Paying to view

[wenwilder]

I love doing research, of all the things I do in a days time, research is my favorite. Knowing that I can go from reading a book to doing a search online, while talking to friends if I choose, makes researching more fun.

All the fun comes to a grinding halt though, when I find one of those websites that require you to pay for a membership to view them. I use to believe that only the 'taboo' sites required this, but I'm finding that more and more sites are switching to the 'pay-to-view' method and it STINKS! (That's a technical term by the way:) )

I have yet to see a perfect website so I know that's not what they are asking you to pay for, and I haven't found a site with flawless information. All content is written from the writers point of view, and it is never 100% complete. There is always an 'unkown'.

Now, it is not that I mind paying for a member ship IF I am going to visit that site often for the information they provide. I know others feel this way as well, and they may pay for a membership.

Who started this trend? The almighty buck definately rules doesn't it? At this rate we're going to have to pay to get into the shopping center before we go shopping. What fun that would be!

[Tubby]

I can understand some sites doing this, I always pay for my newspaper before reading it.

Of course it the content is not pretty good it would be a great way to loose traffic.

Tubby

[wenwilder]

You pay for newspapers and other periodicals for the up to date information they provide. News sells. Topic specific information, whether for research or entertainment, you go to a library because it is a store-house of information. Libraries, last I knew, were free. Since the internet I haven't set foot in a library because it is much easier to type in "tofu recipes", hit enter, and then browse through the results in the comfort of my own home.

I can understand paying for a membership to online periodicals, but I am not going to pay for a membership to the latest "dating" site just to read an article on the Psychology of Red in Romance Websites. I pretty much know what the article is going to say, but I'm always curious about the possibility that it may add a fresh perspective.

Not everything should come with a price tag.

[Tubby]

I have thought that there is possibly an oportunity for some central fund to operate, Where a user could simply have say, a part-cent, deducted from their account for everytime they visit some chosen sites.

This way a user could top up their account and visit some of the more information laden sites at an economical price.

There are a lot of sites that are well worth visiting for information that have no other option other than to cram adverts in - or have pop ups to pay the way.

A great number of sites would open up their vaults (so to speak) for a mere 1 cent for five visits.

It could be used for pages like this
www.restored-classic.com/chevy

I think in a onother ten years or so something of this sort could well be 'normal'

[redcircle]

I think they already have that sort of thing for the porno sites.. not that I know from personal experience or anything.. but they hide it behind the age verification thing. Pay them a fee and get access to all the sites on their ring.

[Tubby]

I imagine something a bit different, maybe organised by your ISP even.

Re Porn; they send me enough free samples, via spam and advertising - to satisfy my needs a dozen times over, in fact just having an email address these days is over-subscribing to porn.

[wenwilder]

What price do you put on information though? If you willingly place information on a website, then in my opinion, it is meant to be shared.

I don't place any information on my site that is not 1. supported, and 2. provides enough information for a potiential client to do my job themselves. I suppose I could place ALL of my information on the site and charge a fee for viewing it and for its usage. What fun would that be though?

Okay, my main frustration is............

In the beginning a simple method of sharing information was needed, thus the Internet. Pay-to-view sites are every where now. Information is no longer freely shared. It, like so many other things in our lives, has become a 'money maker.' The Internet is no longer seen as the wonder it is, instead it is becoming the scam of the century.

Visually challanged and contentextual incoherent websties bearing get rich quick schemes, illegally obtainable prescription medication ads, and chatroom stalkers have become the norm. When we're not deleting email we're searching for answers on a medium that proved humanity hadn't lost out to technology, because people from every country, speaking every language - no matter the age, skin color, race, religion, sex...etc. - was sharing information, and sometimes laughs, freely for no other reason than they could.

Society is losing faith in the corporate mongers that try to tell us what to think, what to wear, what to eat, and why. Small businesses are back in the game, competting with brand name companies because people want honesty and 'real'.

If you don't want to share information, don't put it on the internet, and if you do put it on the internet consider the true price tag if you make it pay-to-view. Whether we want to admit it or not, people try to find ways to cheat the system - get things free or cheap - because the system has to high a price tag and to few benefits to warrant paying.

[Tubby]

Yes i agree with most of that...

but a different spin would be the liberation of the little man, (staying with the classic car theme here)

It always has been a waste of time trying to sell scarce parts for pre dated cars; a rusted out panel from an early 1928 car has value to someone who is probably a thousand mile away - but its value is, as a pattern. Waste of time putting it in a newspaper it's too expensive and anyway you already know of everyone restoring a similar car for a hundred miles around.
to simply be able to email a photo to a service, so that someone who needs it, can find it, is brilliant The net offers this. but to pay someone $20 to sell a $1 part is not cost effective.

what is cost effective is buyers collecting old cars and selling of the badges for $150 each, so that the car will never be complete again until someone pays $200 for the final original piece. Its cost effective to scavengers !

A great majority of classic car enthusiast spend thousands of hours working to re-create a car from their early childhood memories - "This is the car that my grandfather drove my Grandmother to Brisbane in on their Honymoon"

The Internet is quite capable of cutting the cost of newspaper advertising down to less than 1 cent an item; making it totally free will not work, making it $20 an item will not work (long term)

I do not see why Mrs Jones cannot simply list her old $5 pram that she used to push her fith child around for the last 12 months simply and easily without the hassle of registration - simply listing her phone number as a contact. . and whover is buying simply type in 'second hand pram wanted' and the computer check the location of the buyer and present them with Mrs Jones pram. . . No adverts, no unslolicited email, no middle man pawn broker. . just an extra 1 cent added to their ISP account

I am a dreamer. . But I sell more classic car parts than ebay (not talking new parts 'drop shipping')- nobody pays - and I get paid for the traffic. . It it a beautiful concept, I love it, I love the Idea so much that even though I am totally cumputer unintuative, I manage to struggle my way into this new and (potentially) Beautiful world.

There is a place on the net to provide service, make money, advertise, promote, inform, argue, rant, etc etc, I WANT IT ALL. . I do not want a thousand forums all the same, I want them all different.

Its about now that I realise I was 'Raving' and looking for the spell checker that I cannot find......

We can ALL have . . what we want !

[wenwilder]

I think I understand your idea, I think. I don't do that very often so bear with me here.

You are talking about adding a 'fee' to an existing account for a service another company provides without requiring a sign up or membership?

A person has an account with an ISP, they pay for that account. While surfing around the internet, they chance upon your site and 1 cent is billed to their ISP account, because of their visit - and there is no membership, right?

I don't think ISP's would go for it, and I'm not real sure people would find the idea appealing. Pennies add up, there would likely be constant disputes from people claiming they weren't the one's visiting the site, but someone else they allowed to use the computer. Then there's Dial-up users with the same IP's - if this idea is based on tracking through the use of IP's - identity theft, etc.

Creating a site to post rare and valuable parts to antique and collectable cars is fantastic. Charging a small fee to post an ad or view it - while I'm not sure a charge for posting or viewing an ad would be as affective as a finders fee - is a feasible idea. Goodness knows I would love an easy way to finish restoring my '69 GTO without searching every back alley website and salvage yard between here and kingdom come.

Now, if I am completely off the mark and misunderstanding your post then I am sorry. That is what I took from your post. What am I missing or not understanding?

[Tubby]

No, I do not think you misunderstood the thoughts that I placed here. But I think you might not have considered that it could be quite a simple system.

I often seem to find my thinking does not run smoothly alongside other peoples thoughts, (maybe because I am approching 60 years in a younger persons world) but I do see something of the like I described in a few years from now.

I am quite content to sit back and watch the systems fall into place one by one. . I am Totally impressed with a few of the better search engines that now produce 'local' results to my enquireys. . even though I fully understand that people who are paying 20 cents per visitor, have rather insisted that they do not wish an Australian to click on their page especially if they are located in Texas, (I wouln't want to pay for me either). . . But it does demonstrate the way things are heading . . I wonder how long it will be before Google wants to know my location before showing me a relevent result ?? less than five years I suspect.

The Internet Has to totally replace newspapers, to plan its future with the concept of the two running side by side would be very poor thinking .

If I were an ISP I would be looking to the future, I do not think I would be inclined to sit back and wait until nobody needed to subscribe anymore.