[angrygoat]

Some extension of the Patreon model onto decentralised social media could work. I pay a few bucks a month to the creators of webcomics and other content that I enjoy, just because it's the right thing to do, and I dunno, it makes me feel more connected to these people that I've never met but who bring me some joy?

[rglullis]

The amount of people like you is nowhere near enough to develop and maintain a robust economy.

[jeroenhd]

I disagree. YouTube is absolutely filled to the brim with Patreon supported content. Even large channels need significant alternative income streams like merch to exist in the way they do, and they're still profitable. A sliver of the viewership cares enough to pay, but when you reach hundreds of thousands of people, you don't need all of them to pay for you to be profitable.

We used to have a "pay for what you consume" economy and I don't see why that suddenly can't exist anymore.

[VHRanger]

So what? Not every product needs to be at the 100m user scale to be a success.

The nice thing about this era for a creator is that having 10,000 dedicated fans is enough.

Dedicated fans will happily monetize on you. 100,000 low engagement fans won't make nearly as much.