The web is changing. (Nobody denies that, of course.) The biggest changes revolve around money. (And that, as well, is not exactly surprising.)
The impetus of these changes is a shift in perspective by major web companies and media sources—a perspective that is not yet shared by their audiences.
the web is going downhill
…or so many claim. This collection of articles countering that claim has been circulating rapidly in circles I follow in the past few months but, while it may seem like I’m about to refute the claim myself, I’m not. For the most part, I agree with the sentiment: the web has, overall, moved further and further down a track of commercialization, with sites dropping paywalls everywhere—sometimes with the honorable goal of keeping their articles from being slurped up by ChatPGT and its ilk.
But, over time, I’ve been able to tune all of that noise out. There’s a beautiful, wonderful corner of the web that’s still independent and open. And, once I learned where to look, I’ve found easily enough community and reading material to satisfy me.
That’s one nice thing about the web: no matter how how bad the mainstream parts of it get, there are always corners that keep to a high standard.
But that’s not my point; I’ll get back to those corners.
the shift in perspective
There’s something I notice when I look at the early web: nearly everything is free. Free as in gratis, no cost. Made available to everyone.
Even the current powerhouses of the web’s commercialism like Google and Facebook are, with a very few exceptions, companies that don’t charge a cover fee to access their services. (Of course, they’re able to afford that by selling their users’ data.)
That’s beginning to change. YouTube is pushing harder and harder for viewers to subscribe to YouTube Premium. Twitter and Reddit have begun limiting or outright disabling free access to their APIs.
Advertisements have been the primary source of revenue online for so long that denizens of the web have become accustomed to being able to access everything for free.
Here’s what I think has changed: ads just don’t make money anymore.
I mean, sure, there’s some money to be made. But not nearly the level that’s sustainable for most small creators. And for big companies, it’s far less than it was, which tends to upset shareholders. Advertising is what the commercial web was built around, but it’s no longer able to fill that role.
The web is going to shift. Paywalls will crop up everywhere. And, to be honest, I think that can be taken as a good thing: the advertising industry was terrible and super invasive. If done carefully, I think this shift can be harnessed to make the web a better place.
monetizing the corners
Remember those pristine corners of the web I mentioned? The places that remain unsullied by the mainstream web’s practices? The places that link to each other with blogrolls?
Those are the places I want to see survive and thrive. And I believe that they will, no matter what happens to the rest of the web. But, like a garden, we can feed and sustain this corner’s growth with proper nutrition.
The small web will survive, no matter what, sustained by hobbyists. But to really thrive and grow, it needs support.
- We need cheap, cost-effective blogging solutions so that anyone can join the conversation
- We need ways to discover new sites in this ecosystem so we don’t keep dipping back into the mainstream web whenever we hit a snag
- We need technologies to make building sites easier and flatten the learning curve to make the small web
And, to make all of this work at a fundamental level, the small web needs funding. Crowdfunding, not VC funding. We need the readers of the small web to wrap their heads around the idea that the web costs money to support and maintain. Currently, much of the small web is funded out of the pockets of its creators.
Platforms like Liberapay are a good start. Through Liberapay, I’m finally breaking even on my hosting costs.
A donation-based funding model is often thought of as a tip jar, but let’s reframe it: a donation-based model is where some people with deeper pockets pay more to subsidize the costs for everyone who can’t afford as much. I love that model. It’s what Uberspace uses for their web hosting, and I love that.
I think we need more models, though. A donation-based model has a high cost of entry, requiring an existing audience with money to spare.
a new funding model (that I wish actually existed)
The problem with an individualized donation-based model, I think, is on the donors’ side: it’s so hard to figure out who to donate to. I know I follow over 80 different blogs, and there’s no way I could afford to financially support each individually. Or even just logistically manage all the overhead of that.
What I’d like to see is small web collectives, where a number of bloggers and small site owners team together and create a collective people can donate toward to support all members.
I think with a number of good collectives to support, the small web could be a much stronger place. That’s what I want to see: normalized financial contributions to projects and individuals who are making the web a better place.
conclusion
So, to sum up:
- The web is changing, since advertisements don’t really work as a funding source anymore
- For the mainstream web, this means paywalls, APIs closing, and a generally worse experience
- The small web costs money too, but with better systems of crowdfunding it we can make the web a stronger place as a whole
If you have ideas about this, I would love to hear them. My email address (and public key, if you want that) are below, I can’t wait to hear from you.
