• Obinice@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Why would anyone pay for viewing a website?

      Or to put it another way,

      Why would anyone pay for using a service that costs money to provide?

      • chalupapocalypse@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        We were spoiled when the web started, but now that ad revenue has dried up, someone has to pay for hosting and content creators to eat.

        I’m not a fan of giving every website $5 a month, there has to be a better way.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Advertisers did it to themselves.

          Pop ups, pop unders, loud autoplay, focus stealing, taking up ungodly amounts of screen real estate, etc, etc.

        • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I think the Brits have it right with BBC. It’s not perfect but everyone pays a tiny bit and it funds news and dedicated programming

          What we really need is to reinstate the Fairness Doctorine and stare straight at fox

          • zabadoh@ani.social
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            5 months ago

            That’s what NPR and PBS were supposed to be, but they’re so perpetually underfunded that they’re almost commercial stations. edit: with corporate sponsors and viewer funding pledge drives.

            Some public stations have been taken over by right wing orgs that came in with massive funding.

            Gift link to SF Chronicle article
            archived version

            • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              This is where we got MSG round brown Ross and his happy little mountains after he stoped yelling, never stopped being an American veteran

              How you gonna attack happy little mountain brushes?

              • zabadoh@ani.social
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                5 months ago

                Bob Ross’ show ended 30 years ago, and PBS and NPR funding has declined even more as a proportion of operating costs since then.

                • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Seems like an issue one might fix as a campaign bullet point, no?

                  Vote for me and we’ll keep Bob and Fred and educational stuff free to every tv. Crom knows the only way I became a hitchhiker instead of a missionary was shows on PBS like Red Dwarf, no network is gonna air that at 0300

    • nogooduser@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Why would anyone provide content for free? Everyone needs to be paid for their work.

      • Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        It doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘work’, people used to make websites out of passion. Now everyone wants to monetize everything.

        • nogooduser@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It is always work even if it’s a passion project.

          People used to make shitty websites with good content but now they need to make good, professional looking websites for people to even look at them to decide on the whether the content was good.

          This takes time and if you’re doing it for free then you’re choosing to do extra work on top of your day job.

          As others have said, there are costs to hosting a website other than the time that you’re expecting people to give for free.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        This is one of the reasons I left Reddit. Sure everyone needs to be paid for their work but it gets a little more suspect when I donate my time and attention, and it is monetized, and I still have to deal with too many ads

        And someone who does NOT deserve to be paid is the “journalist” who writes those articles “LoveBunny68 on social media site Reddit said ….”. I guess I hope that is some sort of automation because no one deserves to be paid for that and I imagine an actual writer ready to commit suicide if stuck writing those