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Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

blog.flattr.net

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Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#71

Post by dexterdog »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #61
majewsky wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic chicken-egg problem. 1. Why should a creator subscribe if it's not going to be a relevant revenue stream? 2. Why should a consumer subscribe (at a fixed fee, no less) if their favorite creators do not support it?

Patreon solved this problem by being developed as a solution to the founder's own problem (getting paid), and priming it with his own fanbase. Do flattr's founders use it for their own creative work?

My problem with patreon is that (from my recollection) everything is a subscription so you are committing to not just a fixed payment now, but a recurring payment to a bunch of different sources. I can't just pay $X/month and have it divided among the recipients that I actually patronized in a given month. Patreon is great for things like supporting a band or podcaster or something there there is not an easy way to tie it back to actual usage, but the recipient has to make a sale up-front.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#72

Post by fembot__ »

akerro wrote: post #62
VickBear wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, I have no idea what Flattr is and trying to read through their .com site gives me no insight really. I see it is supposed to be something that supports content creators and or creatives on the internet, but how and what?

It's like Brave payments https://www.brave.com/introducing-brave-payments/ but from Flattr

Came here to say this. Also reminiscent of Steem.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#73

Post by thrownaway954 »

jyrkesh wrote: post #52

This might seem super nitpicky (I apologize in advance), but the domain and blog UX needs a little fixing. My 30 second experience: - skim blog, yeah, looks good, heard of this before, hope they're successful, , whatever - click logo to try and get to main site - sent to blog.flattr.net instead - go to address bar, remove "blog." - 404 - ugh, maybe they're one of those that only left "www." to go their root page - ad…

nailed it. nothing is more infuriating then blogs not having an obvious, direct link to their actual site.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#75

Post by notheguyouthink »

IvanK_net wrote: post #5

I would like to point out two things about Flattr: - Whenever other people send you money, Flattr keeps 10% from that money. - When you make money with Flattr, Flattr expects you to give this money back to other authors you like. And they will send them back to other authors. As the money are sent back and forth, and 10% are removed at each step, Flattr is the only one actually making any money.

Wow. I used to like Flattr (though, I only used it once), but this is a terrible design decision from them, imo.

I'm not sure what the right solution is, but this is pretty gross as you describe it. Off the top of my head, the only thing that would make me feel better about Flattr is if they somehow tracked money as it flows through Flattr, and prevented double-taxing content creators.

I do find my perception interesting though. Generally, I'm pretty pro-company in the sense that, they need to pay their devs, they need to pay their bills, investors, etc. Yet, if a company moves itself in my head to the "we're here for the community" side of the line, suddenly they conceptually become a non-profit in my head, and if their profit feels like more of the pie than absolutely needed, it feels like the worst type of greed. Greed from the needy, greed from those we're trying to support, etc.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#76

Post by cyphar »

VickBear wrote: post #55
jyrkesh wrote: post #52

This might seem super nitpicky (I apologize in advance), but the domain and blog UX needs a little fixing. My 30 second experience: - skim blog, yeah, looks good, heard of this before, hope they're successful, , whatever - click logo to try and get to main site - sent to blog.flattr.net instead - go to address bar, remove "blog." - 404 - ugh, maybe they're one of those that only left "www." to go their root page - ad…

For me, I have no idea what Flattr is and trying to read through their .com site gives me no insight really. I see it is supposed to be something that supports content creators and or creatives on the internet, but how and what?

Effectively, you allocate a portion of funds every month to Flattr. Over that month you can click the "flattr" button on any site that has one, and at the end of the month your monthly contribution is split evenly among all of your "flatter" choices. I don't know if they added recurring donations, last I looked at this service was a couple of years ago.

EDIT: Apparently they've made it an extension that tracks your browsing history. That's just ridiculous. It's also a shame -- Peter Sunde used to be quite pro-privacy. But they _did_ say they wanted to liberate the extension.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#77

Post by Tharkun »

jochung wrote: post #45
detaro wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European user, that surely is motivating me to sign up. yeah, we got rid of an efficient payment method so you'll be paying even more. But it's userfriendly that way! Given that the amounts are going to fluctuate anyways, I wonder if tracking multiple currencies would really be so bad?

Yup. SEPA wire transfers are amazing, and it's scandalous how the credit card oligopoly keeps the US in the dark ages when it comes to banking. But America lives off credit, so nothing's going to change any time soon.

Credit cards and paper cheques.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#78

Post by khill »

IvanK_net wrote: post #5

I would like to point out two things about Flattr: - Whenever other people send you money, Flattr keeps 10% from that money. - When you make money with Flattr, Flattr expects you to give this money back to other authors you like. And they will send them back to other authors. As the money are sent back and forth, and 10% are removed at each step, Flattr is the only one actually making any money.

It sounds like a pyramid scheme to try and monetize an echo chamber.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#79

Post by rainbowmverse »

abcd_f wrote: post #2

> Install the desktop extension If they are expecting me to _install_ something on my precious machine, they'd better be damn explicit what it is and what _exactly_ it does. I can see bits about this and that spread across their blog posts, but nothing cohesive and nothing on the home page itself. All in all though - they appear to be wanting a real-time access to the browsing activity and its full history. That's, o…

There's also the small problem of an ever-increasing percentage of traffic coming from mobile browsers with no or limited extension support.

Re: Flattr 2.0 launches to the public

#80

Post by detaro »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #70
detaro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For creators: Because (assuming it gains a decent userbase) Flattr will give you money from people that not explicitly subscribe to you. For users: because it'll spread your contribution between people who made the content you consume, without individually selecting them and managing that distribution over time. It'll automatically distribute it between sites you visit. It doesn't handle the exact same thing as Patre…

I always appreciate one-off sales/donations, but they aren't really dependable the way a subscription is. You can't plan or invest around it unless the thing you make is the kind of thing that gets a hobby/business-sustaining amount of sales or donations. A sale/donations says "this is cool." A subscription says "I want to see more of this." For the former, there are sites that popped up and got better established wh…

It's automatic distribution (with the option to also trigger one explicitly if you want). I and many other of your visitors are just about as unlikely to donate to you as to subscribe (well, in my case even more unlikely, since I can't think of any comfortable one-time donation thing I use), so if we use Flattr you can choose to get a piece of our collective pool or nothing from us. Time will tell if it's worth it, but I don't think the framing as an alternative makes sense. None of the things currently in use do the same (except Brave, I haven't kept up what they are doing exactly).
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