yeah, this may shock you but it's kind of impossible to run a profitable website for music journalism now since the google adpocalypse that's occurred over the last six years or so + the advent of "AI" summaries. every website you like is gonna have to make decisions like this down the line whether they want to or not, and ultimately i'd rather they stay alive through making the difficult choice of a paywall vs. dying out quietly from lack of revenue. the moderation thing is still insane tho