How do we all feel about the possibility that the long-term viability of a platform like this remaining not crappy would require many of us to pay a small monthly fee?
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
As long as the fee is small, my only note would be that it should be rolled out on a country-by-country basis, and not start in a country until it's possible to use the most accessible payment method in that area (in Sweden, where I live, the payment app Swish, or direct-transfer from your bank).
I would pay as I suspect others would. Provided that the direction is a non toxic as possible. Jack Dorsey exiting the board (while he's advocating for Xhitter) is evidence that some chlorine is being added to the Bsky pool.
I’m not into this idea. At all. It will cut it off for many who are strapped even for $5. I hope it can stay free for everyone to be able to participate.
i would be ok paying 5$ monthly just to support bluesky, without anything in return, maybe some badge to show i support bluesky... thats it
if its 10$ or more, id need something in return...
maybe better video quality? option to edit posts within the first 10mins of posting or smthn? custom emojis?
Don't know about that. One thing trump and republicans want to do is erase any and all regulation from any and all companies in america. Bluesky might find better ways of making money. Though i'm not sure those ways would be any better.
To be perfectly honest I would stop using bsky. I don’t have enough money to throw away that I would find spending money to USE a social media worth it
Honestly, as long as paying the fee is NOT the way to be "verified" or boosted in any way, I'd be fine with it. Too many morons on X paying $8 a month made it unusable. Although it was an easy way to see who should be blocked.
I don't really care about having a place with less people who are better, I want a good place where everyone can be. This site doesn't mean anything to me if my friends/followers aren't here
It's people that make or break a thing. As long as we are willing to block all the toxicity and forced political ideology, I can see that having a positive impact for quite a while, although, NOTHING is guaranteed.
It's all dependant on how it is presented. The normalization of subscription services is really emotionally burdensome on anyone at the end of their budgets and I know it pushes me from a platform or app to be constantly hounded.
Discord has become a bit of a nightmare about it for example.
That they are a certified B corp gives me hope. I’d gladly pay $15 a month for Bluesky so long as they keep their promises and continuously develop improvements aimed at the end user.
As long as it's not a requirement to use the site or to use key features (muting/blocking, alt text, etc.), I'm alright with it. It's not something I could afford to pay for, but if other people wanted to I wouldn't fault them.
Might be worth it if it prevents the gross twt ads. As an artist, I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for marketing purposes, too. Ofc, we'd have to ensure the user experience for those who can't afford it wouldn't worsen.
Let me pay to make aesthetic changes like let me put a cool border around my profile pic or a fun emoji next to my name that does not affect the reach of my posts or functionality of the site at all.
I’d be very happy to pay a monthly subscription to keep this platform ad-free. The other place is a cess pit of crypto scams, drop-ship crap, and gambling ads. Make BlueSky the happy place instead of the place you go to doom scroll… 😀
lots of things would need to improve first. since my departure from the Evil App, i’ve replaced much of my scrolling with tumblr rather than here, which is surprising
A hard No. Placing a required fee, no matter how small, immediately shuns those who cannot afford to pay a monthly fee. Maybe a better way is to request a donation similar to what The Guardian does.
No problem with paying for a service that gives me the control I have here. I also have no issues with ads if there is a paid version without ads. With the ads shouldn't have much if any targeting
Just start running free ads and charge a fee to remove them, instead of locking users out if they don't pay—seems like the standard approach for most apps these days. Honestly, I was surprised not to see any ads on Bluesky yet.
I think it’s probably the best of bad options. Platforms at this scale need meaningful revenue to not suck, and most of the other ways to get it are worse.
Yeah, I think they're planning on this sort of direction. I'm imagining something similar to Steam. Just photo borders and little things to spice up our profile pages without dramatically impacting the uniformity or usability of the site.
If companies and businesses pay for it, then you're the product again. I think we've seen that this model does not create networks worth participating in.
I don’t really think getting the NYT or Guardian to pay for their branded accounts does that. Or airline or telecommunications companies. If they want to be where they won’t be next to unsavoury advertising or racist posts, that’s worth something.
OH wow I didn't even know that. I was made mod of an NSFW subreddit that has no content just for a laugh like 7 years ago. So I was confused why people were complaining about Redreader when it was fine for me.
I'm fine with it as long as there's good journalists here. Twitter used to be actually great at getting both real-time reporting, and we'll structured news.
Screw the app, I'm here for the protocol. If Bluesky turns to crap in a few years, I'll take my PDS over to some other, better site and not lose anything/anyone.
Every new subscription to be paid for is a stab in the thin wallet of every senior on limited income. I know because I am one, and love many more contributors and platforms than I can pay for. Perhaps there should be a scale (or “pay what you can”).
Yes. The ad revenue model seems to have genuinely degraded other social media, motivating people to talk and posture long after they ran out of things to say. To pay the bills. I would be willing right now to pay a $1 a month right now just to set the precedent.
I’m open to other ideas as well.
I would happily pay a small maintenance fee each month. Especially if the basic package remained free for everyone, and the perks were truly "extra" and not "how I want the basics to work"
Funding is important, necessary, and people should vote with their dollar. This should be the default mindset---it's a whole selling point of "capitalism" to begin with right? But worsening inequality hurts people's ability to have a vote, a voice in spaces like this, and with corporations broadly.
It will be hilarious to watch BlueSky--an internal, free-speech Twitter clone project, that Elon Musk tried kill off--out sell X in subscription revenue... almost overnight. 🤣
Yep. If it's tight I'll probably just cancel my paid subscription to one of the podcasts I don't listen to but like the hosts of and swear one day I'll catch up on the backlog.
The beauty of a place like this is it is available to everyone regardless of financial standings. There are many people whom paying a even a small subscription would make this platform out of reach. Right now we are all on equal standing regardless of our resources.
Users should *want* to pay their way. If a site doesn't make money it can't operate and scale. If no income from users, it has to make it from someone else - ads, sponsored posts, billionaires wanting to swing elections, etc, which IMO is a slippery slope to the hellscapes that are X and Facebook.
Running the platform costs money, a lot of money. Advertising may pay for some of it but is unlikely to cover costs especially in the early days of the platform.
A small cost for enhancements over and above the basic platform seems logical and desirable if it does not affect the current 'atmosphere'
I wouldn't mind paying a monthly fee, especially if there is a discount option for yearly payments. As long as this continues to be as good or better than what I've seen. I would prefer to see it remain free to all users and maybe pay for some advance features.
We've tried the 'free' model, and all that did was turn us into the product. Having a small monthly fee that covers everything and can scale with new users would be far preferable, and I think far more likely to align with the things that make a platform not crap.
I think the issue is that the content creators are already providing their content for free, and you want to attract followers to the sight so that advertisers and content creators think there is any point doing that. Subject to a general principle that there needs to be a plan to turn a profit.
If it was something like WhatsApp back in the day, I don't see the problem. It was like $1 a year, lol. But I could even see $20/yr and be fine with that.
It depends. I can see this helping tamp down on bots and shit-poster backups. I also don't feel like I care enough about social media to pay for it and would likely just take it as an opportunity to delete my account
I would do that to avoid ads. Though I also like the model of charging for commercial accounts first. Of course how to determine what constitutes a business is thornier but it could work.
yep. If this is the "last stand" for any sort of coherent, well run collective community free of authoritarian shitweasels and hustlebro engagement enrepreneurs, I'll definitely pay something for it.
Bad choice. Required fees would make this a place representative of communities that make social media elitist. Optional donations are not a valid working model.
Twitter’s model is not good, but the only viable model is paying money to receive some benefit. WHAT that benefit is is the question.
The problem already exists and will inevitably need a future solution. Why not think about the future and try to get it right this time so we don't end up with the usual ads, algorithms, and oligarchs?
Subscriptions only piss me off when you get preferential treatment by the owner. X putting blue checks at the top of comments is why I hate it so much.
To some extent, feeds are customizable by independent developers, so if the https://bsky.app algorithm is skewed in a way you don't like, you can choose another, so the algorithm is under the control of the user as much as the platform.
I wouldn’t knock it. There are features I’d pay for, but it having “blue check” equivalent users here would really kill the vibe. I’m actually not totally sour on advertisements. So long as whatever’s done is done in moderation
To be viable, it needs to have lots of people. To have lots of people requires it to have people acting crappy. Monthly fee doesn't really affect that. Lessons learned from Usenet, Sept 1993.
Comments
As long as the owner isn't an egotistical conspiracy theorist that uses the platform to manipulate his way into an oligarch, then I'm in.
if its 10$ or more, id need something in return...
maybe better video quality? option to edit posts within the first 10mins of posting or smthn? custom emojis?
Yes I would happily pay money for that alone.
Platform rules and facilities and a great community
Twitter finally started turnjng green as it got bought in ‘21. But 15 years is a long time to run on a loss.
This Andy says please keep it under $5.
Subscriptions make a transactional echo chamber imho.
in my heart it feels too similar to twitter's current subscription. and that makes me feel uncomfortable
Discord has become a bit of a nightmare about it for example.
There are a lot of us living on Social Security (at least for now)...As much as I would like to give money I just cannot do it...
Also depends on price of course.
If we are the ones funding the site, we're the customers.
If advertising is what funds the site, they're the customer.
There's also that saying that "If you're not paying for a service, your information is the product being sold".
I’m not seeing ads or sponsored posts, no paid boost features, and no subscriptions.
While I detest ads, they do usually help with ensuring some degree of platform moderation.
But real talk, $.99 cents a month to not have advertising
I’m in!
If it has anything to do with a verification system or account boosting then fuck no
I’m open to other ideas as well.
Not sure how that would work, be vetted.
It's more "if you build it, they will come"
They being the grifters and parasites.
They target high energy and opportunity systems. You simply have to become a worthy target.
Which doesn't actually dismiss the merit to a paid service.
Just your original call out.
It's so awkward, watching you all shift spots and act the same as that which you call out.
Practice is everything.
Gimme details.
How much for what services and practice?
Make it only on the main timeline and more sparatic unlike twitter where it feels like everyother tweet and reply is an ad and it should be fine
A small cost for enhancements over and above the basic platform seems logical and desirable if it does not affect the current 'atmosphere'
The user costs should only be used to offset server costs, infrastructural operating costs, and (IMO) content moderation costs.
Twitter’s model is not good, but the only viable model is paying money to receive some benefit. WHAT that benefit is is the question.
That's like less than a coffee these days, I'm not sure why it's controversial
- Analytics
- supporter badge
Shouldn't be a perk
- algorithmic advantage
It also sounds a lot like the eX Birdy path.