I agree with recent TWiT discussion on this : we've had it good for a while - the promise of free internet but all those services cost money to keep running.

I don't have an issue with paying Youtube Premium Lite. Where I have an issue with the subs model is you're pay subs to so many services, YT Netflix Twitch, etc. It adds up pretty quickly, and costs way more than traditional TV used to cost.

Then there's the issue of online magazines. I find most even including Wired, to be too random in terms of content. Itś really easy for me to rationalize the worth of YT : irreplacable. But all those online "news" site that churn out tons of SEO optimized articles and "top ten (insert random hardware)" lists etc? Really difficult for me to warrant a subscription.

Now if someone maintained a really big forum, like there ś a few still running with tons of sub forums where you can spend an hour everyday and get a ton of interaction. Sure, I'd sub to that.

Even Reddit for me it's hard to think why I'd pay for it, even though it is also irreplacable in some way. Perhaps because it is primarily a social site, there is so much abuse, so much idiocy, so much "hive mind" and so much negativity/sarcasm overall - it easily shadows the good side of reddit : the helpful/kind replies, the sharing of useful guides etc.

So huh.. Maybe it is like the TWiT panel agreed, the "free for all" internet is dying, and some sites/ services may well disappear and maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe there are better ideas to replace them.

If it was just me I´d bring back huge forums. There's gotta be a way to monetize those through Patreon/etc. Theres lots of small perks you can give to forum members. Maybe they still have a life in them, but they were just made seemingly obsolete for a while by "social media" sites like Twitter and Instagram.