I do know how the Internet works. It used to work so much better. I know it can be much better because I lived it.
It was never free money. This ad based revenue model. That money came from the direct extraction of a social resource. It was a system that turned our labors of love, our very thoughts, our ability to express ourselves into a business venture. It gamified a system where it used our labor for their profit, their product.
These spaces belong to us, not the small handful of companies that aim to monopolize our internet. Federation is a great step in the right direction. And rather than fund sites by ad revenue, where they would be motivated to follow that engagement algorithm, we can have communities rewarded for supporting it’s own.
Money printers do not walk into your local supermarket and slap a big sticker with a big number for the price of bread.
The bread company, which sells your brand of bread made that decision. And they alone have that authority to dictate the price of their product.