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209 sats \ 10 replies \ @mikhael 6 Aug 2022 \ on: Buying versus donating bitcoin
Great points all around.
My two cents: donations are bullshit. If you want to buy something, buy it. If you want to sell something, sell it.
Anything less is just some simp shit. There is nothing wrong with producing free content, and then having premium pad content - that's great! Or just having free content in general, like a blog, just because you want to.
But begging for donations makes it seem like your content overall is kind of low quality. Or, rather, it makes you look like you have no business sense. If you are delivering value with a product or content, but not monetizing it with an explicit business strategy outside of donations - then you are failing as a business person.
You are also failing the Bitcoin community, by serving as a bad example to others. Show people it's possible to make money.
Bitcoin is part of the open source ecosystem that encourages free products for all and donations to support the projects.
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Just curious, have you ever managed or been a maintainer for an open source project that has gotten more than 10 unique contributors?
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I have let blogs use my photos and other YouTube channels use my clips without asking for money . From my experience i knew video streamers go behind a paywall and fall in obscurity and those that were donation based thrived. Paywalls are a complete turnoff but I have donated more frequently over time to content makers I liked. Sometimes larger sums to pick up the perceived slack from others. Like if wikipedia went behind a paywall, people would look for other sites.
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That's nice of you. If everyone thought and behaved like you do, we wouldn't have a problem.
Tragically, most people don't give donations. To anything, ever.
Aaaaaand that's why open-source gets taken advantage of by traditional market driven organizations that buy and sell.
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Sometimes i dont know how good a podcast is until after i've heard it. If i have to pay ahead of time then i'm unlikely to ever hear it in the first place.
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That's what people have been doing throughout human history. Go to a bookshop, how do you know what's good? They don't let you read a book in a book store - you had to buy it. Buy a newspaper and read the book review section to make an informed decision.
Want free stuff? Go to the library, and beg the government for your handout you commie 😂
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Podcasts are usually free though, so not the best example on my end.
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You're missing the point. I am not saying everybody should paywall everything. That is not my point at all.
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"Currently (and probably it has always been the case) in the Bitcoin community there is some push towards donations as some sort of business model, or in general just a general love for the idea of donations, and I think that is very misguided."
What i said goes directly to this. I can donate during or after i hear a podcast.
Value 4 value is not "unsound," it's just a set of tradeoffs. See my longer comment in another thread.
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Does that imply people should paywall everything? Giving stuff for free was always a business model. They even give you free physical things in brick-and-mortar shops with the hope that you will like and buy more.
Everything is a set of tradeoffs, that doesn't mean everything is as good as everything else.
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