Comments on: Flattr: new micropayments system from Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

They will have to ensure revenues keep up with the expansion of site buttons, otherwise they will collapse.

Transparency could be a problem.

With Paypal or a credit card it’s not impossible to get scammed, but it’s easy to figure out if you have been scammed. If you don’t get the goods or service you pay for there is a problem. If money is missing from your account, you know there is a problem.

If you do some flattring andno one gets paid how would you know? If you are able to monitor the clicks on your site, how do you know for sure you are getting your rightful share? Is this a public venture? Will they be obligated to conform to some sort of financial disclosure and audit standards?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sure, here’s how it’s different: flattr borrows the “-r” ending from popular websites like flickr and tumblr, whereas kachingle borrows the “-gle” ending from google.
So, they’re unoriginal in different ways.

By: den_of_thieves

den_of_thieves — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As a content creator I wish that a plan like this would work, but I’m a skeptical. I don’t see what incentive the user has to sign up for such a service. Sure plenty of people might be willing to drop a buck in an online tip jar but would they be willing enough to go through the process of setting up this service? To go to the web page, enter your user information, banking information, create a new password? If this is going to work the sign up process had better be REALLY quick and painless because from hear it looks like a lot of hoops to jump through just to be beneficent.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’d much rather click a ‘flattr’ button than click thru some google ads as a form of micropayment. Which I do, BTW, and I bet a bunch of others do, too.

By: Daedalus

Daedalus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m thinking of this something like a voluntary internet tax for the free cool stuff I get from the Internet every day.

I really like the flat fee idea, because it is very empowering, in a way that a lot of social web stuff isn’t (all those little “share” buttons don’t do anything FOR ME, but Flattr makes me feel like I’m actively contributing to the stuff that I like). I’ve got this potential, every month, and now it is up to The Internets to earn it. And I can click as much as I want without worrying about “overdraft” charges or the like, so I am encouraged to give over and over again. It bypasses the “how much will this cost me?” question I have as a consumer, because I know the cost ahead of time. I mean, how many people keep a keen eye on their cell phone bills, or their WoW payments? I’d gladly Flattr a cool YouTube video posted to Boing Boing, or such. Indeed, I see this as a stronger incentive for creators than bloggers, since if you link to my YouTube video, that’s giving people the chance to Flattr that video, not you for the link.

I love that we’re trying new things. It’s about time.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Like http://www.sprinklepenny.com but not as pretty

By: zaimond

zaimond — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That should be “Many small streams make a large river”.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I like the idea a lot. It occurs to me that if I want to give one creator a bigger slice of cake, I can just click twice. I think its definitely workable, but I’d need to see flattr buttons on my favourite sites before I’ll sign up.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Could someone please tell me in how far Flattr is different from Kachingle??? http://kachingle.com/

By: QauNuckShin

QauNuckShin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Some additional info:

Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan said you will be able to choose your own flat rate, but that it will have a lower limit of â‚¬2 (about $3). Initially, flattr will keep 10% of the monthly fee. According to Sunde, their hope is that they will be able to lower this as the service gets more users. Additional revenue could actually be interest on the money during the time flattr has it.

Flattr is a registered corporation (“Aktiebolag”) in Sweden, and in the interview Sunde was pretty open about the fact that they do want make a revenue:
- “We want a model where we earn money, but we want as much of it as possible to go to the people the users choose to send money to. Our goal isn’t to get rich doing this, our goal is giving the internet a simple transaction solution. We will take as small a port of the cake as possible — if we become too expensive, the service will no longer be attractive.”

Swedish newspaper article: http://sydsvenskan.se/kultur-och-nojen/article629142/Peter-Sunde-byter-kurs-med-Flattr.html

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think it’s a lovely idea that definitely deserves exploring, but has anyone considered that the cake may well turn out to be a lie?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Give ‘im a break, Swedish is his native tongue.

By: Jonathan Golub

Jonathan Golub — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

They should have called it Beggr. Because that’s what content creators will be doing with it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

10%? I thought PayPal was high at 5%.

By: Noctilucent

Noctilucent — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s how to fix the world and for the first time reward artists fairly & equitably for their work.

* Establish a WORLDWIDE ISP tax. Individuals pay, whatever, say 5 bucks a month, corporations pay more.

* All the money goes into a big ol’ pot

* All created content – writing, music, video, stills, whatever – goes on a Central Royalty Server, ala iTunes. (I’d prefer not to use the server, but it seems you need it centralized to eliminate fraud)

* All content is free to users. Like a song? Download the MP3. Every download delivers 1/10th of a cent or whatever to the creator.

Problem solved.

By: thievery1017

thievery1017 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

sounds a bit like imooch.com. but what’s the motivation for someone to by cake in this case? even if people are generous… they’re also lazy about signing up for anything.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Must admit I’m intrigued. Digg + tip jar. My only observation is this will likely drive content creators to split their content into separate flattr-able chunks? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I guess. Also, this might seem neat because the abuse patterns aren’t well worn — I’d like to see the security/trust structure first.

By: Xenu

Xenu — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

From the site:

We aim to revolutionize how people pay and get payed for content…

*Forehead slap*

By: wispsmoke

wispsmoke — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That pronunciation sounds awfully close to fellated..

By: manicbassman

manicbassman — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Google should get into this and also provide a proper alternative to ebay and paypal…

the micropayment system would link in well with providing a limited preview of the page through Google search with the option to click through and make a micropayment to see the entire article.

and by micropayments, I mean small sums like a penny or two…

By: Hosidax

Hosidax — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ok I have to admit it seems cool, but I’m a little concerned about the cake…

http://snipr.com/uby8k

By: dunkalunk

dunkalunk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This name sounds way too much like a cutesy form of flatus for my tastes.

“Oop! I made a flattr…”

By: Daemon

Daemon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s basicly digg, but with money.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

So if you consume more content you pay less for it than if you consume less content. And there’s no real incentive to pay the fee other than guilt? Love? Altruism? I won’t hold my breath.

By: alexdecampi

alexdecampi — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Potentially useful as an online tip jar, but doesn’t help those of us selling content for a set (if small) amount – such as 99 cent albums, comics, etc – and looking for a micropayments alternative to the black hole of suck that is Paypal.

By: Kennric

Kennric — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maybe it is silly of me, but I am always annoyed by business and projects that insist on presenting their information only in video form. Sure, a nice synopsis video is great for presentations, but while I am listening to the radio, or at work in my quiet shared cubicle, or just want the basic facts quickly, I expect to be able to go to a website and read up. I don’t need your model in narrative form, just the basic facts – I’ll dig deeper if they look interesting.

Anyway, it does look interesting – not any kind of revolutionary idea, but if someone with enough public interest and audience (anyone here know what this Pirate Bay thing is?*) can push it mainstream, it could be the micropayment system that actually catches on – widespread uptake is the key. Having a flat rate really helps, I think, you don’t need to work out an elaborate credit card authorization/authentication process for every transaction.

I’ll give it a shot, see what happens.

*That was a joke.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reminds me of another website, Fattr. You buy a cake from their site, and every time you hear, see, or read content you like, you eat another piece.

By: Kennric

Kennric — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For those with a big audience, the “pay what you want” tip jar is actually pretty darned effective – if you are Radiohead you can just give up the idea of any set price tag and know you’ll make plenty. For those handful of us who aren’t quite as well known as them, I wonder… would ten people give you ten cents each with an ultra-simple click, who would not have given you 99 cents for your product, especially if it involved a PayPal transaction?

I would love to see someone do this for a while and see if the tip jar collects more than a set price does – a tricky experiment to setup a control for. I’ll give it a shot, but I am starting with a free product, not a priced one.

I also wonder what their flat rate is, and is it variable? If I want to be a Patron of the Internet Arts, can I put ten million in and pick a handful of webcomics I really really love?

By: Gtmac

Gtmac — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

So content creation should now be targeted to those that find your content interesting enough to bother clicking your flattr button but not to those that regularly click flattr buttons in general.

You get a much larger piece of cake from someone who casually flattr’s or rarely remembers to than those that actively and regularly engage in the model.

How counter-intuitive.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

part of me says great, another part is just so tired of our obsession with “content” and “payments” and shit that has been around from the beginning of time but is being shoved down our throats in discussion over and over with this new “internet revolution” to the Nth degree. i know, people need money to live, blah blah blah. i’m so much happier doing my thing on my own and not thinking about it than i was when i was thinking about it. fuck all this wasted energy. just make what you want to make and forget about marketing yourself.