Pay facebook?

Does anyone remember, a long time ago, when "pay" TV first appeared? People said; "why would I pay to watch TV?" The cable guys assured us the reason to switch was we would have totally commercial free TV!. Imagine that! Our last cable bill was somewhere around 200 bucks for which we received all that reliable Comcast service, and, we didn't miss a single one of those great Supper Bowl commercials!

The state of Washington will lock me up for 5 years if I play poker online but another of those commercials I'm paying to watch just informed me of the new Power Ball Lottery! When the state lottery first started, wasn't the money generated going to fund education? We got 2, count them, stadiums crammed down our throats in spite of what the voters wanted and now, the viaduct will be closed for 10 years while they shaft us again?

But, I digress! We don't pay for facebook because like Google, they make their money from their advertisers. For this to happen, the ads need to be seen. This is where we may have some influence. The fb group; I'm Quitting Facebook Once We have to Pay $3.99/month on July 9, 2010!, currently has some 90,000+ members. By joining and encouraging your friends to join, even if you don't intend to follow through, may increase this number to a point where it could generate attention from fb and their advertisers.

A second approach is to install the Firefox add-on: Addblock Plus. http://adblockplus.org/en/ This of course requires the use of Firefox, which, I also think is a good thing. With Addblock, you have the choice of allowing, or not, the displaying of ads on sites you visit. Personally, I don't find facebook's ads to be too terribly annoying and are sometimes even informative, and, knowing this is their primary source of revenue, I don't block them. But, I can, and, can make that option known.

Thirdly, I'm building my PC as much as possible, with free-ware. A good number of free-ware providers ask for donations and/or make available a higher level of service for a charge. I actually have, and do, make donations to causes and services I feel are worthwhile irregardless of tax benefits.

While I realize "pay facebook" is only a rumor, its good to be aware. Rumors start somewhere and sometimes are started as a means gathering information. If this be the case, these are a few proactive methods of response.