
Firefox Better Web with Scroll - jccalhoun
https://firstlook.firefox.com/betterweb/
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crocodiletears
I'm glad to see Mozilla giving a bigger platform to this style of revenue
generation. Not only is the price reasonable, it's on my favorite web browser.

Brave's BAT has always appealed to me, but the browser's too niche and the UX
just isn't there for me. I think Mozilla has the resources to make this
realistically become a realistic part of the dialogue with respect to
monetizing the web, and only wish that they'd tried it earlier.

I'd like to learn more about Scroll's policies with respect to partner
selection before I consider investing however.

The current crop of Scroll's partners is a strong whose who of some of the
best and/or most well-known publications available online, but it's a pretty
homogenous group. Can I run a web forum that supports scroll? Is membership
content gated? Can porn sites join? Would fringe outlets like Project Veritas
or Unicorn Riot (I'm not suggesting moral or qualitative equivalence, just
notability) be allowed to join if they so chose?

If the Intercept dropped a set of documents that the state or a large interest
group disliked, would they lose their (theoretical) membership, or would their
funds be witheld?

If I'm going to invest in a service like scroll, I'd like to know that it's an
open payment platform which allows for content irrespective of its moral worth
provided that its content legal in _my_ jurisdiction (meaning if a foreign
country decides to outlaw _x_, my consumption still supports it).

I'm also curious to know if they have any privacy protections in place to
divorce my identity from the distribution of my funds at whatever interval.

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wodenokoto
If nothing else this is a really good landing page.

I think they put forth a very good value proposition for the consumer who
values adfree consumption and also want to pay.

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jason2323
I fear this could create website silos. Where certain webpages can only be
accessed by a given browser because visits from that browser could be more
profitable than running ads. But this is probably a long shot...

~~~
infogulch
"Scroll" is the name of the company that Mozilla is partnering with, and they
actually do the integration with sites to disable their ads, manage
subscriptions, and manage payouts. See:
[https://scroll.com/about](https://scroll.com/about)

Since Scroll is a separate entity, they can freely make the same extension
available on other browsers.

So all the heavy lifting is being done by Scroll. Firefox Enhanced Tracking
Protection (ETP) is the "second half" of the offering here named "Firefox
Better Web with Scroll". But ETP is just a regular feature of Firefox now. So
the real thing that Mozilla is adding here is their size. By attaching their
name to it, they legitimize the concept of replacing ads & trackers with
subscriptions and payouts determined by engagement not clicks. Though, I might
wish they had come up with a catchier name.

This is GREAT! It's something I've wanted for years now! [1][2] Thank you
Mozilla, for daring to approach the biggest problem facing human communication
this century. I've never heard of Scroll before, so I'll need to do some
research, but I'm just happy that someone is trying this again.

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9721917](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9721917)
[2]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11622050](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11622050)

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woodandsteel
I don't know if this is going to take off, but we desperately need something
like this.

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unsignedint
I feel the problem is that this really doesn't provide actual value to its
user.

It's one thing if they are getting contents behind the paywall, but it really
only appeal to relatively small subset of users who has cause to support these
sites. For the rest, they will keep using content blockers...

I understand providing access to paid contents would probably costs more than
$4.99 collectively, but I feel this will be a hard sell without tangible
benefits.

