this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Would you stop donating to a free service if it started putting up paywalls? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 month ago by lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I've been donating to the news site Vox for a while now, and all their content has so far been free. I felt kinda bad about blocking the ads on their site and fast-forwarding through all the ad breaks in their podcasts. So in the spirit of actually supporting something I like, I started chipping in a few bucks a month.

But recently, they've started putting some of their articles behind a paywall. Since I was already donating, I automatically have access. But for some reason, I feel like I don't wanna pay anymore. It's not like it costs me more, but there's just something about dontating to a free site vs paying for exclusive content that doesn't feel the same. Maybe cuz I'm not a fan of paywalls in general, so I don't want to support companies that implement them.

Does that make sense? What would you do? And if you're not a fan of Vox, maybe think of some other free service/content, like videos from a streamer or a software project or something.

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[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I would stop. At that point it's not really a donation, but a payment. I don't know how much of that donation to consider a "payment".

Similarly I didn't get the Tor Project stickers. I don't know how much the stickers, envelope and postage cost them, thus I couldn't determine the amount that is "donation". As such, I opted not to take them. Just the same with Fediverse Canvas 2024 stickers. Some amount of that has went for Canvas development, but how much I don't know. Once again I opted for donation only.
I'd like them in both cases. Perhaps $3 (excl. shipping) per sticker is still OK to consider a purchase, but $25 for a few stickers, meh.

Anyway, my point is, if for the donation I am provided exclusive products or services and I either don't know their cost (to subtract from donation amount) or don't have the choice to opt out from being provided the services/products, I won't donate at all.

But even outside of that, it wouldn't pass. For me, one requirement for donating is that whatever group I am donating to provides everyone the same service no matter if you pay them or not. Otherwise I can't really consider it a donation, and I don't have the money to pay.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

I feel the same way you do and I think you articulated this difficult concept pretty well.

How would you feel about a third, hybrid category called something like an “inflated price” or whatever, that’s understood to be a price above market value?