retvrn to charging a reasonable fee for a good service that delivers real value

This “one weird trick” to unlock my wallet and my respect

The "everything for free" model is magical thinking anyway. We always exchange *something* -- I'd rather to identify and count what I gave up. Sign me up.

Casually recalling the Twitter addicts who thought the new owner was going to provide actual value for their money

I really like Patrick and his writing but that was crazy.

He’s a truly unique mishmash of views bsky.app/profile/dmnd...

Absolutely, I love his banking and payments posts.

We have become slothful on the lazy fruits of VC funded "free" apps

There are an aweful lot of "smart" people that clearly missed that day in kindergarten when they explained about pies and shares of pies.

Yes. I'm tired of being the product.

AND CONTENT MODERATION FFS

It would also be very funny if Bluesky was able to outdo Elmo in funding, just because. Elmo: can I have money Ppl: absolutely not Bluesky: how 'boit us? Ppl: Sure, seems fine.

I feel this way about my email. I would like to pay a few dollars a month for a stable, permanent alternatove to being data mined.

Giving internet people money in exchange for a service? Unthinkable!

Yes please!

Hear hear

shareware social media

The Letterboxd Model!

I've been ready to give bluesky a few bucks a month, forever. Just pondering for 5 seconds the amount of coin that I throw in the direction of streaming media? Yeah absolutely, let's have an extra charge for extra goodies, just like the offline world works. 🙏

Disabled, living on disability alone, I could not. We always get overlooked. People say they care, but they don’t really.

Same here.

small fee over ads and click-based-economy forever

ppl barely even want real value anymore, just offer time-limited cosmetic drops with no impact on gameplay

Truth. And seeing the "benefits" on the other site, i think I'd be happy to chip in here if only to help stave off the potential future enshittification of the platform.

I look at paying such a fee as being not only payment-for-service, but also as a kind of investment in keeping the place free of some kinds of malign forces.

The thing is, we pay in ads or tracking or some other way. "Free" is not sustainable.

Not an expert, but I feel like ads would be complicated given the ability to use different apps that connect to the protocol. Tracking can be blocked in a multitude of ways.

It would also reduce the number of bots and trolls over time

It didn’t on X.

That’s why we need to keep blocking and using blocklists. Keep it nice here.

💯

Hmmm… True, but in that case (a) they knew they were giving money directly to the Dear Leader to support the fascist takeover of X; (b) they were told it would amplify their reach (and that they wouldn’t get visibility without it); and (c) taking over the blue check was a way of “owning the libs”

I’m talking about bots and trolls. They still had checks. It doesn’t stop them.

Fair, but I’m definitely talking about trolls above. I think the key is that @jay.bsky.team has already declared that paying the fee won’t get you any of the things I list — so the incentives are reduced / different vs X. 🙏

Bot accounts should be allowed, have a robust controls and automation, cost 10x the amount for a regular user account, and still be blockable.

if they can keep it free of ads and attention-warping algorithms I will gladly pay

Me too!

Same

That. There’s millions of us. Let us pay $1 a month for an edit button and don’t bring in ads and we got a handshake.

Same

Yes. Also, a promise to not go down the road of enshittification

I believe @jay.bsky.team's put that in the mission statement. ;-)

Plus it's open source and there's processes in place so if some Wall Street bro ruins it, it can be replicated & everyone can port over all their posts etc. to the new place.

No more “over at the Bad Place”…

Thank you, that is very correct and it would actually be wonderful if everyone could kind of make themselves aware of the backstory of this website.

Every entrepreneur says the right things until they get that bag. Bluesky is fine for now, but to expect it won't get shitty in the future under any circumstances - including a paying model - is silly.

Great word. I'm impressed...

Coined by the great Cory Doctorow. pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/t...

It works.

And not to give them same priority as someone who millions of us want to follow. In X the 8 buck chucks have the same ranking pririty as Dalai Lama. So, now my feeds are filled with the people who have nothing to say but constantly saying something. The priority should solely be base on popularity.

There is no priority here, no algorithm.

Same

Same

+1

Same, we need it

Give me an edit button with those features, behind a low monthly fee, and I am on board

As with Signal and Wikipedia, I signed up for Twitter Blue. Only stopped paying when it turned into the blue check verification mess.

Yes, this is what we’ve wanted all along! I think this might be a SpongeBob quote.

Wouldn't it be great if bluesky made more money than Twitter just because we enjoy this site better. I would gladly pay a few dollars a month to keep it this way.

I like the whole fundraiser idea

The choice to not uprate paying accounts is so important. Like the principle of net neutrality, having different tiers of access a la Twitter creates a multitude of avoidable problems.

I would honestly like to go back to paying for things, because when you pay for things, those things work for you. When a large business operates for free, it's working for someone else, somewhere.

I’m in.

Since when was it ok to accept a pay wall for social media? That was the beginning of the end for Twitter, WHY would we do it here? Hate to break it to you, paywalls don't stop ads. Look at streaming. Social media needs to be free, or it'll become an exclusive club not everyone can partake in.

I would happily pay a few dollars a month to keep this place free of Nazis.

Here it comes - I am retired on a fixed income which is about to be less because of the rise in Medicare cost. Everybody wants a few bucks for this and a few bucks for that. Look I know everything has to be monetized and there is no free lunch...But every influencer on here has a premium product

Seems reasonable

Agree 💯

If that payment services means you could sell (say) signed copies of your book, or jewelry you made, etc. by having a link and service, that sounds like big win to me, and I would also happily pay some to support.

This would be a fantastic addition.

As long as there’s no adverts

Same!

If it's gonna be like Myspace customization, then I'm in

The scale might be wildly different, but I pay for Letterboxd for just that reason. The stats and JustWatch integration is great, but I also feel invested in wanting it to continue existing and evolving.

Likewise, or to have better photo layout control, i need a new outlet for my professional and personal work.

If it isnt going to a batman villain? Absolutely

When will this happen? Seems it needs to happen very quickly

If they do it right I'd pay. At least until the economy completely collapses.

I paid for Twitter until Elon bought it. I would be happy to pay for extra features here.

As long as there’s a free version bc not everyone can afford to pay

I just won’t ever pay for social media, it’s not that important to me.

And a lot of people will just be casual users who aren’t going to pay a monthly fee. I think they’ve already said there will always be free users.

No.

Same.

me too

I'd like to see the old Twitter style blue dot verification.

If BlueSky need capital, it should be a Guardian UK-type or Wikipedia-type appeal—pitching for donations and monthly subscriptions from those who can afford it. A forced subscription model will kill participation, just as the various paywalls are helping tank X.

Same!

As long as it’s reasonable priced, I’m down for this.

Or you could come over to the fedi verse were it's all free. #Mastodon

If we can pay to turn our profile pages into MySpace profiles then its set forever

Free of ads and a horrible algorithm, I’ll pay. Also, please make it iPad compatible. Thanks

This! I use the web browser on my iPad for this because the app is so tiny - part of why I go to my iPad is because I’m old and can’t see! LOL

I tried that but it always took me back to the little app. I’m trying deck.blue and it has the feel of tweetdeck and I can make the font larger and columns are great. it’s gonna make Bluesky so much nicer.

Me as well

Are you planning on a “bookmark” feature in the basic free plan?

I would as well!

If they filter out the Nazis, I would be very grateful.

And would ensure that Russian bots would stay away

Me too.

The sooner we get the option to pay for Bluesky the better.

Hi

Absolutely

Me toooooooo

If it keeps Elon and his Russian bot army out you won’t need to twist my arm. Count me in.

Me too. I don’t need a special badge either.

This place is viable?

I'd be especially happy if it meant the site doesn't get sold to a billionaire.

I would subscribe to this.

You have my full support

As would I, gladly. A monthly fee to help pay for upgrading and adding features to match what my beloved bird site was before the dark times... ...before the Empire.

As opposed to sending my money to an evil billionaire.

How about cutting out the billionaire completely? #ActivityPub

Thank you.

Just use direct rather than automated adverts & offer a advert free space for a fee. Simple, straight forward & allows them to control who advertises.

I ::was:: paying a few bucks a month to the other site just to write longer posts, so I'll definitely pitch in here. This place is downright refreshing! lol

Well done!

Same!

Twitter's fall has taught me that I too should be willing to pony up a mocha latte every month (or whatever a few bucks buys you) for a healthy social media discussion platform.

Same. The issue with the blue check Twitter subscription thing was never the fact that they wanted to charge...the issue was WHAT they allowed people to buy for $5 a month.

Once i started to pay to receive extra features such as editing etc. things drastically went down hill on the platform and i consistently had issues. Once i stopped paying my engagement went to zero... it was a horrible system and hopefully with thoughtful UX paying a fee here will be beneficial.

I totally understand and agree. I don't think that Xitter's implementation of a paid model was at all good for anyone on the site. I just don't think the $5/month was the issue so much as *what you got for that*. Sounds like Bluesky's proposed premium features would be very different.

Or you can own, publish and port your stuff.

Particularly as it doesn’t buy upranking

Me too! Happy to accept a subscription model.

I’m down. And I’ve only been here a short time. But in that time the experience has been amazing

I hear ya, but that would be the death knell of this place if there was a cost.

Programmers need to get paid.

Me too

Same. I like it quite a bit.

Same

I would be glad to pay X amount of $ for Bluesky to help.

I am happy to contribute if the developers continue to engage and listen to user input

If paying $100 a year would help keep the mischief makers out, I’d gladly hop aboard.

Please none of the ads. That alone would get me to pay.

Totally.

Absolutely

me too. My preference would also be no blue check type system to distinguish those who contribute from those who don't.

As long as they promise not to turn into a X or a Threads or a Facebook then I agree!

what elon wishes people would say about Twitter

bsky.app/profile/dave...

Agreed.

You and me both. This place is awesome.

Same

If they somehow keep the trolls and bots to a minimum, I don't mind paying for that.

I already pay a small fee to the guy running the mas.to Mastodon server. I wouldn't mind doing the same thing here.

So would I.

I need them to move the like button

Same

I’d happily not have to block 17,000 ‘made for late night tv’ advertisers.

That's what I told my ex-wife. She still bailed on me.

Absolutely! Especially if the value proposition is equitable and transparent.

Heck, I’d buy stock to keep this place viable if there was a way to do that

The day this place is beholden to stockholders is the day I move on.

No because that's how enshittifcation starts

Stealing this for my vocab if you don’t mind.

I do not own it, but its cost is 3 rubber ducks, paid in full (or halves)

Enshittification is my favorite word so far this election season (new one began on November 6th).

Just buying a domain name directly through BlueSky is a way. They made it easy, without the pitfalls of advertising and heavy algorithm which enshittify the experience on other social networks...

So would I!

I would, too

Yes and…I’d feel a whole lot better about the whole thing if at least some of the equity raise was coming from members. Platforms function like a utility and at least partial user-ownership would incentivize this one to not turn into another clickbait rage machine hellhole.

Wish I could ‘like’ this a hundred times.

I look at it kind of like @letterboxd.social where you can absolutely use it for free, but you get little extra features if you pay. I happily pay for Letterboxd, so I'd probably do the same here if it was a reasonable amount

Absolutely!

I would prefer a good old-fashioned advertising platform. And then if you want to skip the advertising pay a premium.

When more news organizations are here, that would be worth it. Mastodon has some.

You have a news feed already. I’d prefer to hear individual voices, not propaganda.

All news outlets aren’t propaganda and the mods here wouldn’t allow it. They are already banning MAGATS

I will gladly pay to keep this place from becoming what Twitter is.

Agree! The peace is worth money to me!

If you had asked me in 2010 if I would pay for Twitter, I would have scoffed. Now that I have seen first hand how terrible a platform can get, I too would happily throw some money at this

If they can maintain the standards I would happily pay a reasonable subscription fee.

Ditto

How about just moving to Mastodon?

I agree. Very worthy cause and worth our money. We can also setup a lottery monthly gifting program via raffle codes Similar to gifting a subscription on twitch.

Same

Just no pay to win alright?

It will be interesting to see how they control engagement farming when they get into the subscription based revenue sharing.

Me too.

better than purely ad-driven IMO; would really rather it not turn into Threads

I’m on board with this as long as Dorsey continues in his new position.👍🏼

Me too

Me too

Same!!!

Sure

They could make it some sort of consumer co-op! Where paying members get some sort of participation in management or administration. (Not sure if this would work, maybe it'd backfire, but it's the thought that I had)

And I wouldn't bully you for it, only elon's paypigs deserved that

No for real, where's the $5/m option with a couple extra features

❌ Pay to make a fash CEO rich ⭕ Pay to keep an open protocol viable

I hate that everything has a sub, but i'd pay like $3 s month for longer videos... 🤔

I don’t think it’ll work without ads, but I’m happy to be proven wrong

Make a product and service people value, support their needs, and then ask for a few dollars for extra features? What is this, socialism?

The same here. ☝🏾

I pay streaming services for a one-way information stream. Seems only logical that I pay for a subscription for an interactive service. But I also want to be able to pay a few bucks towards subscriptions for low income subscribers.

Honestly there should be liberal billionaires who should just shell out money to keep this place running

I wish they would just add some advertising—I don’t mind GOOD advertising—it would be great if they chose socially-responsible companies (we might LIKE to see those).

Absolutely

Same. No algorithms no ads no Meta no Zuck no Leon? Sign me up.

If they act as a new consolidator - and share revenue with the sourcing media - id pay a larger subscription price.

Me too!

Same

Completely agree.

Let's make bluesky the Wikipedia of social media.

I'd happily pay it, also! I paid that crazy, disinformation pumping billionaire for a year of X. I thought I was paying for meaningful interactions there. But I was paying for abuse, stalking and harassment from maga trolls and Russian trolls. I'll happily pay here where it's safe and decent! 👍

Yep.

I would quite happily pay a few bucks a month for this too.

This sounds reasonable.

Me too!

me too !

Just no blue check marks at the top of every post, please. That would trigger me.

Same here

Would support, especially an annual level if available. Prefer annual over monthly model.

Same here, now that my only fear that I'd be lumbered with anything that resembled that blue fucking tick badge has been allayed

Same. I’ll pay a small monthly fee in blessed anonymity

Ugh.

THEY HAVE TO GO ALL JIMMY WALES with this. It is the only way. 2010: The Year He Makes Contact www.businessinsider.com/jimmy-wales-...

It'd be hilarious is this place builds a successful subscription model when Twitter tried and failed.

Me as well

Isn't this just Twitter premium?

There'd need to be the specification of no paid bluecheck, no algorithm boost for paying users, no revenue share paying to farm engagement.

Frames are basically the first thing as a check, but at least it isn't tied to some delusion of "validity" like it is on twitter.

That's really cool. I love that they're also thinking about creators as well as making the platform viable.

I think of you as the mayor of this place!

It would be nice if Stripe is not the payment service used to allow creatives to accept contributions. Medium uses Stripe. It is only supported in 46 countries, most of which are the developed ones.

@solidstalemate.bsky.social really funny I just saw this on my timeline after answering you LOL

I would also support this place! So far so good 😊

I would too.

Yes

Ditto!

If it stops it from turning into Twitter, yea, agreed

Making this place more financially successful than Twitter would be hilarious to see Musk lose his shit.

same

Happily. Although, they can have my money or nazis and fascists on the platform. I won't pay to share a social network with fascists.

Nope. That's one small part of what ruined Twitter.

Me too but only on a voluntary basis, so many people are struggling right now and couldn't afford it.

Same

I'm happy to pay a monthly fee

Fantastic 🎉 🎊

The money I'm saving on my wapo and nyt cancellations should cover it.

Discussion, please: I’m a senior with limited income. I currently have 2 subs that cost me about $4/month. If I donate here, and to everyone on Substack I’d like to follow, I no longer eat. How does everyone else manage this constant “but it’s only $4/month”??

Especially if verified accounts were actually verified.

This is what Jaron Lanier recommended 5 years ago. He saw the free social media as unavoidably exploitative and manipulatie. He recommended paying a small fee. Made perfect sense then, and it's amazing none of the services have tried it yet.

If it’s decentralised should people not just pay to run their own servers/infrastructure? Agree that donating to the team is good but distributed control seems important. I’m new so maybe got the wrong end of the stick.

Pre Musk, I would’ve paid $8 a month for the edit feature alone

But… monetisation… didn’t that..? Er…

This costs money. So we can either be the product or the source of the money needed to run a site like this. We've seen over and over what happens when a service like this is commodified. So they are trying to prevent that.

The source of the money is what I’m worried about. I don’t want to end up being the product - again - even if the original reason had integrity

I totally agree. Which is why their subscription service would be perfect. Think patreon instead of seeing ads.

Ok, yeah, I get that distinction. As long as the subs model can’t be cannibalised