I'm sure it was a gradual thing. You get some donations and expand. I don't fault graf for trying to build something. Maybe trying to sell more subscription stuff earlier on would have helped, but the Internet has been in the "free" "gibs" means of operation since before the '01 dotcom bust.

Sites come and go. It is a pretty impressive instance deployment, I'll give it that. I know the NoAgenda guy funds his entire infrastructure himself and doesn't take donations (par the court for people who listen to the podcast and believe in the 'value for value' model).

I've quit my job to work on projects while travelling twice before. I lived out of hostels and visited friends for 11 months. I always ended up back in the workforce though. I got some adventures out of it. Graf seems to have gotten further than I have ... takes a lot of effort, and you gotta be a type-A hardass to make anything really take off in this world. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.