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Comment by llm_trw | Hacker News Reader

>The alternative is a free internet, where we don't need accounts to do things, because we're not building or storing advertising profiles on users. Hmmmm... imagine that.

Sure, so long as you pay for the service you're using. 10c per HN post, 50c per facebook photo.

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That's a false dichotomy. The internet has and has always had plenty of sites (including social ones) that didn't charge money or spy on users. Just because many website would prefer to exploit their users for profit today, that doesn't mean that the internet can't exist without every website creator stuffing their pockets with cash.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

If you're not paying for a service you are the product.

It just happens that for a bunch of old/small sites you were the product that the admin consumed to boost her ego when she banned you.

There's no doubt that a lot of free sites were put there because it gave something to the creator. Maybe it gave them an ego boost, maybe they felt a sense of accomplishment for creating something that became popular, or they got warm fuzzies from sharing something with others that they have a passion for.

Free internet sites that don't exploit users don't require pure altruism. I assume nobody is paying you to contribute to this site, and I assure you that I'm not being paid for it, yet here we are. Sharing and offering something without hurting anyone or taking from them.

Considering the real cost, it may be more accurate with 10^-5c per HN post, 10^-4c per Facebook photo (numbers made up). But they're a pain in the ass to pay, so we depend on people who do pay them in bulk, that is, the advertisers. But if we can invent any other method to properly trade this small amount of value, I think we can finally do away with them.

This is how web3 operates. A post cost a bit of gas (usually a penny or less) and that pays for the infrastructure (data processed and stored in the smart contract. Each user paying for their own actions prevents the need for advertisers.

Also conveniently prevents having to hear those pesky poor people complain.

Back to work!

If you're too poor to pay a penny for a post you don't really have anything of value to add to a conversation.

> 10c per HN post

Apparently some people haven't heard about Stacker News (okay it's more like $0.0001 per post, but anyways...)

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