Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: MegaBox: From f**k-all to zero

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  • bob daktari,

    the crux of the problem is everyone wants to get paid....

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report Reply

  • Keir Leslie,

    At some point the crux of the problem is that people need to get paid.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report Reply

  • sallyr,

    Russell, by way of consolation I have been pleased to shop at Felt a number of times.

    And just like Geoff I'm happy to send cash.

    Since Jun 2007 • 20 posts Report Reply

  • richard, in reply to Yamis,

    Sure. Just sign up with Mega and wait.

    Not looking for New Engla… • Since Nov 2006 • 268 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston, in reply to Russell Brown,

    When we started taking advertising, I really thought that we’d get a lot more bFM -level advertising – ads from people who were part of the same communities as the readership – but that has never really happened

    Whoa - I am part of this community and purchased a banner ad on PA . Admittedly only a grand's worth. Mind you, bugger all people clicked through on it .
    Wasn't a very flash ad though .

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston, in reply to Jarrod Baker,

    I think there’s a place for thoughtful human-curated advertising. You just don’t often see it.

    Jarrod do you have any examples , links . I think its an interesting side topic .

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Richard Aston,

    Whoa – I am part of this community and purchased a banner ad on PA .

    Good onya!

    Admittedly only a grand’s worth.

    That's heaps!

    Mind you, bugger all people clicked through on it .

    Clickthrough is a problematic measure of performance, especially on this site.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to sallyr,

    Russell, by way of consolation I have been pleased to shop at Felt a number of times.

    I’m delighted for Lucy at Felt that that’s the case, although I’m not actually sure we even get any more for that one :-)

    And just like Geoff I’m happy to send cash.

    Thanks. I think this has to happen soon.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    I guess you've got different models and motivations. I/S I guess is happy to run his site as a community participation without reward (and in turn benefits from Google's caring more about territory than dollars). Similarly the Standard. Other sites (including most of my job) are paid for by government and community institutions.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Jarrod Baker, in reply to Richard Aston,

    do you have any examples

    One example might be how Daring Fireball handles sponsorships - only one is available each week, and (when I've noticed them) they're generally relevant and unobtrusive.

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 32 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler, in reply to Idiot Savant,

    (And as for ethically: my screen, my eyeballs, my brain. Absolutely I get to control and filter my inputs however I like. Your rights as a creator do not extend to parasitizing my brain space, or to dictating how I experience and interact with your product)

    Do you exercise your rights similarly with off-line content? Do you have someone blank out the ads in magazines, or hold up screens in front of bus-shelter advertising?

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen, in reply to bob daktari,

    the crux of the problem is everyone wants to get paid….

    No. It’s that creators of content want to feed their children and buy them Christmas presents and go out to dinner and pay for school uniforms and …

    Consumers of content, particularly on the internet, often forget that there is a real person spending time and energy on content. If somehow that time is not rewarded then the creator must get the money for doctors visits somewhere else and spend less time creating.

    As someone less able to create I am only too willing to see my earnings support the creators of content.

    BUT I am very unwilling to see my earnings support advertising executives lunches instead of the creator of the content I enjoy. Same applies to Kim Dotcom who creates nothing for me hence I don’t want my earnings to be tracked to him.

    That’s why I like patronage as a model. Subscriptions are exclusive by nature, but patronage enables the creator without limiting the number of people who benefit.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Anthony Behrens Esq,

    Not an advertising solution to dying media - but [www.nsfwcorp.com] - a great and innovative news and comment outfit based in Las Vegas seem to be doing well with a combination of good content, design and a VERY reasonable subscription model - 3 bucks a month when I last checked.

    No ads...just excellent journalism.

    Manawatu • Since Nov 2012 • 19 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    Same applies to Kim Dotcom who creates nothing for me hence I don’t want my earnings to be tracked to him.

    Like Apple, Google and others, he's providing a shared distribution and revenue-sharing platform. That also has to be paid for somehow.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    That’s why I like patronage as a model.

    You'd still need some mechanism for matching donors with recipients.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Jarrod Baker,

    In this vein, Peter Sunde's Flattr has an interesting model. Content creators can put a Flattr button on their site or on individual articles, kind of like a Facebook "like" button. Content consumers pay Flattr a fixed monthly fee, then go around clicking the Flattr buttons on any content they like. At the end of the month, their fee is divided up between all the things (e.g. articles) they've clicked on (Flattr takes 10%). It can get quite finely detailed - individual authors or even commenters could have their own Flattr accounts.
    Not sure how well it's worked so far, however. Certainly there needs to be a critical mass of sites and users on board before it can be particularly effective.

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 32 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen, in reply to Sacha,

    That’s why I like patronage as a model.

    You’d still need some mechanism for matching donors with recipients.

    But the internet is really good for that. The problem with patronage used to be that the time spent getting the donations meant the donations had to be large to be worth bothering with. Now it should be easy to make any size donation at any time.

    I'm not sure I see a problem with matching donors with recipients if you can make the donation on the page - but I'm guessing there is a problem with simply having donors click a button and nominate an amount - otherwise why don't we have it already.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Ackroyd, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    I think I/S needs content-aware GPS accelerometer-equipped AR glasses with commercial-message image-sensing pixel-replacement software. Didn't Google work with Adobe on something like this? Maybe it could also replace the heads of people he doesn't like with a big smiley.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 159 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    Patronage is at the heart of public broadcasting – or more accurately what’s left of it – in NZ.

    With a return to the unwieldy-to-enforce licence fee unlikely, a patronage/tipjar model wouldn’t rake in enough money to sustain a successor to TVNZ 6 & 7. Their fatal weakness was that a 5-year guarantee was too short and that they were at the whim of the electoral cycle, and much of their content is now behind a SKY TV paywall. Additionally, the owners of Stratos threw in the towel and signed up to SKY, after previously being a strong critic of the pay TV monopoly situation.

    When I was at the Wellington Save TVNZ7 meeting, VUW’s Dr Peter Thompson put forward a proposal for a small communications levy on broadcasters and ISPs. Although quite an original idea, I’m not sure if it’s any more resistant to political tennis than the TVNZ 6 & 7 model.

    And I've previously mentioned that Al Gore sold the like-minded Current TV to Al-Jazeera, which isn't on SKY yet. Given the bible-thumping background of its CEO, probably never.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    I'm not sure I see a problem with matching donors with recipients if you can make the donation on the page

    How do people find their way to 'the page'?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Jarrod Baker,

    It can get quite finely detailed - individual authors or even commenters could have their own Flattr accounts. Not sure how well it's worked so far, however.

    I recall Russell looked into this a while ago.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Sacha,

    I recall Russell looked into this a while ago.

    Brenda Leeuwenberg looked into it more throughly than me, and concluded that it was just too difficult to use. Is it still denominated in Euros only?

    I do have at least one person Flattring me, but I haven't redeemed anything yet. Signing up (via Twitter) was really confusing and I haven't spent time with it since.

    The basic ideas seem pretty good, but at the least, it needs a marketing strategy.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • andin, in reply to Keir Leslie,

    people need to get paid.

    Yep, that just raises a host of problems related to the way we live, that we arent looking at in much detail. Or are being railroaded into...

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Jarrod Baker, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Is it still denominated in Euros only?

    Seems to be, although the FAQs say

    You can turn on currency exchange in the dashboard to easily see how much it is in your local currency. Our payment companies will automatically exchange the currency when adding money.

    Without having used it, it seems like it may be slightly awkward getting money out, however, as you have to use PayPal or MoneyBookers then presumably transfer to a local account.

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 32 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd, in reply to Tom Semmens,

    I am more troubled by the potential of unbreakable encryption to be used by paedophile rings

    1. Unbreakable encryption is already freely available to anyone who cares to use it.
    2. Any encrypted thing must be decrypted by an end user to be useful to them. There will be traces on any end devices where this has happened. A user sufficiently clueful to eradicate such traces is a user already in the group of people identified in 1 above.
    3. The real enabling technology for socially harmful information of this kind is not encryption but recording. I cannot understand the logical grounds on which people whose go-to objection to new tech is the child porn angle tolerate the free availability of cameras.
    4. WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
    5. After at least 20 years of child porn, bomb making and other internet scares, haven't we had enough, for fuck sake?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

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