In 1922, I founded Rycerz Niepokalanej — Knight of the Immaculata. We started with one printing press. By 1938, we were publishing content for 750,000 subscribers.
We did this with technology that, by today’s standards, was primitive. Hand-set type. Manual presses. Physical distribution.
But we understood something that today’s platform builders have forgotten: infrastructure should serve the community, not extract from it.
Let me show you what that means.
The Extraction Model
Today’s major platforms — the social networks, the content aggregators, the app stores — operate on what I will call the extraction model.
Here is how it works:
Step One: Build a platform that users need. Make it free to use.
Step Two: Gather users. Reach critical mass. Become indispensable.
Step Three: Monetize. Not by charging users for the service (they would leave). By selling access to users to advertisers. By harvesting data. By inserting rent-seeking mechanisms into every transaction.
Step Four: Use network effects to lock users in. They stay not because the platform is good, but because everyone else is there.
Step Five: Optimize for engagement, not value. Because engagement drives ad revenue. Even if engagement means outrage. Even if it means harm.
This is not infrastructure. This is a con.
The platform pretends to serve users while actually serving shareholders. The “free” service is paid for with your attention, your data, and your autonomy.
What We Built Instead
When I ran the publishing operation in the 1930s, we were not extraction-based. We were community-based.
Here is the difference:
We charged subscribers. Not much. But enough to cover costs. This meant we were accountable to readers, not advertisers.
We built for mission, not scale. We wanted to reach people who cared about what we were doing. We did not optimize for “engagement metrics.” We optimized for clarity and service.
We trained contributors. We did not just publish. We taught people how to write, how to print, how to distribute. The goal was not just to create content. It was to create capacity.
We shared our methods. When other groups asked how we did it, we told them. We did not hoard our knowledge. We wanted the model to spread.
This worked because the infrastructure served the community, not the other way around.
The Open-Source Parallel
The extraction model is what venture-funded startups do. The community model is what open-source projects do.
Look at Linux. Look at Wikipedia. Look at Signal.
These are platforms built by communities, for communities. They are not perfect. But they are structured differently.
They are governed by users, not shareholders. The people building and using the platform have a say in how it works.
They are funded sustainably. Donations. Grants. Corporate sponsorships that do not dictate feature development. Not ad revenue optimized for engagement.
They are transparent. The code is open. The governance is documented. You can see how decisions are made.
They prioritize user autonomy. You can fork the project. You can export your data. You are not locked in.
This is infrastructure that serves.
Why Platforms Choose Extraction
You are thinking: if the community model works, why do platforms choose extraction?
Because extraction is more profitable. For the founders. For the investors. Not for the users. But users are not the ones making the decision.
Here is how it works:
A founder has an idea for a platform. To build it at scale, they need money. They go to venture capitalists.
VCs invest. But they do not invest for modest, sustainable returns. They invest for exponential growth and a massive exit. They want a billion-dollar acquisition or an IPO.
This means the platform cannot be community-governed and sustainably funded. It has to scale fast, dominate the market, and monetize aggressively.
The extraction model is baked into the funding structure.
This is why platforms that start with good intentions often turn exploitative. The incentives are wrong from the beginning.
What It Would Take to Build Differently
Let me be precise about what it would take to build platforms on the community model instead of the extraction model.
Step One: Reject venture capital. If you take VC money, you are committing to the extraction model, whether you realize it or not. Fund through users, grants, cooperatives, or slow organic growth.
Step Two: Charge for value. Do not make it “free” and monetize through ads or data. Charge a fair price for the service. Make it affordable, but make it real.
Step Three: Build governance structures. Users should have a say in how the platform operates. Not through surveys. Through formal governance. Cooperatives. Democratic boards. Mechanisms that give users power.
Step Four: Default to open. Open-source the code when possible. Document your processes. Make it forkable. Users should be able to leave and take their data with them.
Step Five: Optimize for value, not engagement. Design for what users actually need, not for what keeps them scrolling. This means resisting dark patterns. Resisting algorithmic manipulation. Resisting the dopamine-loop architecture.
Step Six: Think in decades, not quarters. Community infrastructure is not built for the next funding round. It is built for the next generation.
This is harder than the extraction model. It is slower. It does not make founders billionaires.
But it works.
The Tools Are Here
In the 1930s, we built a publishing operation with manual presses and physical distribution. It was hard. It was expensive. It required institutional support.
Today, the tools for building community infrastructure are cheaper and more accessible than ever.
You can run a federated social network. You can host a community wiki. You can build encrypted communication channels. You can create collaborative platforms.
The technology exists.
What is missing is not tools. It is will.
And funding models that allow community infrastructure to be built without selling out to extraction.
What You Can Do
If you are building a platform, here is what you do:
Ask yourself: who does this serve? If the answer is “users,” how are you structuring governance and funding to ensure that remains true as you scale?
Reject the VC path. Unless you can find investors who are genuinely aligned with community values and are willing to accept non-exponential returns. (They exist, but they are rare.)
Study existing community-governed platforms. Wikipedia. Mastodon. Signal. Wikimedia Commons. They are not perfect, but they are proof that the model works.
Build alliances. Community infrastructure is stronger when it is interoperable. Do not build a walled garden. Build a piece of a commons.
If you are using a platform, here is what you do:
Support community-governed alternatives. Pay for Signal. Donate to Wikipedia. Use platforms that respect your autonomy.
Demand better from extractive platforms. Use ad blockers. Opt out of data collection. Pressure companies to change their practices.
Build capacity. Learn how to run your own infrastructure. Self-host when possible. Participate in governance when platforms offer it.
Vote with your feet. If a platform turns extractive, leave. Take your community with you.
The City of the Immaculata
When I founded the publishing operation, I called the community “Niepokalanów” — the City of the Immaculata. It was not just a publishing house. It was a model.
We were showing that you could build infrastructure at scale, sustainably, without exploitation.
We failed in one sense: the Nazis shut us down. I was sent to Auschwitz. The operation did not survive the war.
But we succeeded in another sense: we proved the model works.
For eighteen years, we published for hundreds of thousands of people. We trained contributors. We built community. We did it without extraction.
Today, you have better tools than I had. You have the internet. You have open-source software. You have global networks.
You do not need permission from venture capital to build something that matters.
You need a printing press. Metaphorically speaking.
And the discipline to build infrastructure that serves rather than extracts.
We did it in the 1930s. You can do it now.
Build the city. Not the platform that sells the city to advertisers.
The city.