The Verge and 404 Media are building out new functions that would allow them to distribute posts on their sites and on federated platforms – like Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky – at the same time. Replies to those posts on those platforms become comments on their sites.
Wait their articles are paywalled. Are they only going to federate the clickbait teaser intros?
Wait their articles are paywalled.
Journalists have to pay for food and rent too. What is the alternative? ads?
The money has to come from somewhere.
Paywalls just don’t mix that well with federation. The teasers are basically ads, and why would fediverse volunteers want to propagate some company’s ads? The non-federated model they are using now seems fine.
I didn’t read Solrize’s comment as saying “There shouldn’t be paywalls,” just asking the very legitimate question as to how they will interact with federation.
Interestingly, 404 just solved something kinda related: they developed a way for subscribers to get a custom RSS feed address, so they can access paywalled articles directly in their RSS reader. TMK, they are the first publication to do this. I imagine they would do something similar for federation. (I believe that if any of the custom RSS feeds show huge traffic numbers, 404 shuts it down, but I’m not sure)
I’d be really happy about anything bringing more people on Lemmy and the Fediverse, so I wouldn’t complain about it.
Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture as some people seem to be scared of such a move.
Any idea how things might be handled when things get crossposted? Will replies on the crossposted threads also become comments on their sites? Or only replies to the original post?
I love 404 Media. I wish i had enough disposable income to support them.
