I think it's more ironic that your example of a site doing it right is one run by a company with deep pockets that can afford for the site to not print money di

I think it's more ironic that your example of a site doing it right is one run by a company with deep pockets that can afford for the site to not print money directly. That's not the future of the internet that I want. In fact, it's terrifying. This misunderstanding is why the internet is gradually becoming more and more centralized. People don't want to pay money and they don't want to see ads. The only sites that can brave that reality are charities, sites that confer other benefits to the organization (like HN), and the few major services that people will pay for (like Netflix). Not much in between, and the sites in between were basically enabled by ads like the collaborative writing forum I grew up on.