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#off-topic
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2018-03-18
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qqq01:03:18

Is the problem of "micro payments' ($1 / charge) still unsolved for websites (not android/apple phones/tablest)? Bitcoin / rypto is not the answer -- too slow + too high fees. Credit card charge of 0.29 + 3% is way too high.

tbaldridge02:03:14

That’s why most companies use micro transactions

tbaldridge02:03:24

That and tax reasons

qqq02:03:08

micropayments = many small payments via credit card microtransactions = one large credit card transaction to buy lots of tokens; then lots of ops that cost a small # of tokens ?

seancorfield02:03:23

@qqq Yeah, basically. You buy "credits" in batches, and the "payments" are handled by credits.

seancorfield02:03:53

Are you familiar with Patreon? They recently talked about changing their fee structure because all the $1 charges weren't very cost-effective for them. They were going to push fees onto patrons instead of taking them out of creators' payments. It would have put the $1 minimum up to $1.37 if I recall. In the end, they decided not to do it, but it speaks to the difficulty of working with small amount purchases at scale.

tbaldridge04:03:54

This micro transaction system is also handy for game companies, because they can give out tokens as game rewards or as apologies for server downtime. Simply handing out money in that way would not only cost more, it also runs into problems with international trade laws.

tbaldridge04:03:49

Even Twitch does that today, you buy “bits” and then spend them cheering for streamers.

qqq04:03:40

I can't believe, after all this time, micropayments is still an unsolved problem.

john04:03:25

click coin. Each click is worth a penny. Donating more requires repeatedly clicking the button, Takes all guilt out of rewarding bloggers all day because my finger will get tired before 500 clicks. Then the best content gets millions of pennies from click-backed value coin.

john04:03:52

I guess steamit already sort of tries that

seancorfield05:03:08

@tbaldridge Yeah, at World Singles, we can "easily" add days to a member's subscription either as a reward or an apology but paying them back actual dollar credits would be much more complicated. @qqq Why do you find this so hard to believe? The credit card companies make it difficult because they don't want to deal with small payments -- because it isn't cost-effective for them.

qqq05:03:45

@seancorfield: I find it hard to believe because I believe it is possible to do it profitable to do micropayments profitably, thus some large company (say Amazon?) should be incentivized to do it

seancorfield05:03:38

@qqq you believe it -- but apparently none of the corporations do?

qqq05:03:59

@seancorfield: by your logic, we should never invent anything new, because no one currently knows how ot do it

seancorfield05:03:22

@qqq No, that's a typical strawman argument. I'm asking you to be more critical about what you are proposing...

justinlee06:03:38

perhaps the problem is not technological. maybe people think they want micropayments/transactions but they really don’t.

qqq06:03:06

@seancorfield: My question is "Why is there no viable micropayments solution?" I'm reading your argument as: "If it's profitable, why hasn't large companies done it?" To which I'm countering: "Every new venture is doing something large companies are not doing."

qqq06:03:31

If I'm misreading your argument, please correct my interpretation.

gklijs07:03:33

A large enough company could use it's 'own' money, but it will not be very different then buying credits.

agigao11:03:06

Hello Clojurians, doesn’t Pragmatic Bookshelf has some awful print/paper quality or am I too pedantic? Frankly, it’s rather irritating…

Alex Miller (Clojure team)15:03:53

@chokheli can you be more specific? Occasionally, print runs produce a bad egg (someone got one of my books with 30 pages repeated and upside down). If you contract Pragmatic, they may be able to replace it.

agigao15:03:20

@alexmiller thanks for reply. Is the photo I’ve provided available here?

Alex Miller (Clojure team)15:03:10

yes, but I was just curious what specifically you’re talking about. the bleed through from the opposite page is obviously pretty bad but wasn’t sure if that’s what you meant

agigao15:03:52

- the one you’ve just mentioned - quite low printing dpi, letters aren’t smooth at all, looks like a pdf on 17 inch screen full hd resolution (which is exactly the reason I use Retina mac) - outlined part: text blended with background Never had any issue with O’Reilly prints.

Alex Miller (Clojure team)15:03:17

That’s not normal for Pragmatic. I would contact their support email and tell them where you bought it from and send them the picture. I’m sure they like to know if one of their contracted printers is doing a subpar job.

agigao16:03:20

Thanks @alexmiller I’ll definitely do.

john20:03:33

What version of clojurescript is doing that?

joelsanchez20:03:42

I posted it because I found it funny, it's the result of string a function

john20:03:09

I thought newer versions of cljs printed fns as their object references