Back in the nineties it was decided that all websites should be free. Part of that was the absence of easy payment methods, part was FOSS influence.
Are there any other important causes? Also, is there a good overview article somewhere?
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@ppk AOL and CompuServe tried it and for whatever reason it failed. I think partly because the free web was better and people moved to broadband and didn’t miss it.
@rythie They tried what exactly? Paid websites? I didn't know that. How were you supposed to pay?
@ppk they were also an ISP. I never used either, but as I understand it you paid to use private forums, email and content. Early on this was per hour and later per month. In the UK, AOL CDs were commonly given away on the front of magazines. They had client software you ran which provided the content only AOL users could see.
@rythie Ah yes, more like a website brokerage. The former telephony monopolist in NL tried to do the same, but failed.
@ppk maybe a cause and effect, but online payments themselves were rare? No Stripe, PayPal only launched 1998 (?). Banks were the only sites on https (more or less) if already online present. Postbank for example had Girotel.
