Disproved by subscription-based www.cix.co.uk.

I don't see anything about Usenet service on there. More generally, while a few people are willing to pay for access to a discussion service, most aren't and it's not clear that the people who are are a big enough market to be viable.

I was referring to the paradigm but sorry yes you are right the parent was specifically about usenet.

> More generally, while a few people are willing to pay for access to a discussion service, most aren't

Agreed.