Just yesterday I was trying to see if I could generate Flattr beta invites. I'm a little disappointed in how slow things have been since I joined, both in terms of getting and giving Flattrs to other people. I just don't see that enough folks using it that I think about doing it on an average day.

Well, today I saw the news that Flattr is out of closed beta and anyone can sign up. I think that's good news. I think it's an interesting project but my evaluation of it so far has been skewed by lack of critical mass and the fact that most of the users of it to date seem to be German speakers so I'm not that into most of that. I personally love the "no mental transaction cost" of not deciding how much to pay. Just Flattr the way you'd Digg anything, and the money takes care of itself.

Some of the user pushback I see is from people whose response is "but but ... I don't get to decide how much to pay? Everyone gets the same thing from me that month? Where is my fine-grained control <sputter />." In my own life, I am doing everything I can to eliminate those large number of decisions I make every day that I just don't give a shit about. "Give this site $0.03 or $0.05? Is this one $0.17 worthy?" I don't want to think about any of that.

I'm going to give Flattr more of a shot to determine how useful I find it. Whenever I run out of my first chunk of money, I'll evaluate whether it seems reasonable to recharge that account. I'm guardedly optimistic. I'd like to see some webcomics people adopt it, I think they might find it more useful and lucrative than Project Wonderful. What can it hurt to try?