Testing an Ad-Free Microtransaction Utopia

MrAndrews writes "After reading a Slashdot story about adblocking and the lively discussion that followed, I got to wondering how else sites can support themselves, if paywalls and ads are both non-starters. Microtransactions have been floated for years, but never seem to take off, possibly because they come off as arbitrary taxation or cumbersome walled-garden novelties. Still, it seems like the idea of microtransactions is still appealing, it's just the wrapping that's always been flawed. I wanted to know how viable the concept really was, so I've created a little experiment to gather some data, to put some real numbers to it. It's a purely voluntary system, where you click 1, 2 or 3-cent links in your bookmark bar, depending on how much you value the page you're visiting. No actual money is involved, it's just theoretical. There's a summary page that tells you how much you would have spent, and I'll be releasing anonymized analyses of the data in the coming weeks. If you're game, please check out the experiment page for more information, and give it a go. Even if you only use it once and forget about it, that says something about the concept right there."

Comments

Nice try

[roman_mir]

Nice try. That's not a /. supported model. The /. crowd model is to have you become a gov't subsidised utiluty. /. hates to gave ppl pay per use and it loves gov't solutions. So if your solution involves gov't regulation and a subsidy, so that the perception is that the bill goes to somebody else, then you are foing it right. Searching for a free market solution like yiu are doing... that's not going to go well here

Re:No actual money is involved

[girlintraining]

You missed my point.

No, I'm choosing not to address it because it's unrelated to the original poster's comment, or my own rebuttal to it.

Whether money does or doesn't exist is materially linked to the value of that money. That's the difference. I read, you did not.

Whether the money is simulated or actual doesn't matter. That's the non-difference. I wrote, you did not read.