

Flattr: new micropayments system from Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde - viraptor
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/10/flattr-new-micropaym.html

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nedwin
I really like this idea.

What if site like the Wall Street Journal adopted it instead of their current
paywalls? You had to "flattr" to access the content but the price you are
paying is then determined by how much big your monthly flattr allocation is
and how many other sites you've flattr'd.

It's like digg/reddit/hackernews but with cash instead of karma.

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patio11
_What if site like the Wall Street Journal adopted it instead of their current
paywalls?_

Well, one obvious consequence they'd make less money than they're charging
currently. That dooms the ability of this service to get any marquee
publishers (the ones who can independently charge for content) on board, and
will probably kill it just like it kiled Contenture.

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tectonic
I think I'd actually signup for this. I'd be happy to donate, say, $20 a month
to bloggers that I like, and I like that this gets me past the hump of having
to make many independent decisions of how much to give.

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modeless
I like the concept; the transaction cost of micropayments is reduced by
separating the decision of how much to pay from the act of making the payment.

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nico
Can you choose how much to pay monthly? Do you always have to pay? What
happens if one month you don't "flattr" anything? What if you want to "flattr"
one thing more than other things?

I don't think it's very clear at all. Also, I'm not sure I'd want to pay for
something every month.

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tocomment
Why will this suceed where tipjoy didn't?

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viraptor
You don't have to think about the amount... just pay monthly and click when
you like something. You know you can click whatever you want and will never
run over your spending limit, because you're paying flat rate. At least that's
the main reason I like this idea over all the other micro-payments, or paypal.

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covercash
Why would someone start to voluntarily pay for content that had previously
been free, especially when they can continue getting it for free (by not
signing up for flattr in the first place)?

I can see some people using this, but I know high school me would be saving up
my money for a new computer, not paying pennies to content providers. Even
now, I might throw $20 in to try the service but there are other things I'd
rather spend that money on (like a monthly iPad 3G plan or drinks with my
friends).

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rabidsnail
Do they cap the amount that you can give per month? If not this sounds great
for money laundering.

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volomike
What if some blackhatter cracks the link algorithm and then uses blackhat
affiliate marketing techniques to get people to click the links? He gets very
wealthy, and many people find their accounts drained slightly.

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swolchok
In before obvious, mundane OfficeSpace/Superman 3 joke that I don't want some
reddit commenter getting karma for.

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viraptor
Actually - I just noticed from the comments that people are not sure how will
this work. Monthly payments or per-click payments. I'd be happy to mark some
pages for monthly support, but the whole idea is not that clear yet...

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ThomPete
I actually think it's fairly simple.

You pay ex 20USD a month.

If you click on one page that entire month the owner of the page will get
20USD

If you click on 10 different blogs then the 20$ is split between those 10
blogs

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thecoffeeman
"Many _small_ streams will form a river." Många bäckar små... :) Not large
streams. That doesn't make sense.

