Wired: Topica Users Pay the Piper

Topica, a free site used by interest groups to develop communities via email lists, started placing text ads in the emails sent through its system, and seemingly, all heck broke loose. Many subscribers and list moderators complained loudly when the new changes were revealed a week ago. Some have taken to calling the messages spam.

Topica indicated that the ads were part of a four-week test to determine subscriber reaction. Faced with a choice of losing the whiniest of its subscribers versus actually booking some revenue for its very large community service, it well may be that the squeakiest wheels among the Topica lists might soon be seen kvetching over at Yahoo Groups.