Paid Content on the rise?

Admittedly, it does feel like it’s been ages since Internet was a rather expensive means of spending your time, but in fact, it has been less than a decade since flat rates have been widely available. When I first started using AOL back in 1996, it cost 6 DM (3 Euros) per hour plus the landline call fee, and for this, the content was exclusively available to members, as were the chatrooms – which was on some level a big plus, as it kept the gazillions of idiots out who now crowd basically every chatroom there is. But in the long run it did not work out, at least not for most common interest publishers.