@@ -5,10 +5,10 @@ description = "Urbit is for creators who are ready to wake up from this bad drea
6author = "Noah Kumin"
6author = "Noah Kumin"
7ship = "~librex-dozryc"
7ship = "~librex-dozryc"
8−image = ""
8+image = "https://storage.googleapis.com/media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/creators%20blog%20.JPG"
11−[image]
11+https://storage.googleapis.com/media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/creators%20blog%20.JPG
13Urbit is for Creators
13Urbit is for Creators
14~librex-dozryc
14~librex-dozryc
@@ -19,9 +19,6 @@ This product is selling very well, and it has seeped its way fully into the worl
20Urbit is for creators who are ready to wake up from this bad dream.
20Urbit is for creators who are ready to wake up from this bad dream.
25The vibe of today’s internet applications—manipulative, erratic, overcomplicated, overbearing, and highly detrimental to society—is in contrast to the mechanics of the creator economy itself, which can actually be blissfully simple. In 2008 Kevin Kelley made famous the concept of “[1000 true fans](https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/).” That is, to make a living as a creator, you only need 1,000 fans who are interested enough to buy whatever you produce. Even $6.00 or $7.00 a month from such true fans is a boon for a creator—assuming not too much of that cash gets taken away by middlemen, and that fans can discover work from outside the corporate monoculture in the first place.
22The vibe of today’s internet applications—manipulative, erratic, overcomplicated, overbearing, and highly detrimental to society—is in contrast to the mechanics of the creator economy itself, which can actually be blissfully simple. In 2008 Kevin Kelley made famous the concept of “[1000 true fans](https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/).” That is, to make a living as a creator, you only need 1,000 fans who are interested enough to buy whatever you produce. Even $6.00 or $7.00 a month from such true fans is a boon for a creator—assuming not too much of that cash gets taken away by middlemen, and that fans can discover work from outside the corporate monoculture in the first place.
27In a limited sense, this 1,000 true fans model is already working. Creators with fanbases of the size Kelly imagined are able to use Patreon or YouTube or what-have-you to monetize their content. But the problem is, those platforms are not really peer-to-peer. Your fans aren’t your own: they belong to the platform. And with the big tech platforms running the show, we end up with the problems described above.
24In a limited sense, this 1,000 true fans model is already working. Creators with fanbases of the size Kelly imagined are able to use Patreon or YouTube or what-have-you to monetize their content. But the problem is, those platforms are not really peer-to-peer. Your fans aren’t your own: they belong to the platform. And with the big tech platforms running the show, we end up with the problems described above.