In the good old days, the money came from your job. And you used that money to create free content out of the kindness of your heart.

In the good ol'days when profit drove value not perceived market dominance based on shoddy short-term user data created by a generation of graphic designers.

This stopped working when people realized that they can replace giving kindness with taking money and quit their jobs.

> Almost as if the money to build all this infrastructure has to come from somewhere.

Yes, things need funding to survive. That's the core of the problem. I bookmarked an interesting older HN comment to that effect.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20231960

>Oh wait... they ruined that, too.

I lost you there, who is "they" referring to?

Wall Street and it's need for gross revenue to justify unearned bonuses. Advertising is a direct feed into projected values which dictates which stocks can be manipulated with the most justification. And, often the largest fallout later.