Ask HN: Can this way we support publishers and readers, and also get rid of ads?

by techaddict009 on 9/19/2015, 12:54 PM with 8 comments

People use adblockers as they hate ads or don't want to see it. But if this continues the day is not away when publishers will die due to this. So how can we solve this problem?

A browser plugin where people say pay monthly 10$ and can view 5000 articles. Now whichever site they visit their (who are partner with this program) will be given some revenue. Say 2$ for 1000 readers. This way they can earn money and also will not need to have any ads on their site.

And users also will not need to pay individual blogger or author.

What do you guys think about it?

Edit: Just found Google is working on similar approach: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/

  • by gradschool on 9/19/2015, 6:03 PM

    I think this is a great idea and I agree with you that it eliminates the problems mentioned in other comments. I like it even better than whatever google is probably doing unless google is making it possible for people to use theirs without signing up for a google account. (I haven't looked into it but I'd be astonished if that were the case.) Contrary to another comment, paying a lump sum in one place would seem clearly more convenient to me than paying individual fees to every web site I visit, especially if I visit them infrequently or just once. Furthermore, I don't think it needs a revolution to get this going. You could start small by offering it to web publishers in addition to their existing ad revenue streams. The only thing that would deter me from using this plugin would be the privacy issue. Even though this would be the simplest way to implement it, I don't want a cookie that uniquely identifies me to every web site so that you the plugin developer know which account to debit. Maybe some smart person could figure out a better solution.

  • by edwhitesell on 9/19/2015, 1:18 PM

    For me, the problem isn't directly the ads. I started tuning them out long ago, well before the time of ad blockers. I really don't care what the ads look like.

    The problems are: - Some ads are very intrusive - Some ads are malicious

    Those are problems because the content owners are usually hands-off when it comes to displaying ads. They say things like "I can plug in this javascript from site x and I'll get paid!" Sure, you can, but if you're not curating the ads in the same way you're curating your content, something isn't going to align.

    People will view content (and advertising) if it's valuable to them. Interesting, engaging, technically relevant, etc. That should apply to everything on your page, including ads.

  • by bobajeff on 9/19/2015, 1:14 PM

    The problem isn't the ads themselves. It's what they do to the experience of browsing. Increase loading times, reduce responsiveness, use up metered data (important on mobile), spy on you, install malware.

    There are too many bad actors out there using ads Networks for malicious things or just don't care to pay attention to the user experience. So it just makes good sense to by default turn off the features that are being misused rather than give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

    The solution of using micro transactions doesn't address the issue of bad actors ruining the system for everyone else. So I think it might be killed faster than ads.

  • by techaddict009 on 9/19/2015, 1:09 PM

    Just found google is testing something similar: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/

  • by on 9/19/2015, 1:23 PM

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