mirror of https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo.git
119 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
119 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Media & Content Creators
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category: General
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order: 15
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---
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# Media & Content Creators
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To get straight to the point:
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Please do **not** make content out of Valetudo, because the economics of that don't work out for Valetudo.
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I of course can't force you to not do that, but I can explain why that would be a purely one-sided value extraction process.
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## Content economics
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If you take a look at a very zoomed-out view of the consumer tech world, you see
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1. Producers
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2. Marketers
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3. Users/Customers
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and each of these parties benefits of each other.
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### Users
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**Users** are the easiest to explain. They just have a problem and want a solution.
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The **Producers** have those solutions, but the **Users** might not be aware that they exist.
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Or maybe multiple solutions exist and the users can't really decide.
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They give attention, ad revenue and clicks to the **Marketers** and money, power, influence and maybe new employees to the **Producers**.
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### Marketers
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Now the **Marketers** come in.
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They know the output of the **Producers** and needs of the **Users** and can build the bridge between them.
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They also add further value for the **Users** through stuff like testing/reviews, critical coverage etc.
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For this, they earn clicks and loyal fans from the **Users** and ad revenue from the **Producers**.
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### Producers
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The **Producers** do have a product and want to get that to **Users**. The motivations behind that are
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- acquiring Money
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- acquiring more people/employees
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- acquiring power/influence
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To do that, they need to acquire **Users** and let the world know that their product exist.
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Furthermore, they also have an interest in the world knowing that their product is _the best_ product in that segment.
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### Bottom line
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While in the real world there is occasional conflict about the exact balance and who gives and earns what, as you can see from this zoomed-out view, the system is solid.
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Every involved party plays an important role, gives something and gains something in the return.
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Not only that, but the sum gain is more than the sum of what everyone gave, making it a net positive mutually beneficial well-balanced ecosystem.
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## Content economics and Valetudo
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So, having established how it's a net-positive mutually beneficial ecosystem, why did I use a term as strong as "value extraction" before?
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Well, here's the problem:
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<em>Valetudo looks like a duck and sounds like a duck. It however is **not a duck**.</em>
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Valetudo does exist in the consumer tech space and is in essence a polished product.
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Valetudo does also solve a problem **Users** have. **However** it is not made by a **Producer** as defined above.
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That means that none of the mentioned goals above do apply to Valetudo.
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### Finances
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Valetudo is not monetized. There is neither a subscription nor a one-time payment nor are there any plans to ever change that.
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What Valetudo however has is cost. Every single **User** induces cost for the project through support requests, unsolicited opinions and general drama.
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This cost varies from user to user but it is _at best_ 0.
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This means that I do not _want_ more users.
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I do still share Valetudo with the world, because it is the _right thing to do_ and because many people come with 0 cost,
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but there is no point in me actively trying to gain users but a lot of point in explicitly not doing that.
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### Heads
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Valetudo was created as a fun hobby coding project by a developer (me) who in his nature as a developer likes to do developer things.
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I _like_ coding. I _like_ the architecture work. I like all of that.
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What I don't like is coordinating with other people, having to discuss differing opinions and generally giving the enjoyable coding work away and receiving unenjoyable management work in exchange.
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That means, that I do not _want_ more people that might "help with the project". I _like_ the project. I _like_ working on it. I _like_ doing everything myself.
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I _can_ do that management work (and do it quite well I think) so I don't want anyone else doing that either. I just don't want more of it unless it's unavoidable.
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### Power
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As said above, I am a software developer. I can (and enjoy!) building solutions to problems I have.
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I've also grown to be decent-ish enough at reverse engineering to "bend tech reality to my will" if you allow me to call it that.
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That means, that I do not _need_ influence or power, because I can just do the things I need myself.
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I don't need to convince someone else that something needs to be done. I can just lock myself into my basement for 3 days and do it alone.
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### Wrapping Up
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As you can see, none of the things that would _normally_ benefit me as a **Producer** benefit me in context of this project.
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That however doesn't change that the things that _normally_ cost me as a **Producer** do in fact _still_ cost me in context of this project.
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What _normally_ happens is two things. Either:<br/>
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a) Abandonment<br/>
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or<br/>
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b) Sellout
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And that makes sense, because if the rules of a system/space only work for a specific style of operating, you either operate in that specific style or leave the space.
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I do not want to pick either of those options. I think it would be a bad outcome for the world if I were to pick either of these.
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Therefore, I've spent a nice sunny sunday morning in my basement writing this page and trying to explain why you really should not be making content out of Valetudo.
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I appreciate the interest and as a **User** myself, I also appreciate what you do, however for Valetudo, you'd only do harm so please don't.
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Thank you for reading and understanding
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