[jrmg]

It does feel like a rubicon has been crossed recently, where most things I like are going behind paywalls, and many smaller outfits are heavily pushing Patreon or the like.

Anecdotally, I’m paying subscriptions for news sites (mainstream and niche) and podcasts I would not have had a few years ago. I subscribed to YouTube, which I thought I’d never do!

I’m not sure what to make of this. Microtransactions and subscriptions powering creators has been a dream of many people for a long, long time - at least since the 90s. So maybe this is great? But even if it is, something has been lost too.

[Dylan16807]

I'm still waiting for a more general way to replace ads with micropayments. YouTube premium works well but only for video. Subscribing to a dozen small websites/teams is not it; too much money per payment and 98% of sites get nothing from me.