I may be in the minority on this, but I prefer to use services that I pay for over services that are cost-free.
This applies for all On-Line services, of all types. Email, web hosting, social media, publications... you name it.
Using "free" services is never truly "free" -- we are simply paying for them in a different way. Instead of paying a few dollar-inos, we are allowing ourselves to become the product that is sold to someone else. Our personal data being mined, searched, and sold (often repeatedly). Our time, and attention, wasted with advertisements.
As we are the product in "free" services, there is less need for the service provider to cater to our needs. We are, after all, not the customer paying the bills.
"Free" services need to keep us happy and satisfied... just enough to not leave. They need us to make their customers happy. That us our pury. We are, in essence, cattle.
"Free services" stink. Rather quite a lot.
E-Mail, For Example
Let's take Google's GMail as an example.
It's cost free.
But, in exchange, you allow your personal information to be collected and used by the world's largest marketing agency (Google).
Personal privacy issues aside... it just feels yucky. With G-Mail, we are the product being sold.
Personally, I prefer paid E-Mail services. Ones which respect my privacy and do not advertise to me. For years now I've used Kolab Now for my email hosting -- a paid service that respects my privacy and understands that I am the customer.
This is (one) reason Social Media is so terrible.
Think about Twitter and Facebook for a moment.
Free to use, right? (At least for most of us.)
Those services only have a need to keep us, the users, happy insofar as it enables increased revenue from their true customers -- the companies that purchase our information and advertise to us.
Are there ways Twitter and Facebook could make things better, nicer for us? Sure. But that's only worthwhile to their shareholders if it results in more profit from the customers. Which, again, are not us.
Subscription Services are the Future of Content
At least... I hope so.
Because services like YouTube suffer from all the problems we just talked about.
Ad-free services like Substack and Locals derive their revenue through a more traditional means: the customers (us) pay for content subscriptions. The creator of the content gets paid more... if more people pay for the content.
If people don't want to pay for the content being produced? The creator doesn't get paid.
Simple. Natural.
No weird ad revenue systems. No data mining and selling. No ad revenue maximizing algorithms.
I prefer my services and content to be paid (even if the cost is super low). And, along the same lines, I try to provide my content to others in this way. I find it more respectful for all of us.
Lunduke.Locals.com - Happy, nerdy, troll-free social network with lots of Lunduke Journal perks (eBooks, exclusive shows). Respectful of you. Doesn't treat you like cattle. ;)