I'm starting to wonder if the days of "free, ad-supported, user-generated content wells" are over. The audience and participation base have grown larger than the ability of these single entities to rationally cope with while still maintaining their original mission and profits.
We've outscaled our original hopes for the Internet. It was originally meant to be a tool genuinely controlled by it's users; unfortunately, it's largely ended up in the stranglehold of a few monopolists.
