ABOUT aboutthe.net
We believe that information should be responsibly sourced, accurate and concise; these are vital criteria for information to provide empowering knowledge. Yet, the effort of adding quality to knowledge involves researching, experimenting, testing, rinse and repeat. Affording the time for all these can’t happen without financial support. Quality must be rewarded. Therefore, a minimal paywall is necessary for empowering knowledge. However, knowledge loses its purpose if it isn’t affordably accessible, so this minimal paywall at $0.40 per view is a fair balance for both reader and author.
Why pay per view?
Our VALUES:
Respect for the reader
We have a firm belief that time-based subscriptions are a wicked trick. Almost all average up to $30/month, whether you read every day or not. On our website this amount pays for 75 posts—2.5 per day—or an author subscription for 100 posts—almost 3.5 per day, at a maximum of 2500 words.
We do not burn pockets: with us, a reader can always access a minimum of 5 posts for $2, whenever wanted. Bought views do not expire, spent views allow permanent access to the content they’ve been used for. We do not leverage time against a reader: the author subscription is quantity-based and you can choose from previews for which 100 of that author’s posts you want to pay.
You are in control of your money and time. Because we respect both, we will never sell advertisements and will never be affiliated with any vendor or brand. You get choices to preview content, pick your authors and award the ones who deserve your time and attention because 90% of your money goes instantly to them.
We call it the.net, with readers and authors entwined. It’s about fairness.
Respect for the author
Knowledge and experience are the short definitions of countless hours, beyond serious amounts of money spent on equipment, courses, teachers, and, most of all, hard work and time to research, experiment, and test. Talent and inspiration aren’t a gift: nothing will come to life from barren lands. This is why only selected authors can post their work exclusively by logging in with their LinkedIn profile. Everyone can say anything about a concept, method, or idea but only a few have something to say and the knowledge, voice, and talent to do so. From the IT pro “blessed” with carpal tunnel for having a keyboard as a palm extension to the photographer who wasted a month of early mornings to catch that one shot where a pale crimson morning defeats bleak darkness, to the chef who has conceived the “omelet on a stick” recipe, they all deserve a fair reward for combining experience, knowledge and hard work with that rare moment when it all comes together: inspiration.
“Buy me a coffee ©” and similar great concepts aren’t quite the best way to reward all the above, due to their “if you want to” criteria, whilst others have fees, thresholds, and limitations. With us, 90% of the 0.40$ per view charged isn’t much, but it is a certainty, with immediate financial effect on the quality of the knowledge. Aboutthe.net is a platform where reader and author empower each other from the first interaction:
The reader: access to specialized content enhanced by personal experience, dedicated passion towards a specific industry, and certified knowledge.
The author: paid, public acknowledgment of content thus financially supporting creativity, offering growth to social media posture, and enabling free marketing through being shared.
WHAT DO WE OFFER
Author legitimacy
There are far too many websites advocating knowledge at various levels and in too many “guaranteed to work” ways or “conceptually correct” methods. On both a theoretical and a practical basis, very few offer the reader his fundamental right to essential answers:
“Who are you? What makes your work worthwhile? How is your method or concept tested? Why should I trust you?” More importantly, with time being everyone’s most precious asset, “Why should I spend mine for your content?”
In a world of netizens where online is conquering our everyday environment, yet where reviews, likes, followers, etc. do not fully reflect reality anymore, we offer the highest transparency possible: hand-picked authors can only log in to post content with their LinkedIn profile and that profile has to be active and constantly updated.
At aboutthe.net, there’s no “author123” verified only by an email. The reader has a right to know who “author123” really is, if he’s certified in his field and active within his community. At all times, the reader can check the author’s LinkedIn page for the latest achievements and if there is a permanent connection with the respective professional environment, giving accuracy to the published content.
There have been too many disasters happening, from the whole IT infrastructure of a company crashing by following random advice, time and money wasted on technology from “vendor-affiliated” websites, all the way to lives shattered by following catastrophic health, fitness, or diet methods. Everyone has a basic right to transparency, awareness, and informed choices. Aboutthe.net is one of the few websites fighting for this to be the cornerstone of our tomorrow’s digital world.
Content originality
There are countless “how-to” and “what-is” websites; this is not one of them. Here you won’t find white papers, Linux man, or docs.microsoft.com pages as original content. Nor will you find a MonteCristo sandwich recipe or how to play broken chords. Here you will find how this network engineer has done a remote tcpdump with no tty, how this chef has made a MonteCristo pizza-sandwich, how this piano player has performed Hungarian sonata in a way to make Salzburg proud.
Our mission: to put forward meaningful personal experience that will better the method, improve the content, push to a harder goal, innovate, open new perspectives.
Our goal: to create an “about the” where “the.net” gives strength to the community from the best of that community: empowering knowledge ©
