Would You Pay A Penny Per Page?

nebby writes "How Stuff Works is running an article regarding the "penny per page" model for web site compensation. It sounds like a very viable solution, being simple to understand, transparent to use, and fair to the webmasters and users involved. The only downside to it is that it would require a massive effort on the part of web sites, standards bodies, and/or ISPs to switch over. I know that methods of online payment have been brought up before, but in searching on Google I found no information about any groups or companies looking seriously into moving to this model. I was wondering if any such groups or initiatives have been put together, and if not, why not? :) It doesn't take much to imagine the possibilities of what the web could become if this were put in place ..." Penny-per-page actually sounds like one of the better micropayment ideas I've heard, but is just as vaporous as any of the others so far.

Re:Stephen King, author, dead at 54

[Britney]

That just cost you four pennies!

Can you say 'I have been Trolled' ?

Finally I can use all those pennies.

[suso]

I have a whole bucket load of pennies so I shouldn't have any problem surfing the web as I normally do.

Seriously though, when money is involved and it being easy enough to exploit, it wouldn't take long before a model like this would fail.

BBSpot

[Will_Malverson]

I think BBSpot [bbspot.com] gave us a glimpse of the future this will lead to with this review [bbspot.com] of a new video card.

Re:OT: Re:death of opera?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mozilla has every feature.

Nobody is sure if any of it actually works, though.

$.01/page way too much

[xrayspx]

That means if I give /. 100 page views per day, which isn't much, I give them a buck a day, compare that to a subscription to a daily paper, or a magazine. I can get Time for what, like $30/year or so, why would I pay $400/year for SLASHDOT?

Look at the debate on kuro5hin.org over this very topic, which they're actually dealing with as we speak.

I'm going to start my own Slashdot micropayment system anyway, every time I go to Boston2 to reboot some friggin NT box, I'm going to throw my loose change under their cage gate. It might amount to a buck or 3 per month. Admins, listen up, bring a broom with you to Exodus to collect your MicroPayments.

One maggot and it all gets thrown away -- My Fiancee
http://www.xrayspx.com

Re:Caching...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not down with web servers and ISP's

Word, G. Yo yo yo. Hip hop hip hop. Yo yo. Word up, G. Down with. Down with.

Re:What exactly is a "page"?

[zerocool^]

What about sites like Slashdot, where new content slowly encroaches upon old?

I think you're missing the big picture here - the quality of the content on slashdot will go down the tubes because no one will preview their comments before submitting them!

oh well, here come the tpyo's

~z

Re:That's REALLY expensive

[clary]

Absolutely...I'd hit the "cap" every month. From the article...

Let's say that you sat in front of your computer 8 hours a day and looked at a new page every two minutes without interruption 20 days per month.

Two minutes!?!? When I am cruising around looking for something, I probably average more like a page every two seconds.