Clay Shirky to Scott McCloud: “Told You So! Nah nah nah”
by Joey Manley
After the micropayment barrier had proved too high for his potential audience (as predicted), McCloud had to choose between keeping his work obscure, in order to preserve the possibility of charging for it, or going for attention. His actual choice in 2007, upends his argument of four years ago: he went for the fame, at the expense of the fortune. …more
Is it just because I’m personally acquainted with Scott, and know him to be a kind, perhaps even overly-indulgent mentor and respectful debater, or is there really something vicious and hollow and deeply personal in all the various manifestos that circulate from time to time, taking him and his business ideas down (not just after-Bitpass, by the way, but also before)? I can’t begrudge people for pointing out that they were right, I suppose. When certain business failures I’ve predicted come to pass, I’m fairly sure I’ll be posting here about those as well. I’d like to think that I won’t bother, though — being too busy with new challenges and new ideas to spend time wallowing in the past. Scott’s a self-professed experimenter. Not every experiment will work. That doesn’t mean that he’s evil or stupid for giving it a go. McCloud’s contribution to the business of comics — his restless, zealous desire to see things Change Utterly in Favor of the Creator — is what we should be focusing on here, not on any one or two of his particular stabs in that direction that didn’t work out. The man isn’t finished reinventing the business of comics. That’s my prediction. Just you wait.
Link via Jack William Bell
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:16 am
Shirky’s orginal essay made sense, but this indeed comes of as simply “Nananananah nah”, not only that, he cant even admit to there are existing working micropayment solutions.
“The working micropayments systems that people hold up as existence proofs — ringtones, iTunes — are businesses that have escaped from market dynamics through a monopoly or cartel (music labels, carriers, etc.) ”
All digital music and ringtones are monopolies or cartels? And that’s the only reason why micropayments work for them? In my mind its almost always implementation that is the reason micropayments don’t work.
Also, saying that McCloud went for fame over fortune when he switches his work to free after four years of bitpass and the company folds seems a bit of an exageration.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:40 am
What are Shirky’s interests in this debate? Has he proposed an alternative model that he has a vested interest in? It’s hard to understand the cause for snark minus his personal stake in the issue. Otherwise it comes off as just petty websniping. Which, y’know, wouldn’t be new.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
The trouble with micropayments in comics is scale, not implementation. There are just not enough comics readers to make it work better or at all really than other options. As readership grows, so will the possibility of micropay comics.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
Shirky is a professional writer, commentator and teacher on Web issues that are frequently poorly researched by others. This piece may look a bit vindictive, but it’s probably necessary.
One of the problems with Internet research that is growing more pronounced as years pass is that information doesn’t have a sell-by date. “Misunderstanding Micropayments” is the second-highest gresult for “micropayments,” and the busy reader might be forgiven for thinking it represents current thinking. When the biggest booster of micropayments gives up on micropayments, that’s news.
I do think that plenty of people are vindictive in their commentary about Scott, especially people who seem to have believed at one point or another that he– or someone like him– would fix all their problems. But if Shirky’s being vindictive here, it’s an occupational hazard. He lives by his arguments.
To a lesser degree, so does Scott, and he’s extricated himself from the microcrowd as painlessly as possible.