I pay $100/month for internet access.
Lemmy may be free to access, but certainly not free to host. Am I paying for it personally? No, but someone is.
You also don’t see Lemmy paying hundreds of YouTubers and influencers for ad spots.
The very first time I saw an ad for Honey I knew there had to be a catch. Nothing is ever free.
It wasn’t immediately obvious how they were going to make money, though. I figured they’d just sell gather and sell user data. I had completely forgotten about affiliate links. But they probably also sell your data for good measure.
This decade it’s AI, last decade it was outsourcing to the third world. The assault on skilled workers never stops.
Managers who try to replace engineers with AI are probably shitty bosses to work for anyway, because they don’t have a single fucking clue about what the job actually entails.
The only thing those employees lost was their income. I’d move on and never look back.
(That’s part of the joke.)
(Unless you’re also saying that to be a contrarian, then well played.)
It’s called “engagement”, sweaty, deal with it
/s
That’s my point? Nothing is ever truly free?