I started to notice that more sites are turning into paywalls, and I don’t like that and would prefer ads over subscriptions.
I am curious, what does the general community think about that?
I started to notice that more sites are turning into paywalls, and I don’t like that and would prefer ads over subscriptions.
I am curious, what does the general community think about that?
No.
You…realize good journalism costs money, right?
Yeah, “good journalism” is definitely what you’re paying for with ads or paywalls.
To be clear, I support journalists - and they deserve to get paid for their efforts.
But (a) OP didn’t specifically mention news sites, and (b) the revenue from websites via ads or paywalls is going directly into the coffers of the ultra-wealthy. Find me a news outlet that successfully implemented a paywall and then started paying their journalists and reporters vastly more money.
You won’t, because they don’t.
You realize that if newspapers offered a federated service (pay once, you get them all), they’d make money hand over fist?
But noooo…each newspaper wants you to pay.
I’d pay upwards of $20 a month if that guaranteed me access to the major newspapers (NYT, WaPo, LA Times, etc.) and my local one with one subscription.
Your local library might give you free digital access to most (or all) of those, if you haven’t checked.
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I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but it’s interesting how similar that is to cable TV.
Of course, cable TV was largely ad-free at first then you ended up paying for it and getting ads.
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To both obviously.
A more genuine response would be “Ads, so I can use an adblocker on them.”
Fuck advertisers. FUUUUUUUUUUUCK paywals.
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maybe for-profit news organizations should get another business model. My computer is a temple and merchants can get out.
Gotta steal this one and start using it.
Should be donations. Fuck the corporate internet.
How much money do you donate to your ad-free lemmy instance? Or the rest of the free services you’re using?
For the vast majority of people, that number is $0.
I donate free labor by administrating it.
You know that people aren’t forced to interact with websites right? Like if I don’t have a choice about if your website is going to show me ads, then I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE to view your website. Those ones that block the entire page until you whitelist them? I just close them and move on with my life. Nobodys product is so important that I will interrupt my day to view their advertising for it. And no website has such a reputation that I am willing to pay them or whitelist them for advertising BEFORE VIEWING THE FUCKING CONTENT.
No, you really really really don’t.
I’m old enough to have been online when commercial content was illegal, and I’ve watched as aggressive commerce has crept into every single corner of the internet.
You don’t need to have ads to support a website, you need ads to profit from a website. The idea that everything - information, news, community, society - not only CAN be monetized but MUST be monetized is relatively new, destructive, and anti-human.
The mere idea that you have to choose between two ways of throwing money at billionaires is a symptom of the terminal stages of capitalism. We’re going to have a rough 50 years or so, but this has to end.
The thing is if I see an article that’s blocked by a paywall, I can simply go to another site that has the exact same story for free.