Microphilanthopy

December 13, 2019 4:12 PM

I tend to accrue some Brave (browser) rewards. They seem to have a cash value. Would/should/could I donate to Mefi? For me its just US$0.50 but its still found money I'd gladly forward on a continual basis.
posted by Fupped Duck to Feature Requests at 4:12 PM (12 comments total)

Heya! Yeah, prompted by you mentioning it earlier and another inquiry this week, I went ahead and took a look into the Brave Rewards program and have commenced setting it up as an option. The basic setup should be there now, but it's possible it'll be a couple days before their verification process is actually complete.

I haven't used the Brave browser basically at all myself, but my understanding from a little fiddling around is it'll basically provide an option to "tip" MeFi if someone's so inclined via the url bar in that browser, which, neat!

So: folks who know what they're looking for there, go ahead and let me know if it's looking like it's working now, or when it is. Happy to poke things further to help get it set up. And I very much appreciate the thought as far as finding another channel to support the site, so thanks for asking/suggesting.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:16 PM on December 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

Heyo, I wondered were I'd heard about Brave before on Metafilter.

Here's the comment by schmod That outlines why you might not want to use Brave.
posted by freethefeet at 8:56 PM on December 13, 2019 [7 favorites]

Reconsider Brave browser, please.
posted by terrapin at 5:17 AM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

Does MeFi have an Amzn Smile account? Amazon is deeply problematic, but I do end up ordering from them sometimes.
posted by theora55 at 9:06 AM on December 14, 2019

I'm really sorry to see Metafilter endorse Brave's business model by joining their revenue program. I get it: free money is good! But Brave's whole business is to remove ads from websites like Metafilter and replace them with their own things-much-like-ads, skimming a chunk of the profit along the way. The fact that they'll then return some smaller portion of revenue to Metafilter if you ask them to doesn't make this OK.

Don't join the extortion racket, even if they're paying you to.
posted by Nelson at 9:46 AM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

theora55: Does MeFi have an Amzn Smile account? Amazon is deeply problematic, but I do end up ordering from them sometimes.

Smile is only for charities. MeFi does have an affiliate code, but it's against Amazon's rules to post the affiliate code publicly and threatened to remove MetaFilter's affiliate account unless cortex stopped making it available on the site. But if you click on an Amazon link from anywhere on MetaFilter it will be an affiliate link.
posted by capricorn at 12:13 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

I am not a fan of the Brave Browser, their business model or the founder.

No amount of nickles and dimes that would come from using this is worth the end result of funding that org or the way they're breaking the internet and effectively monetizing content/ad revenue theft by injecting their own targeted network of ads.

I doubt very many of us are going to be using the Brave Browser for the reasons listed in this thread. I'd rather collect and melt aluminum cans into ingots and sell them at a scrapyard if MeFi need an extra 5 bucks a month or whatever that it'll likely yield.

If you still want to do microphilanthropy using the Brave Browser, maybe send your Brave Coins to Planned Parenthood or an LGBT cause or something the founder probably hates?
posted by loquacious at 2:07 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, huh, I did not know there was such a "that dude is a horrid toad" backstory. Hrm.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:34 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

It's not just that their CEO is a homophobe. It's that the entire business model exists to steal revenue from sites like Metafilter. Ad blocking is thorny and contentious, I get it. But Brave is not so much an ad blocker as an ad replacer. It's gross.
posted by Nelson at 6:17 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

Agree with others here -- Brave is pretty awful. I'd rather volunteer to pay a buck a month than support them.
posted by Alterscape at 11:25 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have known at least one person whose employer specifically required the use of Brave on their work laptop. (This has also been my only experience of seeing Brave actually used, no idea if that's their core business model or what.)
posted by Not A Thing at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2019

I use Brave on my phone as a way to stay a bit more secure with my mobile browsing. I'm glad to tip MetaFilter some tokens every month, but if collecting the tokens is a big pain compared to the revenue, then I can tip them elsewhere and I won't feel put out.
posted by brainwane at 7:42 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]