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Facebook Groups May Soon Charge Monthly Subscription Fees For Access (theverge.com)
Facebook announced today in a blog post that group administrators can start charging $4.99 to $29.99 a month for exclusive membership in certain groups. "Parenting, cooking, and home cleaning groups will be the first ones to get the new feature as part of an early test," reports The Verge. From the report: As it stands now, free groups will remain intact, but they will soon have the option to launch premium sub-groups. For instance, lifestyle blogger Sarah Mueller's Declutter My Home group is starting an Organize My Home group that costs $14.99 a month to join. And the Grown and Flown Parents group is making a College Admissions group that charges $29.99 for access to college counselors. Facebook says the new feature is so that group admins, who put a lot of time and dedication to growing their communities, can also earn money at the same time. The company also says admins could take the money they earn to create higher-quality content for the group as well, whether that be more posts, videos, or offline meet-ups and events. Facebook reportedly won't be getting a cut of the subscription fees.
We've had newsgroups and email lists that have been 100% free since the start of the Internet. 25ish years later, people are PAYING for these same services, AND are giving the service 100% of their personal data. Wow. You've come a long way, baby!
I don't respond to AC's.
... sees this for what it is:
People who pay for content are verified consumers of whatever the fuck is related to the special interest group.
Zuck gonna tell advertisers, "I got a group of suckers, and the price of poker is going up!"
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.