People have grown used to the internet providing a host of things for free. Free is fine for a great many users, but free means either:
– There must be some way for the company to ultimately make money. You take the chance that the company works out a mutually beneficial way to make money, or you take the chance that the company introduces a way to make money that degrades your user experience.
– If there’s no way to ultimately make money, the thing probably won’t last long.
If there’s a service you rely on, one option is to actually pay money for that service. It simplifies things greatly – you pay money, the payee provides a ‘thing’ in return. Their whole purpose should be to provide the best ‘thing’ they can for the money you pay. It’s clean and clear.
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/03/13/winer-reader