You may be missing the point. For instance, in the case of:
Turn off all ads - while if you have the proper equipment and expertise you can download a free proxy program to zap your ads, others might not have the time or skill, so in this case that option could save you time.
Uploading your own ads - uh, that right there could amount to the equilalent of several hundred dollars right there. If you have your own website, and you want to promote it, there's a way to get some cheap ads yourself.
Get stats on the ads you uploaded - again getting for free something that would otherwise require paying for the service.
My point is that while it's not like getting a paycheck, it could help some of us small fish save some $$ on things we'd have to shell out for under different circumstances.
Anyway, I'm not fond of ads myself, but the idea of have so-called 'smart' ads is much better than just having ads shoved down your throat without a way to stop it other than zapping all ads. Advertising is a double-edged sword, because while it provides info about available products and services, it's also viral, annoying and sometimes downright intrusive. If allowing user feedback cuts back on advertisers wasting my time, I'm all for it.
This will probably be lost in the wasteland of posts at this late date, but as the creator of the
online comic Paradigm Shift, I certainly hope some form of practical reimbursement presents itself sometime soon.
Since I've taken the [possibly self-defeating] route of not advertising on my site, I have to work full time to pay my bills and because of that my poor comic suffers--mainly from infrequent updates to the story. I mainly do this because I think it looks tacky and detracts from the reading experience. While I'm hoping to eventually sell miscellaneous merchedise (t-shirts) and a printed compelation of the book through the website (mainly for laughs), I don't expect to make much off of it any time soon.
As it stands, most online comic creators like me are stuck going it alone and only the most determined of us will get anywhere, and usually only after great investments of time and money.
I chose to pursue online comics because it was the fastest way to get my stories out to an audience. Hopefully, creators like Scott McCloud and myself can look forward to actually making some sort of living from our art form, even if it's only on the web.
After reading these replies I wanna throw out all the Republicrats and Demopublicans and replace them with the Liberatarians and Greenies! Then we'd have some real fun!
(Just another fairy commie pinko voting for Nader.)
I beg to differ on that. We have to have a license in order to drive a motor vehicle. It shows that we can competently operate the machine and have knowledge of traffic laws. We have to go through alot more red tape in order to drive than in order to purchase a handgun.
I think that if you have a legitimate reason to own a gun (hunting, defense, sport, etc--all are perfectly valid), a basic license shouldn't be a big deal. Sure, criminals are going to get ahold of guns if they want one, but a short waiting period and registration of a weapon isn't going to throw a monkeywrench into most people buying a gun.
Hey, but if somebody down the line really decides to take all the guns away, I'll be right there with you to defend it--probably with a illegal gun at that point.
But, don't start accusing people of taking away the guns just because someone wants some basic precautions taken. Remember, we go through more hassle in order to drive.
Despite his rhetoric concerning 'the CyberCulture' and 'the Digital Age', he may have a point. Politics, particularly the democratic campaigning and election process, does seem (at least to me) as something that is further and further away from me and my world. So, if this is the case and ultimately the current form of politics becomes completely irrelevant, what is next? What will rise up to fill the void? Some would say 'Big Business', but they're just as entrenched in the current system as Washington is. Others (like Katz) might say the internet subculture will, but that seems unlikely, considering that most of the people I know, while vocal internet users, don't know the first place to start reforming the government, especially online. Maybe it will take sweeping moves by an overwhelming minority in control to piss enough of us off to actually do something
about it.
Slashdot Mirror
FYI, 12" PowerBook does include a 56K V.92 modem (or else why would mine have this phone jack in the side?)
dirk
You may be missing the point. For instance, in the case of:
My point is that while it's not like getting a paycheck, it could help some of us small fish save some $$ on things we'd have to shell out for under different circumstances.
Anyway, I'm not fond of ads myself, but the idea of have so-called 'smart' ads is much better than just having ads shoved down your throat without a way to stop it other than zapping all ads. Advertising is a double-edged sword, because while it provides info about available products and services, it's also viral, annoying and sometimes downright intrusive. If allowing user feedback cuts back on advertisers wasting my time, I'm all for it.
-- "I'll be posting more crap soon, I swear!"
This will probably be lost in the wasteland of posts at this late date, but as the creator of the online comic Paradigm Shift, I certainly hope some form of practical reimbursement presents itself sometime soon.
Since I've taken the [possibly self-defeating] route of not advertising on my site, I have to work full time to pay my bills and because of that my poor comic suffers--mainly from infrequent updates to the story. I mainly do this because I think it looks tacky and detracts from the reading experience. While I'm hoping to eventually sell miscellaneous merchedise (t-shirts) and a printed compelation of the book through the website (mainly for laughs), I don't expect to make much off of it any time soon.
As it stands, most online comic creators like me are stuck going it alone and only the most determined of us will get anywhere, and usually only after great investments of time and money.
I chose to pursue online comics because it was the fastest way to get my stories out to an audience. Hopefully, creators like Scott McCloud and myself can look forward to actually making some sort of living from our art form, even if it's only on the web.
dirk
www.dynamanga.net
After reading these replies I wanna throw out all the Republicrats and Demopublicans and replace them with the Liberatarians and Greenies! Then we'd have some real fun!
(Just another fairy commie pinko voting for Nader.)
I beg to differ on that. We have to have a license in order to drive a motor vehicle. It shows that we can competently operate the machine and have knowledge of traffic laws. We have to go through alot more red tape in order to drive than in order to purchase a handgun.
I think that if you have a legitimate reason to own a gun (hunting, defense, sport, etc--all are perfectly valid), a basic license shouldn't be a big deal. Sure, criminals are going to get ahold of guns if they want one, but a short waiting period and registration of a weapon isn't going to throw a monkeywrench into most people buying a gun.
Hey, but if somebody down the line really decides to take all the guns away, I'll be right there with you to defend it--probably with a illegal gun at that point.
But, don't start accusing people of taking away the guns just because someone wants some basic precautions taken. Remember, we go through more hassle in order to drive.
Cheers.
Moore's Law was repealed on Tuesday when the Supreme Court ruled...
Despite his rhetoric concerning 'the CyberCulture' and 'the Digital Age', he may have a point. Politics, particularly the democratic campaigning and election process, does seem (at least to me) as something that is further and further away from me and my world. So, if this is the case and ultimately the current form of politics becomes completely irrelevant, what is next? What will rise up to fill the void? Some would say 'Big Business', but they're just as entrenched in the current system as Washington is. Others (like Katz) might say the internet subculture will, but that seems unlikely, considering that most of the people I know, while vocal internet users, don't know the first place to start reforming the government, especially online. Maybe it will take sweeping moves by an overwhelming minority in control to piss enough of us off to actually do something
about it.