Is it time for all websites to pay writers for their articles?

No

4 of 16

by V R Rutledge

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Should all websites pay for their articles? I certainly hope not. I write, and I write often. I'm probably not very good, inasmuch as I haven't been paid for anything, but I get noticed occasionally and that strokes my ego. If all websites were required to pay for every article they get, guess who would no longer be able to write?

In a larger sense, we should consider that the internet is the last bastion of free speech in print. Anyone can voice their opinion, and usually does. You don't need market appeal, an audience or even appreciation of your ideas/opinion. All you have to do is find a place to post your words and voil! you are published. In times past, when I was young, getting published was a dream that many would-be writers never achieved. Sadly, many promising writers were probably discouraged to the point that they quit trying, even though they had talent. That being said, it follows that free sites and being able to get 'in print' without fail should lead to a plethora of good authors becoming successful. On the down side, you'll still have to put up with those who aren't good enough constantly trying to improve. Myself as a case in point.

When we make it mandatory to pay for everything, only the commercial will get published. There will be a blanket on creativity and new ideas. I suspect that we would have more poetry and prose today if there had been a venue like the internet long ago. Helium would suffer mightily, because you could no longer rate and you would never see articles that weren't good enough to sell. Websites have to pay for themselves, in large measure, and that means that if you buy something for your site, it has to make money. Even places like "Yahoo Answers" would vanish, for the same reason.

I realize that the question is intended to address those authors who have already achieved commercial success, but you can't make a rule for only a select few. If you protect the accomplished writers, you wind up banning the novices and those who are only mediocre. The author A. Nony Mous has been responsible for many of the best quotes and sayings in the world, and he never got paid. We have to remember that the best authors are paid for what they do because it is valuable, they don't need someone to make a rule, and the others need to realize that only when your writing is valuable will it produce income. By valuable I mean that it can produce income, not that it has value. Much writing that has value is unsaleable, and would never be seen if venues like the web were a closed outlet. In short, you need a place to write if you love to write, and the internet is such a place. Taking that away from the mediocre writers of the world would be a cruel act indeed.

Looking at another facet, we come to the question of websites. If only the successful website has articles, there soon won't be any marginal websites left. I actually enjoy places like mypersonalwebsitefor me.com.ru.uk.omg, because they are made by people who just want a website, not by a business or group that has sufficient funds to support purchased content and a service to maintain it. There is a kind of adventure in looking across all the countless places where someone has put a URL and just seeing what they found fit to print. Yes, I know that established writers can lose potential income when such places post an article that violates copywrite laws or engages in plagiarism, but come on, they aren't making any money to speak of and they seldom do this. Those places that do such things regularly are just criminals and they will continue regardless of regulation. Coincidentally, they are usually run by webmasters with a large operating budget, many illegal connections and a host of other bad things in their profile. Even accidental plagiarism is a problem, because we are the compilation of all that we have experienced, including what we have read.

It just seems a shame to exclude some of us while encouraging those who are already successful. I would hate to have to create my own website just to have a place to print my words.

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