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Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

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Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#71

Post by YarickR2 »

dehrmann wrote: post #68

I was thinking about doing something like this a year or two ago, but the cross-domain cookie landscape is making the idea less workable. Also how much people hate paying for things. I recently went on a short rant about how I've never seen anyone with a paid version of Sublime Text. A lot of its users are professional software engineers should either be able to afford it or work for a company that can, and engineers…

Well, I'm the one with paid version of Sublime Text. And a subscription to Bloomberg . I'm not going to disprove your point, but not all of us are overly greedy )

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#73

Post by _-___________-_ »

nkozyra wrote: post #50
r-w wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The free tier is what we already have.

Not at all. We hit paywalls, are bombarded with low quality or malicious ads (without adblock) even if we're paying ... it's a mess. Spotify and free streaming platforms keep advertising largely unobtrusive.

The advertising Spotify slots into your playlists is hardly unobtrusive...

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#74

Post by YarickR2 »

lambdatronics wrote: post #66
MikeGale wrote: post #65

A fascinating area. I've seen several people getting into it in one way or another: Blendle The system in the Brave browser Scroll ... What I really want is: 1. A friction free way to pay what I want AFTER I've read an article (I assume a base level fee to read it in the first place) so that I can reward an excellent article. I want to know that that money goes to those who made that article not all the other people…

How far do you think we could get with merely a friction-free method to pay a small fee to read individual articles across a broad range of publications? I'd be concerned that if pay-per-view articles became the norm, clickbaiting would only intensify. I suppose the countervailing force would be source reputation.

Well, I can tell only for my self, but pay-per-view for a broad selection of sources will be a godsend for me, and I'll be willing to spend much more than I'm spending currently on my subscriptions; if there would be an easy way to revoke payment in case article is a clickbait , then this will ensure friction-free payment is the viable option

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#75

Post by akkartik »

arctictony wrote: post #45
winkelwagen wrote: post #7

It’s strange. Part of me thinks this is a great idea, but some of the websites are also the worst offenders of what the site is trying to combat. Looking at Gizmodo and the verge, the crazy amount of 3rd party cookies, unable to really opt out at all. While writing pieces about how horrible google and Facebook are for all the privacy evasive stuff they are doing. I’d rather support content that aim for quality and di…

CEO of Scroll here. Glad you're a fan of The Correspondent, we love them too. Also hear you on the privacy concerns. The publisher contracts with Scroll require that they remove third-party trackers 'that share information with parties other than Publisher or have a commercial purpose other than improving user experience.' It's always going to be a negotiation when you're trying to work with sites rather than unilate…

Does Scroll work if I block third-party cookies?

Update 10 minutes later: It isn't working for me on theatlantic.com; I got the "free articles" drawers and then got blocked after they counted down to 0. So perhaps the answer to my question is "no".

I can whitelist third-party cookies on specific sites, but I don't think I can whitelist a single cookie across all sites. This seems unfortunate.

Update 30 minutes later: I tried disabling both cookie- and tracker-blocking in Firefox and still saw no sign of it working on theatlantic.com

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#77

Post by mirimir »

akkartik wrote: post #75
arctictony wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEO of Scroll here. Glad you're a fan of The Correspondent, we love them too. Also hear you on the privacy concerns. The publisher contracts with Scroll require that they remove third-party trackers 'that share information with parties other than Publisher or have a commercial purpose other than improving user experience.' It's always going to be a negotiation when you're trying to work with sites rather than unilate…

Does Scroll work if I block third-party cookies? Update 10 minutes later: It isn't working for me on theatlantic.com; I got the "free articles" drawers and then got blocked after they counted down to 0. So perhaps the answer to my question is "no". I can whitelist third-party cookies on specific sites, but I don't think I can whitelist a single cookie across all sites. This seems unfortunate. Update 30 minutes later:…

Huh, maybe that's why it didn't work for me. I allow third-party cookies, but only from sites that I've visited during the current browser session. And all cookies are deleted when I close Firefox.

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#78

Post by bfdm »

arghwhat wrote: post #13
ericd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any concretely troubling parts to the terms that you saw?

Well, primarily: > Scroll may, from time to time, change these Terms of Service, including the Privacy Policy. Such revisions shall be effective immediately and we will notify you if these changes are significant. There is also the usual arbitration agreement.

That is found in pretty much every TOS/PP on the internet, including my own. Do you have a specific problem with that language? If so, how do you use the internet?

I don't mean that question in a "how do you even" sense. I mean, what are your typical internet habits, given feelings about such terms?

Re: Scroll: Ad-free subscription for news sites

#80

Post by grenoire »

MikeGale wrote: post #65

A fascinating area. I've seen several people getting into it in one way or another: Blendle The system in the Brave browser Scroll ... What I really want is: 1. A friction free way to pay what I want AFTER I've read an article (I assume a base level fee to read it in the first place) so that I can reward an excellent article. I want to know that that money goes to those who made that article not all the other people…

Friction-less payments is unfortunately an issue that seems unsolvable on the 'banks' end. There's no easy way for you to just one-click take care of a payment, and for good reason. I do wish it wasn't as friction-full as it is right now, and there are initiatives by alternative banks to make that happen (direct API connectivity for small payments etc., although seems like the new EU standards will turn that into a pipe dream); no standards to my knowledge, however.
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