[kibwen]

> Make no mistake, the Internet has never been free. There's always been a reward system that transferred value from consumers to creators and, in doing so, filled the Internet with content. Had the Internet not had that reward system it wouldn't be nearly as vibrant as it is today.

This is an attempt to rewrite history. Back in the day, we stood up servers at our own expense and filled them with content for free, for nothing other than the fun of it. In fact, the "vibrancy" of the internet appears to be inversely correlated to the number of people using it to generate a profit.

[sbarre]

But "at our own expense" is not free, is it? In the end someone has always paid the bills for things being on the Internet.

That's the "never been free" in that statement.

I don't think they're saying what you think they're saying.

[sceptic123]

They're not saying what you think either, there's no reward system or transfer of value in free content, offered for free. It doesn't matter if it's hosted at someone's own expense if it's done for nothing other than the fun of it.

[sbarre]

I never implied there was a reward system or value transfer (unless you count the feel-good reward of sharing knowledge with others and the value of doing so).

I said that putting things on the Internet is not, and has never been, "free".

And I think that's what Cloudflare is saying too.

You're free to interpret it differently (as was OP) but I think you're wrong. ;-)

[sceptic123]

CloudFlare is definitely implying there's always been a reward systems and value transfer at play, that's there in the quoted text and what the OP is complaining about