You're conflating producing content with getting paid. I remember a time when you could find blogs that were actually interesting, and people banded together to

You're conflating producing content with getting paid. I remember a time when you could find blogs that were actually interesting, and people banded together to form communities, and no one was getting paid for it. The problem here is that, thanks to Twitter, YouTube, et. al., everyone has a megaphone now, and it's just almost impossible to find the good stuff in all the dreck now. And anyone who rises to a level of notice on one of these "platforms" starts putting their good stuff behind paywalls these days.