It's late September and time again for me to ask for your support. (If you already support us, thank you. This message is not for you.)
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Less than one in 20 readers financially support us. We need this to be higher so we can hold on to the independent ethic we have built.
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48 Comments
A few examples:
- regular derogatory use of the term ‘doomsters’ in articles, negative implication for many of us who are inherently pessimistic about the economy
- tolerance for unfounded putdowns by certain commenters on some of us
- A big one for me, which annoyed me: got a pretty impersonal email telling me I didn’t have the ‘green tick’ because I had only just subscribed. In fact, I had been subscribing for months. It’s just that I hadn’t logged in via PressPatron
- apparently no consideration given on reasonable feedback. Listening to and valuing customer feedback is pretty fundamental to subscriber services
It is us that is the problem, not the editors/moderators.
I will never understand why some people just can't either ignore other's posts.
I think a downvote option may help. As currently, to oppose a comment you are limited to typing a rebuttal. A simple thumbs down and you get your message across.
But geez people, it's not hard to be civil.
Good on them! I hope I feature in the mocking. Is it true though?
With the amount of banter in the comments, with certain monikers hating on each other, I've always wondered what a "Interest.co Christmas Function" would be like. Name card holders with people's Int.co handle in bold. David Chaston breaking up fisticuffs between unlikely suspects in the alleyway after the bar tab has run dry.
Donated previously via PressPatron when COVID hit and interest.co.nz needed some financial support as they were losing their advertising revenue. Then not long afterwards without any warning, the account access was permanently removed. To my knowledge, there was no breach of the commenting policy and guidelines.
Dear Interest,
Obviously, the vast majority who don't contribute, like to get something for nothing. Clearly, just asking nicely to be paid for your work, is not working. I really hope you will take more serious measures to get rid of the free loaders, before you go bust, it would be a real shame to lose you.
I have to agree Yvil, despite some of my issues with this website (would be nice if they could be reflected on at least). Especially for those who regularly comment and are on here a lot. A minimum of $10 per month is hardly anything these days. Some of those who have said they won’t contribute hardly sound hard up.
I agree with Yvil. If a paywall is erected i will Pay. There must be other commercial opportunities available as well. I will say however the banter in the comments is a valuable part of the proposition.
the interest team are very removed from their community and could definitely “sweat” them harder commercially.
I'm also happy to pay, but a paywall would be very sad - the best thing about interest is that it provides accessible and non-partisan coverage of economic issues that, at least semi-frequently, is able to reach an audience well beyond us tragics who comment here every day. That's amazing because I don't know any site overseas that achieves that.
In any country, but especially a small country like ours, the value of public interest journalism that grows our collective understanding is huge. For example I think this site is the main reason that the NZ subreddit broadly understands what drives mortgage rates, whilst the UK subreddit doesn't.
Hmm, the reason I don't 'pay' (as I've stated in a past int.co survey to them) is that I don't regard their reporting as 'independent', specifically Trump and those that voted him in. Others such as Brock Landers referred to it as 'orange man bad' so I wasn't alone in this thought.
I have no problem with int.co picking a team, it's your site. However, given that you have, is it reasonable to hold up the 'independence' banner as a reason to pay?
I also stated in surveys that I mainly come for the comments - articles by Keith Woodford would be an exception which I'll read in great detail. Is there an option to fund commenters I think contribute more value than the article writers themselves?
I'm posting this to see what others think, am I being too demanding/unreasonable?
Hi Pa1nter, as you may know, I really appreciate your comments, I think highly of you, but I'm sad that there's no green tick next to your name. You post lots, which means you read lots too. I also understand that you're not exactly poor. Com'on Pa1nter, please do the right thing and support Interest.
I think someone can critique the Trump phenomenon in a non-partisan way
Certainly. To clarify I'm specifically talking about the slurs in the breakfast / 4pm news articles. I'm not talking about my ability to comment (not that I had an account then anyway). I'm not pro-Trump, don't like his personality or methods generally, but that doesn't automatically mean everything he did was bad and the people who voted for him were stupid as was the narrative pushed. Pretty hard to get a bad word on Biden and his supporters in the same slots.
Thanks, I wouldn't have commented, but I am being asked to pay for the independence which is why I posted on the level of independence.
I have contacted and directly paid for what I regard as good investigative journalism and reporting on migrant exploitation issues in the past so I'm not a total cheapskate.
I went back to see what I was commenting in those early days. And indeed I wasn't commenting much at all. Whereas now I see him for who he is - an aspiring dictator. I think in the early days (given I'm an American) I thought, well if the Americans living there elected him, who am I who doesn't live there (and doesn't vote in their elections) to challenge that? I look back now and think, wow, others had him pegged from the get-go.
Glad to be seeing the Trump Corporation fraud recently adjudged just that - I do wonder whether it is the longest successful run of fraudulent behaviour in US history. .
A paywall would ultimately end the beauty of this site which is the comments and community, be it of opposed views.
It would be interesting to know what the team does with advertising. Financial advertising is highly valuable, and advertisers pay premium price for a finance focused audience.
Would highly recommend the team be a bit more active within the community and reply to emails or out reach, it would probably help in boosting the donations.
Youtubers don't get donations because of the content, it's the connection and human emotion side of it.
You can't win with some, even if you change what they're requesting they'll come up with some other reason not to support. I would of thought with the increase in TD rates some here may have more $ to support. Where else would some DGM commentators go to get their fix?
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