Maybe you’re not familiar with “freemium” or just confusing it with my use of “freerider”.
- freemium: a monetizing model where a product is partly no-charge but has further features or content available for as a premium at a price
- freerider: someone who benefits from a resource without helping to fund it
patrons are not freeriders if they actually chip in. creators are the ones who often (but not always) use a freemium model where they could release the perks content the same as the rest of the free content but they keep it restricted specifically to entice patrons to pay.
this was the stupidest solution
Totally. But people are thinking they were stupid out of greed. Instead, they were stupid because they were blinded by serving the freemium / paywall perk model and focusing on addressing creators’ irrational fears about freeriding.
In short: these stupid decisions were because they aren’t actually embracing full public goods. None of this would have happened if they actually believed in freeing all the value to the world and asking patrons to help fund it. It all happened because they’re actually focused on selling perks.
