patrick.net

Thanks @mell

It would be pretty simple to do arbitrarily small micropayments from a user's money in hand to the authors of the relevant posts. I could just track all the payments in the database. So I suppose people would have to sign up with $5 or whatever and then use it up.

So then what is a good censorship-resistant way to accept that $5? I kind of like paper money in the mail actually, but would people mail me $5? I think they might. They have to find an envelope and a stamp, but they don't have to give away any credit card info either.

Another viral effect not to be underestimated: If I post how much each article and each author has earned, that would be very interesting to readers as well. Though it could be depressing or embarrassing if they don't earn anything.

The success of the http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ was due primarily to people being interested in how much money the guy was earning - and that interest is exactly what got the attention that allowed him to sell the advertising in the first place!

So I think it is important to publish income amounts somehow.

Patrick says

Thanks @mell

It would be pretty simple to do arbitrarily small micropayments from a user's money in hand to the authors of the relevant posts. I could just track all the payments in the database. So I suppose people would have to sign up with $5 or whatever and then use it up.

So then what is a good censorship-resistant way to accept that $5? I kind of like paper money in the mail actually, but would people mail me $5? I think they might. They have to find an envelope and a stamp, but they don't have to give away any credit card info either.

That would be the best way to stay anonymous and probably not more expensive than the payment processor taking a cut. Plus you can use no postage needed if mailed within the US prepaid envelopes you haven't used ;) I wonder if the trick still works not to stamp it but use your address as sender so it gets "returned" to you. Anyways, I digress. Sending $5 via mail and providing username (or email) should be enough to get started.

mell says

That would be the best way to stay anonymous and probably not more expensive than the payment processor taking a cut.

The anonymity of cash is a good point! People who want to pay an author could remain completely anonymous, except that they would have to tell me their user name so I can credit that "account".

On the other hand, to pay out to authors, I would need somewhere to mail their payment to. And I'd probably be obligated to issue them a W-2 to them. Anyone know the laws about this?

And how would I pay out exactly? Mail cash? Write a check?

Patrick says

And I'd probably be obligated to issue them a W-2 to them.

More likely a 1099 for those who earn over $600. A W-2 would only be for employees of yours.

@Patrick

I have a suggestion - make a page on this site (or elsewhere) where people can privately send you ideas.

I have plenty of (stupid?) ideas I will never implement, but I don't want to hand them out willy nilly to the public either.

Thanks Rich, but then why not just email me the ideas?

Patrick says

Thanks Rich, but then why not just email me the ideas?

Email is compromised.

We've had PGP available to us for 3 decades now. Why isn't it standardized in the SMTP protocol? How does a company make any money providing a free email service?

You're in the same area I am. You know that the business here is basically intelligence gathering. Proton Email has been broken, did you know that? If it's a free service you can 100000% know it's being used against you. Somebody has to pay for it, in some way.

You can just just setup a thread for "suggestions" where everything is automatically shown as "personal" or "redacted" or something? You're using a 2048 RSA public key on this site and Let's Encrypt - you should up it to 4096 bits which is the current maximum. It's more overhead on the INITIAL connection and more work on the server, but, who cares?

I've thought about setting up personal messaging on this site, but the risk is that two users will not only start insulting each other, but threaten each other. And I don't really want to need to read and judge personal conversations. Or it could be even worse, like a conduit for pedos to share pictures of children.

Patrick says

I've thought about setting up personal messaging on this site, but the risk is that two users will not only start insulting each other, but threaten each other. And I don't really want to need to read and judge personal conversations. Or it could be even worse, like a conduit for pedos to share pictures of children.

@Patrick, messaging exclusively to you.

It would be a plus to allow a user to see what they sent to you, but not necessary.

I may have a VERY STUPID idea, but maybe not. I know I won't develop it, and I don't want to make it public to the wrong people. It's not been tried before. If it's never been tried, it's 99.9% probable it's a bad idea. Having a good, NEW idea, very rare. I thought up Uber and Uber Eats before it was made, but, it was illegal to do, YET, a company was made that broke the law. My idea doesn't break any laws, but I don't want to develop it.

BTW - people making threats are full of shit. I've engaged in this stupidity. I found some guy swearing he would beat me to death who lived in this area. I invited him to show up in a parking lot and try it. Of course I didn't show up, but the next day I berated him for not showing up. If he did show up I would have called him a lunatic nutcase, and if he didn't I would call him a coward. I needed a response to see if he showed up, and he didn't, so I berated him for being a coward. If he was smarter, he would have called me a nutcase, but he didn't. No lose situation for me really. Most people, including me, are full of shit.

I think there's very few things worth fighting for, but sometimes there are, but it's not between two people. The real battle is between ideas and truth and falsity. That's the fundamental struggle.

HeadSet says

Patrick says

And I'd probably be obligated to issue them a W-2 to them.

More likely a 1099 for those who earn over $600. A W-2 would only be for employees of yours.

Yes just a 1099. Take a cut for that tax work and then mail once a year at the minimum or whenever they request it and it's over a certain minimum amount.

mell says

HeadSet says

Patrick says

And I'd probably be obligated to issue them a W-2 to them.

More likely a 1099 for those who earn over $600. A W-2 would only be for employees of yours.

Yes just a 1099. Take a cut for that tax work and then mail once a year at the minimum or whenever they request it and it's over a certain minimum amount.

Probably not worth it in Commfornia. The state government might declare all posters employees, make Patrick pay them minimum wage, paid sick/vacation/family leave etc Then the State would let LGBTQ to sue Patrick for a hostile work environment. --- That's just for starters.

How about this model:

People mail in $5 or whatever, along with their user name so I know who to credit.
I credit that user name.
The user either tips an author just out of good will, or pays an author to read an article. Author gets to choose how much it costs.
Authors can get their money out at any time, minus $1 for the stamp, envelope, and check and minus a 5% commission for patrick.net.

Reasonable?

Sounds good

OK, I need a PO box and a business checking account.

The coding doesn't seem hard. Just need a money table of credits (money mailed in) and debits (money taken out for author payment, check mailing, commission).

Need to read up a bit on the 1099 laws too, and see how Patreon and Substack handle this kind of thing. Probably need some legal verbiage.

Patrick says

OK, I need a PO box and a business checking account.

The coding doesn't seem hard. Just need a money table of credits (money mailed in) and debits (money taken out for author payment, check mailing, commission).

Need to read up a bit on the 1099 laws too, and see how Patreon and Substack handle this kind of thing. Probably need some legal verbiage.

Dont incorporate in CA, use Nebraska or Nevada, in one of those you can just rent a mailbox. One of my TX friends does it, he formed a bizarre shell company to hide his name.

Bd6r says

Patrick says

OK, I need a PO box and a business checking account.

The coding doesn't seem hard. Just need a money table of credits (money mailed in) and debits (money taken out for author payment, check mailing, commission).

Need to read up a bit on the 1099 laws too, and see how Patreon and Substack handle this kind of thing. Probably need some legal verbiage.

Dont incorporate in CA, use Nebraska or Nevada, in one of those you can just rent a mailbox. One of my TX friends does it, he formed a bizarre shell company to hide his name.

Or Wyoming it's very cheap

gab has payment processing thats outside of cancel culture.

just try it lime substaxk? free, 3, 5… some model? id probably pay to read investment advice from rin or eman, logan, those guys know their stuff. although i like it being free here.

OK, I did a lot of the coding, got a PO Box (PO Box 85, Menlo Park, CA 94025), and asked my credit union for checks without my address.

But if people mail in cash, is that instantly taxable income even though 95% or so will be paid out to other users?

I got tipping on patrick.net working.

So now, at the top of each post, you will see a link where you can tip the author if you have money in your account, either from mailing it in, or from others sending you tips or payments to view posts.

The FAQ for tips will be here:

https://patrick.net/post/1277846/2015-02-09-an-antidote-to-corporate-media#tipping

Now I'll work on payments to view posts, which is slightly more complicated. I think I will have that done in a couple of days.

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

gab has payment processing thats outside of cancel culture.

just try it lime substaxk? free, 3, 5… some model? id probably pay to read investment advice from rin or eman, logan, those guys know their stuff. although i like it being free here.

I would not trust Gab for shit. Torba is notoriously awful at security.

Oh @Patrick - remind me to tell you about a grift idea I had when we meet up at some point.

It's not exactly a grift - another idea I'll never develop - but it could be lucrative. Warning: this would require you to absolutely sell out, but it would be a separate website.

GiveSendGo is beyond cancel culture. There's a couple others I'll find - I listen to a lot of people who are entirely deplatformed.

Patrick says

OK, I did a lot of the coding, got a PO Box (PO Box 85, Menlo Park, CA 94025), and asked my credit union for checks without my address.

But if people mail in cash, is that instantly taxable income even though 95% or so will be paid out to other users?

You probably need to set up something like an Educational Foundation or something.

Terrible Time To Buy Foundation?

AmericanKulak says

You probably need to set up something like an Educational Foundation or something.

Thanks, but what would be the advantage of that?

Tax-free?

It's a nice thought, but this is going to be a for-profit thing.

Patrick says

It's a nice thought, but this is going to be a for-profit thing.

Oh, this is where you're making a gross error. "Charities" are not NON PROFIT - they are non taxable corporations. You have to apply and receive permission, but you can become a non taxable entity. You'll draw a salary from the corporation, but the company itself will be non taxable.

Basically, you have to present a case that you're providing a public service for the public good. You'll have to apply several times, but you can attempt it. It might be far more difficult today than 20 years ago, now that our government is a bunch of communist assholes, but you can try.

Patrick says

OK, I did a lot of the coding, got a PO Box (PO Box 85, Menlo Park, CA 94025), and asked my credit union for checks without my address.

But if people mail in cash, is that instantly taxable income even though 95% or so will be paid out to other users?

no, taxable is what you keep after expenses. make sure to keep track of expenses so when audited, you don’t get fucked

Patrick says

Now I'll work on payments to view posts, which is slightly more complicated. I think I will have that done in a couple of days.

OK, deployed that. Now you can charge for posts.

Now we are at the chicken and egg problem, where no one on the site has any money in their account, so no one else can get any money. I'll put $10 in my own account and start tipping people just to get this nano-economy rolling a bit.

I just tipped everyone who wrote a post in the last week.

OK, I only tipped 10 cents each, but hey, you can use it to tip others so at least it has some entertainment value.

Patrick says

OK, I only tipped 10 cents each, but hey, you can use it to tip others so at least it has some entertainment value.

More fun if we could actually fine people!

I want my 10 cents in bitcoin, please.

Sorry, strictly fiat here.

I'd prefer to do it all in physical silver, but the postage would be prohibitive.

Well, of course no one mailed in any money yet, because why would they. To tip people?

I suppose what is needed is paid content that people would pay a dime to read.

I wrote Kunstler and Greenwald and asked if I could repost their essays here as paid posts. Not really expecting an answer from either one.

The basic idea of micropayment journalism seems good to me, but how to get the authors who will bring an audience? They want the audience first, so it's chicken and egg.

Ideas appreciated.

Patrick says

Ideas appreciated.

Host "controversial" people. I bet we could compile a good long list of them.

Good idea @richwicks

What are some examples?

Patrick says

Good idea @richwicks

What are some examples?

Here's a quick list. All those people face some level of censorship.

Rivero - Bitchute
Rivero - Odysee
Jimmy Dore - Bitchute
Jimmy Dore - Rumble
Glenn Greenwald - Rumble
Richie Allen
Fight For Freedom (Richie Allen)
Computing Forever
Sargon of Akkad
Black Pidgeon Speaks
The Salty Cracker
Pull The Pin Already
SGT Report
Republic Broadcasting Network
Patrick
AwakenWithJP
The Last American Vagabond
MRCTV
Ryan Dawson
Vee
Podcast of the Lotus Eaters
Matt Orfalea
The Duran
The Corbett Report
Andrei Martyanov

Thanks, I'll write them all.

Patrick says

Thanks, I'll write them all.

Here's kind of what I'm suggesting.

Remember when the IMDB didn't suck, and they had reviews, and commentary and discussion about the film? It used to be really useful back then. People that had similar tastes that I did were easy to find, so I could find more esoteric films they had seen, and they could do that for me.

Why limit this to films?

I think the biggest problem today is there's LOTS of great information out there, but most people don't even know where to look.

You can make a portal for discussion on who is correct. When Rachael Maddow is full of shit, and you tell her viewers that, they only think "Well, I'm not going to watch Fox News!". There are plenty of people who try to be consistently correct and aren't purposeful liars.

OK, but how to get the word out there? I suppose if some people with great content allow me to repost it here, charging users a small fee like a dime to view, that might motivate them to tell others where to find it.

But would you pay even a dime for any article? I would if I know I like the author.

And then, would anyone mail in cash to patrick.net to have money to pay for such articles? I'm not sure about that, but I know that I myself would prefer to mail in cash a wait a few days than to give my credit card to any news site which might make me fight to cancel a recurring subscription.