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We were talking yesterday about encyclopedias, and it brought to mind the "See also:" section, which was the pre-internet predecessor to the hyperlink.

I'd look up something in the encyclopedia, and read the article. At the end there would be a short section starting "See also:", listing (possibly) related subjects.

I'd then look up one of those subjects, read the article, and at the end find something interesting in the "See also:" section and repeat the process.

I could spend a whole day doing this, at the end I would have learned a lot of fascinating things about a fairly random set of subjects.

At no time during this process was I begged for a donation. No one asked me to create an account or enter my personal data, and there were no ads, pop-up or otherwise.

Not everything is progress.