How about sites like Wikipedia or Wordpress? Aren't they non-profit (Not entirely sure about Wordpress), community-driven sites that have succeeded despite their altruistic intentions?
I don't agree with the notion that companies or non-profits have to eventually become sinister and closed-off to maintain market-share. I think Twitter and Facebook just happened to be sites that did take this path-likely because they involved individuals who wanted large profits.
But the project wasn't started in order to sell ads on wordpress.com hosting
I think the point from reply above is that the line about all successful projects being 'for-profit' projects is clearly bogus, and I would totally agree with that.
Wordpress isn't non-profit but they monetize open source software. So by nature there's a bit of balance in what they can realistically do to be "evil".
I don't agree with the notion that companies or non-profits have to eventually become sinister and closed-off to maintain market-share. I think Twitter and Facebook just happened to be sites that did take this path-likely because they involved individuals who wanted large profits.