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Carrion Luggage #1097412 added September 15, 2025 at 8:36am
Restrictions: None
Pay Me
Okay. Fine. I give up.
I ran the RNG as usual this morning, but when I went to the corresponding saved link, I found it had been paywalled. Too bad; it was an interesting story about the origins of a cryptid. But I couldn't find a non-paywalled version, so, ploink, into the trash.
Then I pulled another number out of the metaphorical hat and, behold: another paywall. This one would have been about the conception of the universe in the Middle Ages. But no, we can't have nice things.
Just to be clear, I'm not expecting everything for free. If I'm interested enough in a website, I'll subscribe. But what it does is put a damper on sharing articles. Now they've missed out on not only my subscription, but that of my legions of fans. I'm sure they're wailing and moaning about having three fewer subscribers, right now.
People who do the work deserve to be paid for it. Even writers. Traditionally, the main source of income for article writers is, ultimately, advertising. But no one seems to be able to make non-annoying ads, ads which, when I find something to read on my phone (which doesn't have ad-block), render the site essentially unreadable, what with hidden click-through points and constantly shifting floating ads.
Hence my use of ad-block, which, look, I know that makes me part of the problem, but there's a war on and I need my defenses.
Anyway, from what I've been hearing, ad revenue is drying up (possibly due to the proliferation of ad-blockers). Likely, this has prompted more sites to go to a paid subscription model. That can work if the site has decent content on a regular basis, but again, I can't share those articles here.
The existential problem with the advertising model, though, is that the advertiser gets to control your content, at least to some extent. Publish something controversial? Ads get pulled. Show a political bias different from the advertiser's? Ads get pulled. Dare to show a bare breast? Ads (and maybe other things) get pulled.
It's the golden rule once again: they who have the gold make the rules.
I'm not saying I'm changing the way I do blog entries. Just taking a break today to express my annoyance at the festering pile of bantha fodder most of the internet has become. |
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