Let me count some ways that Academia Edu has declined in its zeal to monetize. The latest is that no URLs in articles that I've seen are active links anymore!
Before, non-members could scroll down to read articles, but now they have to provide personal info.
As a free member I'm usually hit with a pop-up on arrival. They flatter users by citing a large but false number of mentions to get them to become paying members. One Indian professor was boasting on FB thousands of citations, but I found only 27 for him on Google Scholar. When I pointed that out, he blocked me.
There were Academia Letters and then journals, first free and then pay to publish (like $2,000).
Academia Edu can amplify our works if they want, with nearly 300 million users signed up. That's the attraction to us, but their temptation to exploit. Comments?
