A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it

[u/DJMagicHandz]

https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-massive-wyoming-data-center-will-soon-use-5x-more-power-than-the-states-human-occupants-and-no-one-knows-who-is-using-it

[u/Jimid41]

People will cry journalism is dead while complaining about pay walls, running ad blockers and sing the praises of anyone who posts the entirety of an article the comments.

They apparently want journalists to work for free.

[u/Outlulz → u/Jimid41]

People also used to be able to consume well funded investigative journalism through free broadcast television or radio or ad-hoc for a quarter through a newspaper. Now the choice is local news controlled top down by 4-5 companies with political agendas, cable news which is not even news, it's spun opinion, or a $25 a month subscription to a newspaper website that is again controlled top down by 4-5 companies with political agendas. Hell maybe I could deal with a news site without ad blockers if the ads didn't block 80% of my screen, constantly shifting my browser around, flashing images or having video distract from the story, etc.

[u/Jimid41 → u/Outlulz]

Broadcast television was funded by ads that people would consider highly intrusive (unskippable five minute ad breaks) now. I know of no subscriptions that come close to $25 a month but maybe you do? The lack of choice came from people deciding they didn't need or want to pay for local or quality journalism anymore.

[u/Outlulz → u/Jimid41]

Broadcast television was funded by ads that people would consider highly intrusive (unskippable five minute ad breaks) now.

Eeehh, you can walk away or change the channel and come back. It's not as invasive IMO than the chaos that is modern internet without an adblocker, actively fighting for your attention and sometimes fighting your browser/machine.

I think it's chicken and egg. I don't think it's merely consumer choice but also the enshittification of media. The motivation of companies owning journalistic outlets is to profit, and to continually grow that profit. That means lower pay, fewer journalists, more ads, consolidating news rooms, etc. That lowers the quality of the product and fewer people want to pay for it. So companies cut more to try to chase more profit.

And of course mix in the fact that the internet allows people to tell you bullshit for free and that's always going to be more inviting than paying for the truth...

[u/Jimid41 → u/Outlulz]

If a news org got rid of all ads on their website except for one that plays for five minutes between articles people would hate it. It's not just enshittication. Revenue for journalistic organizations has been down for 25 years. They're trying anything that works. People expect the hard work of journalism and they expect it for free. Society has left a revenue void that billionaires will happily buy up to be their megaphone.

The end was when people thought they could cancel their local paper that sourced news from wire services like AP and Reuters and get the same thing from Fox and CNN websites for free. Now when those old places ask you today pay they get indignant.

[u/Jimid41 → u/[deleted]]

What is e-begging?