or Trump, that is how you get people like Chuck Schumer stuck in office for far too long. AOC/The Squad and Mamdani both proved that it is possible to succeed in a…

You mean the primary where Biden ran virtually unopposed and then Harris got the nomination?

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#398

Post by roysting »

mschuster91 wrote: post #346
roysting wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be the point; WWE USA: Blue Team vs Red Team, The Democracy Simulation Show. Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote.

> Everyone has the same and equal meaningless vote. There is one vote that is not meaningless: the primaries. A lot of the issues y'all have is that Democrats and Republicans alike don't bother to vote in the primaries. That is how you got people like MTG or Trump, that is how you get people like Chuck Schumer stuck in office for far too long. AOC/The Squad and Mamdani both proved that it is possible to succeed in a…

[dead]

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#399

Post by ummonk »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #82
ummonk wrote: post #79

In my ideal world I’d subscribe to a service with a monthly subscription fee where the service takes a small cut and then converts the remainder into a use-it-or-lose-it tip balance (perhaps with the unused balance being auto-donated to a selected journalism nonprofit). In exchange for this subscription, news providers, bloggers, etc. would unpaywall their articles to me, knowing that by doing so they’re vying for a…

Isn’t that “Basic Attention Token”?

Not at all. The whole point is that I want discretion over which articles get rewarded for providing me value, not simply monetizing my attention.

Re: Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

#400

Post by ummonk »

claytongulick wrote: post #67
ummonk wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which tech billionaires are trying to bury us in extreme left wing bullshit?

[flagged]

The statement you quoted was about Big Tech oligarchs, not media bias. You need to work on your reading comprehension.
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