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34 Comments
David, may I suggest you watch the Netflix series "The Playlist". It's the story of how Spotify came to life and how its founder, Daniel Ek, fiercely wanted a free music streaming service for all, and how he would not compromise to making it a paying service, despite Spotify losing huge amounts of $ and being many Millions in debt. The story comes to a head when, Spotify is not economically viable anymore, and is about to go bust for good. At the last minute, it's saved by their lawyer proposing a "premium service" where paying listeners can create "playlists" whilst keeping the general access free to all. Hence the title "the Playlist"
Maybe there is something to learn from it for Interest? It seems a green tick and ad-free reading is not enough to entice readers to part with their money, for your excellent site.
If people need to pay then they need to be happy with the service. Where are the surveys of readers? To what extent are readers / commentators aggravated by editorial comments and moderating approach? To what extent do readers get more out of the comments than the actual articles? What quality are the articles? To what extent have readers’ valid comments / criticisms of articles (like the regular FHB affordability one) even been considered?
Any business should be engaging with its customers and checking whether they are happy
Must be just the two of us thinking along these lines HM (I gave you the only thumbs up). No comments (being posted) would mean no interest (pun intended). I recall there was a time when comments were disabled (nothing to read, I wasn't registered then, and my time on the site was next to nothing).
I've asked before for the ability to pay commentors - I'd give $100 to Brock Landers to come back in a heartbeat.
I wonder if it is possible to pay and not have the adds nor the green tick? Or maybe a different 'tick' that says you support the platform as a place for comments, but not the editorial views. There are a dozen menu links across the page I've never clicked on.
I'm happy to support Interest even though I don't really post much.
But because I read most of the articles I believe I have a duty to support the site.
What does annoy me though is that there are some people who post all the time. They tend to dominate the site with multiple postings, usually the same old boring crap, but never think that they should financially support the site.
I am not sure what the answer is - maybe there should be a limit to how many posts a non financial person can post?
It's interesting that Interest.co is sitting between Stuff and the Spinoff in terms of its trust rating. I trust this website's news more than nearly all the competitors, even if it is limited in scope. I can only surmise that there is some kind of sample effect happening
What's it to you who should and shouldn't contribute? Are you the new up and coming Interest.co Bouncer? Just another "green tick humble-bragger".
If David thinks commentators making regular boring crap posts like myself need to stump up or dial back their activity he's got our email addresses.
I'm happy to pay and for others to post even if they haven't paid, it avoids it becoming an echo chamber like the Herald.
I'd rather you remove the tick to be honest, some people here use it to hassle others to pay when they may not be able to afford it.
I'm also happy to see ads to support the site.
I suggest the super successful people on here who always go on about how much they earn and are worth just up their donation by a factor that reflects their income/wealth in proportion to the median wage/wealth to support a great publication.
I would give more often, but I do think a bit more effort should be put into moderating the comments. Mainly against going off topic, i see a recent thread been overtaken with an argument about Gaza, which it had nothing to do with. I also think posters should be asked to back up their claims with a link, if asked.
Then again the site does not purport to be a forum, but a related phbb style forum may give posters a place to expand ideas that are lost once an article drops off the front page.
I think the missing feature is a button to collapse a part of the thread - I fully agree that parts of the comments get overtaken and all it would take is a click to minimise and hide that part of the discussion, letting me see where the main discussion resumes below
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