
A question about the future of the world wide web - zdw
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/09/a-question-about-the-future-of.html
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Detrus
[https://contributor.google.com](https://contributor.google.com) vs
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9453821](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9453821)
vs flattr vs Apple of course!

The only acceptable UX for micropayments is a central or seamless service,
from the user's perspective.

Apple could block out ads and insert their own subscription center to pay for
content. Google, Facebook will probably do the same.

And this will lead to advanced users not being able to control what content
they pay for and regular users being indifferent. The main problem the web and
humanity should aim for is encouraging good content and discouraging the
overflow of crap the web is now.

I think these schemes on their own will merely redistribute money by taking
out the unnecessary player, the advertisers. The content will still remain
clickbait and eyeball focused.

But it's a step in the right direction as eventually, some combination of tech
could achieve a positive result for human kind, and that combination requires
micropayments in place of ads.

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nstart
That's genuinely an interesting question to ponder on. I'm unaware of how
microbilling lost out in the past and from the post I'm not entirely convinced
that was the reason people lost out. But the idea of an account topped up with
money which pays out to publishers as you visit their posts sounds like a very
promising alternative to ads and subscription models.

Subscription models are great for supporting publishers but I've discovered
that I've stopped subscribing because I might read only a tiny percentage of
what's published. But to be able to support on an article basis sounds great.

Some raw numbers, if we read 15000 articles per year ( I read/skim a maximum
of 50 per day) then it's not a bad thing to say 150 USD per year or 1 cent per
article read. Maybe that's too much. But I was spending about 70 USD per year
for subscribing to 3 publications that I gradually started reading less of. So
a 150 USD to read my normal fill where I pay both to support the writer, and
not have myself tracked sounds great.

I bet I'll even make it back in bandwith saved :D

