Will you go paid?

Some sites like Classmates or similar sites which promise to help you out in connecting with old school companions. These really irritate me a lot. I am a member of Classmates and Facebook also. I get similar notices stating that someone has signed my guest book only to be told that I have to be a Gold member to view the details. It really drives me nuts. But I will not become a paid member. Then they roll out various options from which I can choose one. I guess that there are many ways to look up a long lost friend and if they are so overcome with grief for having lost me in the first place they will be able to figure something out sooner or later. But Facebook, Linkedin, and a very few other similar sites offers similar services. But totally free as far as I know and at least these two sites are considered one of the safer sites. They also offer total privacy and total security of your personal data. So why go paid? When people become more aware that similar/better services are being offered by other service provider, then they will gradually switch to the free mode.