I can't help but agree with you. In anything I write, I am either paid directly, have my own ads up against it, or I am contributing to a community with a broad

I can't help but agree with you. In anything I write, I am either paid directly, have my own ads up against it, or I am contributing to a community with a broader goal of making information more readily and easily accessible - where there is a mutual benefit (everything from sites like SO to comments on HN, etc.) For somebody else to profit, in my eyes, is no different to the splogs that I spend too much time playing wack-a-mole with. The splogs could also argue that they are making the information (my content) more easily accessible and more organized. The hackermagazine is in a position where they could pay contributors, providing a quid-pro-quo through profit sharing. Most personal blogs make very little from advertising, so they could re-jig their model to provide a revenue source to good writers (who in-turn would have a further motivation to write good articles). It is a bit like the old trade monthlies and quarterlies who would take the best research papers or other contributions from a particular field and wrap them up in a magazine - only they would pay their contributors. If the publisher was not being sincere in their email, and this was a bait-n-switch, then that is a whole other matter that would require clarification from them.