Users ARE the product - the trick is to make using the site attractive enough that they'll stick with it regardless.

Elongated has a rabid fan base built around what were perceived to be real accomplishments towards the betterment of mankind. That's not true, of course, but he's also actually wildly, wildly rich.

By contrast I have yet to find a single person who supports Spez or even likes him at all. His accomplishments, real or imagined, are nothing. He's rich but so, so, so much less rich that the contrast is like comparing our moon to the sun.

This is like a kid with a plastic butter knife comparing himself to John Wayne Gacy.