🪙 Worth on the Web
Manuel Moreale in a post titled "Ad Blockers didn’t help kill the open web":
I agree that the web platform failed at figuring out a way to deal with monetisation. Everything ultimately falls back on Ads because it’s the only idea that “works”. But to me, the issue is that we have an overabundance of content, and most content is not worth paying for. Most content is not worth anything.
This post is worth nothing. Before the web, nobody was going to pay anything to read something like this. At best, I could write it and send it to a newspaper as an opinion piece, and maybe they’d be interested in publishing it. But for some reason, the web has morphed our perception of content to the point where everything needs to generate money because everything is considered valuable.
Sorry, I can't just read, "This post is worth nothing," in a blog post and not refute it.
Yes, the web has morphed our perception, but I disagree that, "everything needs to generate money because everything is considered valuable." The web hasn't made everyone consider everything valuable, it's pushed people to monetize. The pressure isn't to create valuable content, it's to create content that sells. Many things that sell have little or no value. Many things with immense value are things you can't put a price tag on (although some people will try).
Manuel's post has value. I value reading other people's viewpoints. I value people taking the time to articulate and share their thoughts. I value the exchange of ideas and the opportunity to learn something new. And I am not alone.
Yes, most people won't pay for a blog post like the one Manuel wrote, but I'll bet there are a handful of people who would (the main problems there are awareness and payment infrastructure, but those are rabbit holes for another day). People not paying doesn't mean something is worthless. In fact, what makes many blog posts worthwhile is the fact that they're free in almost every sense of the word: free to read, free to share, and (practically) free to write. Manuel acknowledges the near-zero cost to run a blog, but, again, that doesn't make the posts on a given blog worthless.
In the same post, Manuel opens with this:
In the spirit of the open web, I’m writing this post to disagree with something someone else has posted on their own site. Specifically, a post titled “Ad Blockers helped kill the open web” by Christian Heilmann.
Even now, 37 years after it was created, I'm still in awe of the power of the web. Christian wrote a thing and shared it with the world. Manuel read that, wrote about it, and shared it with the world. I read that, wrote this, and now you're reading it. You're thinking about what they wrote and what I'm writing.
Who knows what might happen next? Maybe you'll write your own post. Maybe you'll share this post or one of the posts linked above with someone. Maybe you'll subscribe to one of our feeds. Maybe you'll learn a new word or a new way to use some punctuation. Maybe you'll view source and learn something new about CSS. Maybe you'll start your own blog.
The possibilities, both in number and in potential value, are endless. The connections between everyone involved are precious. Our ability to learn from each other without ever meeting is sublime. The fact that I have access, via the web, to Manuel and Christian and the thousands of others who's words I've read, voices I've heard, and videos I've watched is a gift so astonishing and profound I don't know that words alone can convey how powerful it is or how deeply I feel about it.
But I do have the words to articulate one important thing very clearly:
Manuel, your post is worth something. A whole lot, in fact. Thank you for writing it and sharing it.