It was free, as long as we paid for every minute of phone line use.

Using Google Translate I prepared and proofread a french version of the FAQ that I can share with you, should you require it.

We are in interesting times, im my opinion. They're interesting because we went from GAFA being suprememe, to the fediverse and threadiverse, to a multiheaded hydra (in the positive sense) where you join instances, that are "local" communities, that can encompass, or block other instances. We go from the monopolies of Meta, Twitter and Reddit, to the threadiverse and Fediverse. I think there is a difference between the two. Social networks are communities, and communities are migratory. Twitter and reddit forget this little detail. They're encouraging their "competition" to thrive. They're sabotaging their own stickiness by over-charging for API use, especially since devoted redittors can already pay 49CHF per year. To pay even more for a third party app is punishing the very people that already "invested" real cash.