Analytic Flying is a reader-supported publication! Our work is a public good and all we asked in return was that you subscribed and shared articles with colleagues and friends. This helps us track content, know what readers like and want to see, and gives us the validation of knowing that people want to receive new articles directly rather than just come across them by accident.
We also offered a voluntary paid subscription for those who enjoyed and valued Analytic Flying. This helps cover some of the costs, scale-up by providing more frequent and high-quality content while remaining ad free! Thank you to all those who voluntarily upgraded - we appreciate and value your support!
Something changed âŠ
We love doing Analytic Flying! It isnât a business and while subscriptions help defray some costs it doesnât compensate us for the time and effort that goes into our articles. Simply put: nobodyâs given up their day job to write for Analytic Flying!
Something that started off as an irritation but has become an epidemic is the increased use of our content by other platforms, often without attribution or permission. Weâre not talking about using an article as a source to support a substantively original contribution, but plagiarising and paraphrasing our work for the explicit purpose of generating monetising content.
To combat this we proposed an âethical paywallâ. Itâs pretty simple: if you use Analytic Flying for professional or commercial purposes then you need a paid subscription. If youâre using it for personal or educational purposes then carry on as you are, whether that be a free or voluntary paid subscription.
We hoped this would ensure that important information remains accessible to the public for personal use, and that people utilising it for professional purposes would utilise it fairly. We didnât want to put Analytic Flying behind a paywall as this defeats the purpose of the project!
We were naive!
Why would people whose goal is to churn out as much content as possible and whose method is plagiarising and paraphrasing abide by an âethical paywallâ? Of course they wonât but we thought it would give us a stronger footing to push back at the most egregious cases. We were very wrong!
Recently we wrote to a publication informing them of a copyright violation, noting their article plagiarised another article that had paraphrased ours (yes, copycats have copycats), quoting very specific datapoints from our original analysis without attribution. Their AI generated response shows what weâre dealing with:
They claimed to have carefully reviewed their article and ârespectfully disagreed that any copyright violation had occurred.â They argued that since the specific datapoints were derived from publicly available data that our work doesnât constitute original creative expression protected by copyright law, despite no attribution of sources in their article. Unfortunately, thereâs only one way to change this and thatâs to expand the paywall!
Our new articles are now published behind a paywall. Our original plan was to remove the paywall from each article after several weeks, however what weâve seen is that even the back catalogue becomes an important source for content mills and theyâll happily regurgitate work thatâs out-of-date.
Over time weâll be moving everything behind the paywall, with some exceptions including a several highlighted articles, articles that are of public interest, and those that donât include substantive original analysis. Tools like our Capacity Tracker and WiFi tracker will also remain freely available.
Weâll comp you a subscription, just ask!
In a world where AI makes it easy to plagiarise and paraphrase there are strong incentives to master AI tools and social media algorithms rather than generate high-quality original content. The externality is that there isnât much of an incentive to generate high-quality original content, particularly long form content.
By utilising paywalls, thereâs a stronger incentive to generate high-quality original content. If the public donât value it and prefer AI slop, or if the content is of poor quality then they wonât pay for it. At the same time it reduces the feedstock for the AI slop.
We understand that paid subscriptions arenât for everyone. Not everyone can afford a trail of subscriptions, especially for platforms that arenât producing high frequency content or host a back catalogue from multiple creators. Our price might be too steep for those unable to expense it on the company card.
We donât want the paywall to be a barrier for the public to access it, so if youâre using Analytic Flying for personal or educational purposes and are unable to justify the cost then please reach out to us and weâll comp you a paid subscription for the next year. We especially encourage long time supporters and friends to reach out. But if you value Analytic Flying and are able to support us then please sign-up for a paid subscription.
There are alternative ways to financially support Analytic Flying including making a direct contribution of any amount via Buy Me a Coffee. This doesnât require a recurring subscription and allows you to contribute any amount youâd like and remain anonymous.
The âethical paywallâ still applies! If you use Analytic Flying for any professional or commercial purpose then we expect you to upgrade to a paid subscription. This includes airline and airport staff, industry or trade associations, and professionals in financial services and consulting. Group subscriptions and sponsorship also available, please reach out to discuss.