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Facebook Communications Social Networks The Almighty Buck The Internet Technology

Facebook Groups May Soon Charge Monthly Subscription Fees For Access (theverge.com) 78

Posted by BeauHD from the new-and-improved dept.
Facebook announced today in a blog post that group administrators can start charging $4.99 to $29.99 a month for exclusive membership in certain groups. "Parenting, cooking, and home cleaning groups will be the first ones to get the new feature as part of an early test," reports The Verge. From the report: As it stands now, free groups will remain intact, but they will soon have the option to launch premium sub-groups. For instance, lifestyle blogger Sarah Mueller's Declutter My Home group is starting an Organize My Home group that costs $14.99 a month to join. And the Grown and Flown Parents group is making a College Admissions group that charges $29.99 for access to college counselors. Facebook says the new feature is so that group admins, who put a lot of time and dedication to growing their communities, can also earn money at the same time. The company also says admins could take the money they earn to create higher-quality content for the group as well, whether that be more posts, videos, or offline meet-ups and events. Facebook reportedly won't be getting a cut of the subscription fees.
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Facebook Groups May Soon Charge Monthly Subscription Fees For Access More

Facebook Groups May Soon Charge Monthly Subscription Fees For Access

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  • I want my free FB with no ads and no collection of my data.

  • Let me get this straight: (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @06:44PM (#56818942) Journal
    You people are having all your very personal data scraped, surveiled, logged, analyzed, categorized, profiled, and sold to whoever can pay Zuckerberg for it, and on top of that you're going to pay for access to parts of Facebook?

    My sides, they're exploding, I'm laughing so hard!

    I seriously hope you guys don't do this.

    • What are these groups like? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I've never used Facebook, so I have no idea what these groups are like. Are they highly-moderated circle-jerks like Reddit subreddits, StackExchange Q&A sites, or SoylentNews, where free thought is frowned upon and actively punished? If these Facebook groups are like that, then they sound more like TV channels to me, where a small group of 'elites' broadcast their narratives to a larger audience who laps them up without any critical thought. There's no meaningful discussion allowed or possible, making i

      • Ask a Facebook user, I haven't had an account there in years and years so I have no idea what it even looks like.
      • Most of them are like that yes; but you're going to find that same situation on any service where the creators of the community control the moderation. On any politically charged issue, or topic prone to groupthink, forget about it. But groups for non-political things have some value. My hometowns Facebook group is very useful for finding out about and discussing local events. It was especially great during Sandy; by far the most current and detailed news about what was going on, what was open, where the tr
    • While I agree at the ridiculousness of this... Apparently Facebook won't be getting a cut of this money? That's blowing my MIND. I can't imagine a bigger missed opportunity. Billions of users, probably tens of millions of groups (if not hundreds of millions). If even a small percentage of them charge just $5 to everyone who wants to be a member... scraping a few cents or even a buck here and there would be a big cashflow, and it would help inject more sustainability into the company's income model. Like wha
      • They don't need to do anything as ham-fisted and obvious as taking a cut off the top, they're getting everyone's Very Much Personal Data for whatever 'interest' the group they're paying to be in features, and I can guarantee you that gets ZuckerBook more money than these 'group operators' will charge.

        • We need a new jump-the-shark metaphor.

          I know!! When Facebook Started Charging for Group Access!! YAY!

          This is an unveiled way to mollify the EU, whose print publishers and site mavens want a cut of the action and therefore are attempting to throw copyright link blocks.

          This is Facebook giving them a taste of the action.

      • Also, consider this: If someone is willing to PAY to use some part of Facebook because it's some membership-only group with a specific focus, then the data that ZuckerBook can steal from that will be even higher-quality and higher-density data than the usual drivel that the average ZuckerBook fool gives away, so theoretically ZuckberBook can charge even more money for that data when they sell it to the FSB in Moscow.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I remember the cable TV promise. 'no commercials'

      Now you pay for the commercials and the profiling.

      I suspect the value proposition is not that good with facebook these days. You *might* have been able to charge a few years ago. Now not so much. I have a couple hundred 'friends' on that site. It is a ghost town. Maybe 2 or 3 dominate what is said anymore. People are dropping the platform and only keeping a few bits they like.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      You people are having all your very personal data scraped, surveiled, logged, analyzed, categorized, profiled, and sold to whoever can pay Zuckerberg for it, and on top of that you're going to pay for access to parts of Facebook?

      You're looking at it wrong. Facebook is giving "everyone" the chance to set up their own little pay-walled content. If you're the NYT you can set up your own site and your own paywall, but it's a pretty big leap for your typical Facebook group owner. It's expenses you can't recover if your premium content out to not be very popular. And you don't get Facebook's group functionality out of the box either. If you're a content creator it looks like a pretty sweet deal, Facebook is giving away a lot for "free".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by raind ( 174356 )
      Not only that but pay FB for a group about declutter my home ? LOL ..those peeps may need more help than that!

    • You people are having all your very personal data scraped, surveiled, logged, analyzed, categorized, profiled, and sold to whoever can pay Zuckerberg for it, and on top of that you're going to pay for access to parts of Facebook?

      In a world where people pay to install little surveillance devices in their houses - think Echo or Google home - it isn't too surprising that they would pay Facebook.

      Imagine the intense orgasm that outfits like Cambridge Analytica would have over access to the data from that group of paying tools. And make no mistake, CA was just the group stupid enough to get caught.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Which other country gets as much scammed by Nigerians as the US ?? LOL Pay to have yourself exposed now, fools !!

  • My new hobby: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @06:54PM (#56819006)
    * Get a Facebook account purely for 'business' purposes
    * Start some shitty 'group' for something lame and lulzy to attract trolls
    * Group fills up with trolls and their natural prey
    * Start charging $29.99 a month to be in the group
    * Trolls paying to troll, troll-prey paying to be troll-prey
    * INFINITE MONEYS xD xD xD

    • Re:My new hobby: (Score:5, Funny)

      by Lab Rat Jason ( 2495638 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @06:56PM (#56819022)

      I wish there were mod points for "Troll, but in a good way +1"

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I modded you funny for that; the "clever and funny troll" is a lost art of our generation. I would absolutely start two groups: one MAGA, one not so much. Charge people for admission to the cage fight, sit back with my bowl of popcorn, and enjoy retirement.
  • Choose one :) If you're not paying for a product, then you are the product!

  • always trying to monetize every part of the pig, including the snout.

  • Maybe they need the income to make up for that lost because they aren't selling as much user data to folks who use it for advertising or to others, like Cambridge, to create profiles of users for political targeting.

  • Dumb people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @07:21PM (#56819182)
    We've had newsgroups and email lists that have been 100% free since the start of the Internet. 25ish years later, people are PAYING for these same services, AND are giving the service 100% of their personal data. Wow. You've come a long way, baby!

    • We've had newsgroups and email lists that have been 100% free since the start of the Internet. 25ish years later, people are PAYING for these same services, AND are giving the service 100% of their personal data. Wow. You've come a long way, baby!

      And Facebook is exactly where they went.

      I watched email group after email group die; "hey we're moving to Facebook, everyone!"

      (well, OK, my web dev and programming groups died because of StackExchange, but all the rest of them)

  • Fitting. And nothing of value will be lost.

  • When I saw the headline about Office365 being rewritten in Javascript, I thought that was hilarious, the funniest joke/prank in a long time.

    But Facebook selling subscriptions to groups?! THIS is hilarious!

    Now I will keep my eyes open for the story about Stallman rewriting HURD in Rust...

  • No group on FB is worth $4.99/mo IMO
  • Absolute proof neither political party is actually "for the people". Our "elected" officials are pawns of the Oligarchy.

  • CaptainDork as CaptainObvious ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @08:54PM (#56819592)

    ... sees this for what it is:

    People who pay for content are verified consumers of whatever the fuck is related to the special interest group.

    Zuck gonna tell advertisers, "I got a group of suckers, and the price of poker is going up!"

  • "Facebook reportedly won't be getting a cut of the subscription fees."

    Wow! I'm shocked.

    • That's what they may be saying now. They're not in the business of making money for someone else and not for themselves.
  • Welcome to social media.
  • Every subscription checkout page should come with a link to Discord since that's where everyone's leaving to anyway if they do this.
  • That somehow does even sound reasonable.
  • Most forums have been dying ever since social media took off.

  • This is great for now... but it will change. They'll take a cut later. They'll be able to threaten the income stream to get compliance from people too. As youtube, they could demonetize it at any time.

    So, Pray they don't change the deal further.

  • I don't really see the problem with this, now hear me out.
    1. This is not Facebook charging for all groups, or even Facebook determining which groups do charge. Rather they are giving the option for group admins, which for the most part are private individuals, to charge admission to the group that they run.
    2. To my knowledge there is no way for current group admins to make money directly for all the work they do in their group. Right now they are forced to use referal links to stores or otherwise direct r

  • Good (Score:2)

    by cshark ( 673578 )

    Facebook is wasting too much of my time with nonsense from groups I never subbed to in my feed anyway.
    Totally cool with this.
    I hope they all do it.

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