Comment on How should a news article website financially sustain itself?

Bourff@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Installing ransomware on every computer that visits the site. (/s)

  source
• vk6flab@lemmy.radio ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Can you elaborate why you think that your comment requires a sarcasm tag?

  I’m asking because getting the reader to contribute some CPU cycles whilst they read your content seems to be a way to balance the books, they get something from you, you get something from them.

  Note that I’m not a fan of Bitcoin et. al., but the idea of making the reader’s computer calculate something or process something on the authors’ behalf seems, at least at first glance, a valid and potentially unobtrusive transaction.

  source

  • Bourff@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    First, crypto is mostly a scam. But if it’s clearly said that visiting the site will use 100% of your cpu, drain the battery and make your device crawl while the fans go crazy, then sure why not. Otherwise it’s a dark pattern. And I thought mining on cpus was near useless these days, but that may depend on the specific blockchain used.

    source

    • vk6flab@lemmy.radio ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I understand your concerns and I have as little confidence in the concept of crypto as it currently exists as you’re expressing.

      I had no intention to peg a user’s CPU, but if we extend the concept of CPU cycles for content, perhaps a browser could process some data or make calculations, like say data analytics, or some other distributed process that would benefit the author and in doing so would allow both to have a win-win experience.

      source

      • Bourff@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I don’t know if it’s actually feasible, but if it’s really unobtrusive and clearly stated then yes I think that would be fair game.

        source