Dear whiners: the reason the internet sucks today is because this didn’t already exist. Do you know why Reddit did their horrible redesign and locked down their apps? It wasn’t because you didn’t complain loudly enough, it was because their shareholders were concerned about losing out on profits from data scraping AI companies. Do you know why Twitter can’t be read without logging in? It’s because their shareholders were concerned about losing out on profits from data scraping AI companies. Do you know why you don’t click Quora links? Because they don’t serve you useful results, because they’re concerned about losing profits from data scraping AI companies. Do you see the pattern here?

The open internet died a very long time ago. It’s been dead for years. It’s not coming back unless we figure out a way to make shareholders happy. Paying these companies for the content they host is how that happens.