Paper.li is a free service that takes links from the people you follow on Twitter and organizes those links into a virtual paper for easy reading.  It's fast, relatively easy, sort of "look Ma, no hands" approach to generating content.  You plug in your social media feeds and it culls them into categories- Sports, Movies, Business, etc- for easy browsing off the home page. It even links to videos and when it tweets it even names some of the sources it used.  Check out my latest one:

 http://paper.li/darkwriter/1402410509?edition_id=a266a860-da4a-11e5-a3f0-0cc47a0d15fd … Stories via @trentlj @Turkewitz

As always, all good (free) things must come to an end.  Effective March 8, sweeping changes are coming to the free edition.

Simply put- if you're using the free service, you're getting shafted.  Normal sloppy service will be spottier than ever and even more restricted- it's the American way.  But at least they're sorry about it.

If you are a publisher of a free paper, you’ll continue to be able to use your paper as a way to find interesting, relevant, topic-based content. But some of the benefits you are currently enjoying are moving to the paid Pro plan on March 8th, such as:

Promotion on Social Media

• Your auto-promotion to Facebook and Linkedin will cease.
• The social sharing column to the left of your paper will no longer appear.

Web presence (paper customization options)

• All customizations to your paper’s design will be removed.
• Any embeds, such as the Nomad and Headline widgets, will no longer be functional in your website.
• You will no longer be able to select/de-select your paper section menu topics in the settings

Newsletter service

• Your paper’s content will no longer be sent via newsletter to your subscribers and your paper’s subscription box will no longer appear on your paper.

Content Sources

• Your content sources will be capped at ten.

Archived editions

• Your paper editions will be archived for the past 30 days only.

Please note that edit mode for free papers will continue to be available, which will allow you to move articles to/from a section, delete or blacklist a source or user.

In addition, starting this Thursday 25 February, you will be able to export your subscribers’ emails by visiting your Account Settings and choosing “Your papers”.

Our primary goal is to make Paper.li sustainable long term, ensuring continued innovation and productivity. For those users who are affected adversely by this change, we’re sorry for the inconvenience.

For existing Pro papers, there will be absolutely no change to your subscription, pricing or benefits.

I decided to wait to see how this, the latest Self-Entitled Author Drama, would play itself out.  All characters came pretty much from Central Casting and the script was by the numbers complete with Destroying the Evidence followed by Crocodile Tears of Regret.  But that's why there's screen shots. 

http://wp.me/p2iZIk-17s