‼️ // Obsolete Post
Twitter announced that they acquired Scroll on May 4, 2021. The service is now a part of the Twitter Blue subscription service… which isn’t nearly as great as Scroll was before the acquisition.
This article will remain live to highlight one possible future path for the Internet that failed to make the impact that it could have.
I stand by my belief that services like Scroll are a reasonable alternative to the monetization of our attention.
Since the Internet was created, the world has enjoyed free and open access to an enormous variety of content. From journalism to memes, We the Users have grown accustomed to the perceived right to easily-accessible high quality content.
Of course, all that free content was made possible by advertisements. In exchange for what appears to be free, we have given up our privacy and speedy loading times. Gaudy advertisements make our favorite websites look cluttered and load slower, all while tracking our every click and movement in a never ending attempt to nab our attention.
The rise of ad block has been mirrored by the rise of paywalls, making the web less open and less free.
And so came the ad blockers. Most of us don’t like the way ads look, and many of us aren’t appreciative of ad networks’ watchful eyes. So we install ad blocking extensions on our desktops or use ad blocking browsers on our phones.
Unfortunately, although these ad blockers make for a much more pleasant and private web experience, they also rob content creators of their most important source of revenue. In recent years, the rise of ad block has been mirrored by the rise of paywalls, making the web less open and less free.
Enter: Scroll
A subscription to end the rise of subscriptions? Yes, actually.
What is Scroll?
For just $5 a month, Scroll will prevent ads from loading on any partner site on any device you own. This makes pages load faster and saves you from using more data to download ads.
In a world wide web driven by advertisements, Scroll presents an alternative path to a better Internet where everyone involved wins.
At the end of the month, the service distributes your membership fee to the sites you spent time reading. The sites you spend the most time on get the most support — directly from you, and not through an ad provider.
As an added bonus, Scroll will keep track of articles you started reading so that you have an easy way to come back to them and pick up where you left off. It’s sort of like Pocket, except you’re directly supporting your favorite sites just by reading.
I just finished my two week trial, and I have been excited to see where my membership money is going to go:
The Verge is one of my favorite sites – I read it almost every day – and I’ve always felt guilty using my ad blocker when browsing. Now I have the peace of mind of knowing that I am supporting them while reaping the benefits of the site without dealing with ads.
How does it work?
Once you have logged into Scroll on a given browser, partner websites (of which there are many) will check with scroll.com to see if you are a member. If you are, those sites don’t load ads.
That’s it! It kind of feels like magic.
Mobile devices (particularly iOS devices) are a little more complicated to get configured, but it’s still easy and that is a very minor complaint.
Should I sign up for Scroll?
If you are a frequent user of any of Scroll’s partner websites, I couldn’t recommend this service more.
It’s seamless to use. You don’t have to deal with ads, or feel guilty for blocking them. And you directly support the sites that you love the most. What’s not to love?
In a world wide web driven by advertisements, Scroll presents an alternative path to a better Internet where everyone involved wins. With Scroll, conscious users continue to have easy access to great content while taking back control over our privacy. The more of us that sign up, the more sites will partner with the service.
So yes. If you have $5 to spare, sign up for Scroll. Believe in a better Internet, and take part in that vision today.
Disclaimer: The Scroll sign up links in this article are referral links that will give me a free year subscription to one partner site of my choice. You can sign up without giving me this referral bonus here: scroll.com