Look no further than GitHub Sponsorships for the future of online publishing. Speaking from experience, I derive far more value from signaling to onlookers that

Look no further than GitHub Sponsorships for the future of online publishing. Speaking from experience, I derive far more value from signaling to onlookers that I financially support a particular "author" than I do from privately buying ... basically anything ... from that person. In addition, the author gets way more exposure this way, on a far more consistent basis -- just for being awesome. And I prefer this to a relationship doled out one financial transaction at a time and limited by artificial exclusivity. I want authors I connect with to be paid, but the best way of doing this is paying for their living expenses independent of their publishing schedule. All the while voluntarily promoting their public persona to my peers. Direct "sales" of information only deserves to have a future insofar as the buyer of the information gets important social signaling value from it, per GitHub sponsorships. It isn't limited to GitHub sponsorships, either. Use your imagination. Use your grasp of modern technology. In the publishing model of the future, authorship is financially compensated based on how much social signaling value their readers derive from monetary patronage. Rather than paywalling my work, or hyping it up using immoral sales psychology techniques which are extractive not contributory, I would much prefer rewarding individual patrons, who opt to voluntarily pay for any of my work, with social credibility. I think that's healthier for everyone, and I fully trust online communities dedicated to information consumption will be better than I am at packaging my information for further public consumption and distributing it far more widely than I could ever achieve as a lone individual.