Blaglash.com

This is a debate that will reverberate ad nauseum on the internet until, of course, something is done about it.

A majority of internet users believe that the services and software they use on the internet should be entirely free of charge. We know this, but what we also know is that this argument is a rapid-fire gut punch of incongruous logic that even a child could see straight through.

The argument is this: Everything I do on the internet is free. Because I say so, and because I don’t want to pay (this is usually said with a self-righteous shrug or an exquisite whine, if pushed).

And here’s the reality: I pay for every service and product I use in the offline world, and it doesn’t eat me up inside.

Let’s use Twitter as the obvious relevant example.

I pay for my cell phone. I pay extra for SMS. I paid for my computer. I pay for software updates. I pay for several of my email accounts. I pay for the hosting of this very blog (which is interesting in and of itself, that most of us are happy to pay for web hosting, for the sole fact that it has never been free). In essence, I pay a one-time, monthly, or per-use fee for every single product and service that Twitter provides or implements that I (the dunderfuck reader) expect to be free.

But you’re not going to find me making the case for business models or the idea that Twitter “deserves” my money. Frankly, I don’t give a shit.

What I do care about is how well the software I choose to use runs, how stable it is, and how much it benefits me overall.

Would I pay $5 a month to use Facebook? No. I personally wouldn’t.

Would I pay $5 a month to use Myspace? No. But my record label would likely foot that bill as Myspace is a platform we have been able to leverage to actually make more money off of my band’s account than Myspace makes from ads to host it.

Would I pay $5 a month to use Twitter? Abso-fucking-lutely. Why Twitter over Myspace or Facebook? Simply because I like it better and it does more for me every day. Nothing else.

Would I pay $5 a month to use Netflix? Yes. Duh. And is the fact that they actually mail me a tangible disc in a shoddy red envelope the real reason I choose to pay for this service? Of course not.

So there’s a few things going on here.

1. If the entire web moved to a subscription service, there would be, no doubt, a massive backlash. But this is not based on any sense of real-world logic. It will be the cries of a million billion spoiled brats who expect the red carpet treatment.
2. Web services are only free because providers are afraid of this backlash and because the precedent is: tangible things cost money, things that appear on my computer screen don’t. Well, they do, but they don’t if they can be opened in a browser (is this seriously the fucking standard we’re basing a multi-billion dollar industry on?)
3. Face it. Seriously, get up right now, look in the mirror, and say the following words: “If web services began charging and I leave their platform, they aren’t losing anything.” Isn’t it incredible that services like Twitter, when faced with the fact that 99% of their population would automatically walk out the door see this as a loss? Twitter is spending money to have these people consume the very resources that cause their servers to crash. Isn’t my +$5 a better amount than the -$xxxxx they’re currently spending?
4. Last but not least, it seriously wouldn’t be a terribly bad thing if the subscription model forced us all to make more deliberate decisions w/r/t our use of web apps. I wouldn’t visit sites I didn’t think were valuable enough for my money. Meaning those providers could stop forcing whatever haphazard monetization model they’ve conceived down my throat, meaning that their services could be more reliable to their “true” customers on a server level, meaning that their communities will now be made up of the die-hards, meaning that their profits can rise, meaning their business is worth more to other businesses, meaning they have more value to the consumer, meaning the provider could implement new features without worrying as much, meaning…

So in essence, none of us actually believe in our hearts that web services should be free. We just kind of like the fact that they are. So instead of being crybabies, let’s be the first wave of consumers to tell our favorite application developers and businesspeople that we value their services and we expect to be treated as red carpet consumers. I don’t want to be one of Tom’s 200mm (or whatever) Myspace friends. I want to be one of his favorite customers. And I don’t want any more ads or shameless throat-shoving of marketing crap. And I want my sites to stay up all the time. And I want them to give me really cool shit to play with. And I don’t want to fear that my favorite applications could collapse at any moment.