Twenty-five years ago, the internet was a simple place. People were either looking for a hook-up on chat rooms or trying to develop the online presence of their business. Between these, a category quickly raised, and it was the “neocities” gang. Their websites were quirky and weird, but they were creative in their own way and they had each the personality of their maker, who was usually not too much of a tech savvy person, but someone with creativity and access to some rudimentary web building tools. Everything was fine and dandy and everyone took care of themselves in this space.

Today, the internet has changed so much and it seems that genuine personal websites are becoming more rare than a Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider found in a barn. It seems that everyone who’s creating content on the internet, is doing this with the intent of monetizing it. Patreon pages, paypal donate buttons, ko-fi links and so on, it seems that everyone is trying to squeeze every possible cent from their website or their content. There are some really really nice blogs out there that try to get a buck here and there to maybe cover the hosting costs. And I think that’s fine. At least they’re honest about it and aren’t begging. It’s the equivalent of “if we go out, I won’t ask you to buy me a drink, but surely I won’t refuse one”. Most likely because they have their share of buying rounds for others as well.

The main reason of this rant comes when there’s something that starts like a passion, grows to have a decent (or sometimes great) base of followers and it becomes a business in itself. This is also fine, pivoting from passion to full time job is how I went up working in web design after all. But at least I’m honest about it, if you want me to make me your website, I’m going to charge you for that. I do have a different “I’m an awesome developer, hire me” website, but I will never promote it here, because I don’t want to mix work and fun.

And here’s where I draw the line and I circle back to what startled me in the first place. The web comic “War and Peas” is a really good one. 80% of their comics are hilarious, the other 20% are fine. I was having an issue with them pushing the “To view this content, you must be a member of War and Peas Patreon” in their RSS feed, but I was “eh, guys gotta make some money too”. But their latest post, “The Choice Is Yours” left such a bitter taste in my mouth because of how poorly it’s worded:

Whether you choose the well-worn road of free content or the brighter path of patronage, we’re grateful you’re here, reading, considering, and maybe – just maybe – taking a step further with us.
After all, it’s not just about paying for content; it’s about saying, “Yes, I believe this matters.”

This passive-agressive tone, combined with the main image of the article (which I also added as the featured image of this article) feels like begging because it’s made to look like it’s coming from some heartfelt small indie artists that are trying to make ends meet, when in reality, they’re a complete and full business with tens of SKUs in their store, some of which I was actually tempted to buy at various times. I don’t think trying to guilt your non-paying readers into becoming paying members has ever worked, because it’s disingenuous, misleading and manipulative. It’s hypocrisy. People need to be made more aware of the parasocial relationships that they are pushed into by companies trying to look more human and understand that these are just marketing tricks.

And in the end, if you have a website, you need to decide, do you want to be a person? Or do you want to be a business? Because you can’t be both.

And if you plan to be a business dressed in a person’s clothing, you know you’re going to be removed from my RSS Feed.

PS: And don’t get me started on 95% of the twitch streamers, lol.