Welcome to the internet
Clickbait. Ragebait. Popovers. Incessant Tracking. Do you want all our cookies or only the ones that you still probably don't want? Those are strictly necessary. I promise. Login to read more. Subscribe to read more. You've used up your free articles for the month. We noticed you're using ad block. Hey here's a video you don't want to watch covering the article you wanted to read. Do you like that? Oops. Our website crashed.
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How did it get like this? How did it get so bad? Because monetization on the internet is built around the attention economy. It doesn't matter whether you liked an article or hated it, whether it was AI slop or exhaustive research. Once you click, once you offer your attention, you're just another number.
Sure. There are people out there trying to do things differently. Patreon exists, Nebula, Ghost, Kofi. But the things that make the internet so fantastic are it's emergent nature, its infinite scope. One fantastic video isn't going to earn you a patreon sub. And there's way too many people out there doing cool things to support them all. So you pick a few, maybe the ones that are most active, maybe your favorites, maybe just the first few you subscribed to and feel too guilty to cancel on.
slowclap is different
One subscription. One monthly bill. And you have hundreds (potentially thousands) of opportunities to support people. Every slowclap member can support, and every slowclap member that wants to can be supported. Signing up takes seconds. Bring your own website, or Mastodon bio, or Youtube Channel, or Github Repo. Every single time you applaud someone, they get 100%. slowclap's cut comes directly from your subscription, is transparent, and stays the same regardless of how much support you want to give.
Say 👋 to the appreciation economy
The average pageview earns sites around a penny. If you appreciate someone's work on the internet. Now you can give them that penny instead. Or more. As much as you'd like. (ok fine it's up to $23.00 a month). Not because they tricked you into clicking, but because you liked what you saw when you did. No extra charge, no hidden fees, just click, applaud, done. And because any applause you didn't actively use for the month gets allocated to those you've appreciated in the past, your money is never wasted.
Links 👉 The internet's first social network.
Link blogs are a fantastic way to find new creators and read and watch things you probably wouldn't have found by relying on some megacorp's algorithm. If you run a link blog and are sharing the work of a slowclap member, a simple link wrapper means you get a cut of any applause from people you directed to that site.
Help make the new (old) web
(aka the reason you shouldn't subscribe)
slowclap is new. It's run by a single developer with no VC funding. It's built on a sustainable business model. It doesn't have a lot of members yet. It might be a bit before you find enough people to support.
but here's the thing...
I built slowclap because I genuinely believe it can make the internet better. I genuinely believe that if enough people join, creators and supporters. We can make it easier for sites to exist that don't rely on ads, tracking and user hostile platforms. People can own their own corner of the web, make things well, and get paid for building something worth building.
We can do that. If you're willing to help.