[bmn__]

That's false. Perhaps the author would not have bothered to write the article without securing economic compensation of some form, but advertisement is not the only possibility.

[LunaSea]

That is incorrect. Most people don't pay for content.

You can see how well donation links work on content sites and open source projects for proof.

[concordDance]

Most people do pay. E.g. Netflix or whatever.

I personally pay $50/month on Patreon to various makers.

[LunaSea]

> Most people do pay. E.g. Netflix or whatever.

That's for long form video content (series, movies, documentaries, etc.).

Text content is rarely something people pay for.

How many newspapers are you subscribed to?

> I personally pay $50/month on Patreon to various makers.

Sure, but look what the ratio of Patreon subscriber to viewers is for Twitch streams or Youtube content creators is.