this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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This might be an unpopular and ignorant take.
Services like Reddit, Twitter and Youtube needs to make money somehow. They provide a service that the users enjoy, and it is fair that they want componsation for those services. Aslong as they are upfront with how and what you are paying with I think it is fine, and the user can themself choose not to use the service if they feel like the payment is too high.
It seems like we are whining about not being able to watch quality content for free. Even Lemmy needs donations or kind souls to keep running.
The DRM and Chrome changes might be worse... But in the end it is the same base argument, we need more competition to reduce the price or stop using services we don't like / want to pay for.
I wouldn't say its unpopular, but I do agree its a bit ignorant but not in the probably negative way you mean.
I think its your acceptance that its fundamental that "Business MUST profit and we MUST suffer to allow them to profit"
You're making a huge leap that we need to suffer through all of the internet getting worse just because a corporation wants to profit. Fuck Google, Fuck Reddit, fuck all businesses that fail. Who cares? We owe them nothing.
I guess they don't have to profit, but I believe they do have to cover their expenses (salary, hosting, etc). This is needed with capatalism or any other model (yes I know they have huge profits sadly)
I do agree that the market is failing, where we have way to little competition. Or that maybe a alternative to capatilism would solve the issue.
But in every thread here I feel like most people just expect to use everything on the internet for free, which is absurd to me. Why would anyone host a service like youtube if you didnt get any income from the users? The server costs alone must be huge.
Why would people write articles if they do not get any money from it?
Ever heard of Wikipedia?
Or blogs?
Weren't loads of people quitting reddit because they refused to have their free content contributions monetised?
Capitalism makes you think many things that aren't true: people only being motivated by money is one, humans being naturally selfish and greedy is another, and the notion that it is the best and only viable system. Are you starting to see a thread there?
It's all about maintaining the illusions it needs to continue to exist, but you can learn how to see beyond, and unlearn all these lies, you just have to be willing to.
I do agree that it is possible to be motivated by other things than money, but in todays society you need income to survive.
If we had other systems to deligate money to everyone I agree that we might not need to do things for money.
I love services that are free, and driven by communities that are motivated by what they are doing. But these services also need some kind of income today. Wikipedia is dependent on donations, mosts blogs have sponsors, ads or is used to further a career.
I have no issues with this, I will glady donate to Wikipedia, and I understand why blogs might have ads or sponsors in them. But if you enjoy a service it is kinda wierd to not want to give anything back to the creator.
I understand google is fucked, but we cant just sit back and not understand why a free version of youtube will not exist. Maybe youtube should just die, but why are we complaining about a comany taking payment for a service? Fuck google, fuck facebook, but don't complain that they want payment for huge expensive services that basically could not survive without any income.
Only because a handful of obscenely wealthy people need it to be that way for them to maintain their power and way of life.
I think what those companies are doing can safely be described as far beyond just making a reasonable income for what they do.
You are being played. I won't even take you as far as the possibility of a stateless, classless, moneyless society, way way before that we can get to the point where money isn't an obstacle because it is equally and equitably distributed. It is possible, it's the people who want to exploit you and others' labour as well as the world's resources for their own personal profit that are telling you you need this system that keeps them untouchable, why would you believe anything they say?
Because they take payment already. What people don't like is being nickel and dimed. Google sells ads on the page. They sell ads in the videos. The creators sell their own ads and they ask for patreon and subscriptions and donations. It's too much. I pay for premium. Google logs me out, and then I start seeing video ads again. That's bullshit. For 10 bucks a month I should literally never encounter an ad on YouTube. That's not how it works. Now the price has increased by 50%. Why should I pay that? What benefit do I get? I can use invidious or libretube, or even host my own instance, and be far better off. No ads ever, including sponsored spots. At 10 bucks a month it wasn't worth my time. At 15, I'm insulted enough that it is.
On a side note, I'm autistic enough that I'll say the quiet part out loud. I care about someone making their reasonable living creating content. I don't care about the 'livlihood' of someone who's already so rich it doesn't matter, or some mega global corporation. And it's troubling that most ways you can support a creator end up doing much more to prop up companies or platforms that interact with them in a predatory way. It's not worth several hours of my time for creators to get a couple pennies. That's just a fact.
It's not my fault if a company decided it's not worth it to continue with the advertising platform it created. It's likely just as profitable as it ever was. They just take advantage of their huge size and its stifling effect on competition to squeeze us for everything they can. That's actually illegal and if our governments were doing anything they were supposed to they'd stop it.
Hey fellow autist, well said.
I'm fine with paying for YouTube premium. I find good value in it and like YouTube music. Fuck Google for continuing to push this though. I'm working on degooglefing myself.