Every profit-driven knowledge service that has ever existed has lost this battle in time. About.com, Answers.com, Quora, Genius, and so on. You can serve one pursuit as the primary - knowledge or profit - but not both. They're inherently in conflict. Given enough time, the profit pursuit as a primary driver will always destroy a knowledge service. It leads to decisions that are not solely about being the best knowledge service possible (whether that's commercial abuse through ads, features that exist solely for commercial exploit, dark patterns, or forced volume content aka spam). The only alternative that is viable to maintain a very high quality service over time is to ensure that being true to the pursuit and presentation of knowledge is the highest goal of the service (not making money). That requires aggressive commercial minimalism, operating very thin, never taking venture capital, and or a non-profit route. Anything else results in corruption that inevitably leads to a decay in quality over time. Stack Exchange has made it longer than most with only a few for-profit cavities to show for it. I applaud them for that, it has been a tremendous service. Their venture backers will want a big fat return eventually however, and the clock is ticking. I'd expect their behavior to get worse in the coming years.