Hyperlinks, the Open Web, and a Membership Appeal
Ok, look. I know there’s a loooot going on these days, particularly in these United States, but I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported kottke.org over the years with a paying membership. It’s the 8th anniversary of the membership program, and I’ve written many times about what that support means to me and to the site; here’s a snippet:
Perhaps nearest and dearest to my heart, member support keeps the site free, open, and available to everyone on an internet that is increasingly paywalled. It’s not difficult to imagine an alt-universe kottke.org with ads crammed into every bit of whitespace, email collection forms popping up on every visit, and half the site behind a members-only paywall. No shade to those who have gone that route to keep things running — I’d probably make more money with members-only content on Substack or whatever and that pull is tempting. But seriously, I love you folks so much for collectively keeping all of kottke.org on the open web. Thank you.
One important aspect of the open web I haven’t covered here is linking. The web has always been made up of nodes (web sites/pages) and connections between those nodes (hyperlinks). Over time, the number of nodes has increased (good!) but the nodes have also gotten larger (think Facebook or Google or even Substack) and when they get too massive and too competitive with each other with huge content moats to guard, they turn into hypertext black holes: links go in but they don’t link out.
I love linking out to other sites. The strength of the open web is in its many connections between nodes…the more, the better. Links are the whole goddamned point of the web! I want to send people away from kottke.org to learn something new or have a chuckle and then come back the next day for more. The goal is connection, knowledge, and sharing — I proudly have no competitors in this endeavor, only collaborators. (This is just another sentence so that I can link to more folks who love to link.)
And but so, in the interests of keeping this hyperlink party rolling along here at kottke.org, I wanted to appeal to those who aren’t currently supporting the site to consider doing so. (Or if you’re a past member, to consider rejoining.) As always, if you can’t swing it, no sweat! But if you find value in this site and can manage it, I’d appreciate you supporting the site with a membership.
P.S. I also fixed a couple of nasty bugs with the membership system. Please let me know if you notice anything amiss?
P.P.S. I haven’t raised the prices on memberships in 8 years, but if you are a current member and would like to contribute more, you can go to the subscriptions view and click on “change price”. Thanks!
Discussion 19 comments
Alright you got me. :)
And you're right, things are a lot right now. As a transgender woman I feel it acutely. But I'm also an eternal optimist at heart, and your skill at sharing interesting stories, education, and mature technology advocacy is something I've celebrated for years. So here's to our future.
To me, links are what make HTML more powerful than any other computing language. Totally decentralized, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Creating an alternate space of experience where everything is interconnected. Like some kind of… web.
Also love how Kottke.org consistently delights its best customers. Which includes the whole world, and anyone who stops by to read and move on! But including us members best, I think.
Shocking to me that the membership model has been going on for almost a decade. I still think of it as "that new experiment," not something this established! I love that it's still working and I am a proud supporter.
If you're on the fence about joining another great perk is of course that if you wanna you can post the occasional comment on the kottke.org website. It's not a lively discussion board or anything, but that's what makes it good. The internet needs more places where you can engage without really engaging, you know?
It's funny, I always feel this instinct to "like" these comments. Gotta embrace that I can't.
I joined because this community regularly gives comments like this one:
Quite simply, you're my kind of people: intensely curious, curiously intense, and seriously funny.
Thanks for making this appeal. I read it and realized you’ve been enriching my world for… 10 years, at least? Whenever I first started reading. Newly signed up member here! You’re one of the best corners of the internet.
Me too! Hi y’all.
Hi! Last few years, this is one of only a handful of sites I visit near daily. But I’ve been here many times before, across decades, since before I got schizophrenia half a lifetime ago.
Hypertext and the open web still means a lot to me too (almost as much as music), even though my web got smaller, because I don’t really use the big social media platforms (except YouTube).
To me, the web is a genetic code that links people’s minds together in various ways. No matter how powerful hardware and software empowering and remixing it, that is the true powerhouse. So thank you for sharing it!
Kottke.org has been in my RSS reader as long as I've used an RSS reader, which is damn near 20 years at this point (Can we all marvel at Google Reader coming out in 2005?!?!). I made the call to support you when you took the time off, because I want to support a dream I also have for myself one day. This website, like MetaFilter and piles of others, will be a bastion of the old web that refreshes itself anew all the time. That's the internet I grew into an adult with, and the internet I wish to see continue the rest of my days.
"Links are the whole goddamned point of the web!" Thank you, yes, I couldn't agree more. Always helpful to see it like this.
I … am … SENTENCE [coliseum goes wild]
Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus: 😏 👊 👊 👊 ... 👍
$30 from 8 years ago is $37.50 (Wolfram Alpha "2016 $30" )
Thanks so much, everyone!
Upping the amount was fast and easy to do!
Thank you Jason for years of delights! Today I finally decided to pull the trigger and support you. Long overdue!
To another eight from here! Very happy to support, and happy to have this MEMBERS ONLY superpower to COMMENT muhahahahaha
All right, you convinced me to become a member
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation..
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!