Yes.

This predates websites, it's called commerce.

Pick any medium, humans will always find a way to transact with one another, it's been like this for thousands of years.

I don't understand why you think websites and the internet should be exempt from this?

> > There is this disgusting belief in modern society that everything one does needs to generate money, otherwise it's not worth doing. Were we always like this?

Forget websites.

How are you going to pay the rent, or put food on the table for your children if you don't want to generate money?

Unless you're retired with savings (some on HN are), have an inheritance windfall or are living on government money, then you can do things that don't need an income.

Otherwise you need to generate an income.

Perhaps they have a point actually: if we assume that a significant proportion of society is retired with savings (and this is the case in the US - ~1% of population can afford a rich lifestyle on passive income alone, and ~5% can afford about a median lifestyle), then serving society may become a calling for those people - they need something to do after all - once everyone will understand that normal "jobs" became mostly harmful to society, or if not harmful, so poorly paid that anyone with even $2M in stocks will not be interested in doing them.

> There is this disgusting belief in modern society that everything one does needs to generate money, otherwise it's not worth doing. Were we always like this?

Most of the world has always been this way. The idea of sharing and exploring for the sake of it was a Christian ideal that rose and fell with their influence in the west.

Multiculturalism exploits generosity; competing interests replaced shared goals. If you don't profit from your efforts, someone else will.

It's not speculative: if you make free space available to campers, the postmodern entrepreneur will sell access to it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36686672