Just popping back to clarify that when I mentioned "unpaid work" for MN I wasn't talking about my posts as has been assumed. I was talking about being one of the many people who have put in hard graft, in real life, visiting MNHQ and helping to get an MN project off the ground - because I believed in the site. Naturally there were some small benefits for me over the years such as CV building, and I did once receive a signed copy of a recipe book by someone who used to be on Masterchef for Christmas. But they were small. No-one volunteers for gain, after all.
I didn't mind. I wanted to support parents and I liked this vehicle for doing so. I was in it for the craic and enjoyed being a small part of something wider. However when my circumstances changed and I had to step down, all I had was a "Thanks and cheerio!" email bounce straight back. It left a slightly bitter taste, but I'm a savvy girl with no real sense of self-importance at all. I just resumed posting now and then as I always had before. And for a couple of years all was pretty well and uneventful.
This year though, something's changed. A new broom somewhere on staff, maybe, or perhaps just the steady departure of team members who really gelled. Can't pinpoint it, and I visit less and less so I don't really try. The only way I can express it is that I feel commodified to a degree I haven't before. Sure, we've always been the product, but never quite so explicitly, so efficiently.
It doesn't matter, things change, just have to accept and move on.