• EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Users aren’t clambering for ads or for crappy Amazon products

    With respect, is it that you do not understand what money represents? Let me keep it simple: Money is just an IOU. Why would someone give an IOU to provide goods or services at a later point in time? The answer is because they received a good and/or service of equal value now.

    Obviously some users are clambering for ads or crappy Amazon products if someone else is receiving money by offering them. If they were not, there would be no money for someone to collect. And those users showing up, with misaligned interests to others in the community, creates a tug-of-war effect. Eventually someone will win.

    See how this very website (lemmy.ca) is being incorporated as a non-profit. It’s pretty neat!

    Way back in the day I used to use a Usenet host operated by a co-operative. Technically, I was a partial owner of that server by virtue of being a user, which I think is even neater!

    Usenet is still out there in operation, I guess, but let’s face it – it is, for all practical purposes, dead. If cunning ownership structures weren’t able to save it, what’s magically different this time? I really don’t see what lemmy.ca is doing that hasn’t already been tried many times before?

    • leftwingmememachine@lemmy.caM
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      10 months ago

      I still disagree with you but I don’t think either of us are going to convince each other. I appreciate you sharing your perspective, I wasn’t around back in the Usenet days and it’s cool to hear about it and how you were involved.

      • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I still disagree with you but I don’t think either of us are going to convince each other.

        Was there some reason we would want to, or should, convince another? It seems like that would completely defeat the purpose of having a discussion. I don’t quite understand what this is intended to convey.