Eh, I still do things like that. In fact, I just published an entire free platform for people interested in Stoic philosophy. It has free texts, exercises, a journal, and much more.
The thing is, though... people don't care. It currently has 15 users. And I've published it in a few groups with thousands of users... but nobody cared to click the link. Reddit and other communities absolutely refuse to allow you to share anything, even if it's a free product.
I can see why people just say F it, and start running ads and go the way of monetization.
One of the big problems with how easy it is to generate “content” is that the good stuff easily gets lost among the deluge of dross. Also, there’s no shortage of good quality content being produced so even if you find something good, it may not be the right time for that person.
E.g., I checked your Hacker News submissions and found your platform via your Show HN submission.¹ As someone interested in philosophy and the concepts of stoicism, it looks good but unfortunately I’m too busy at the moment and don’t have enough time to engage with it properly so I’ve bookmarked it to come back to it later.
The thing is, though... people don't care. It currently has 15 users. And I've published it in a few groups with thousands of users... but nobody cared to click the link. Reddit and other communities absolutely refuse to allow you to share anything, even if it's a free product.
I can see why people just say F it, and start running ads and go the way of monetization.