Sophie (Chanko) Dare

After over a year of being on this platform, watching it grow, and going through ups and downs, it's time for another huge change on this ever-evolving platform.

(The full email from Coil:)

“As an expression of our gratitude to the early creators and supporters of Coil and Web Monetization, we introduced the Boosting Pilot Program in June 2019. The program marked one of our first experiments towards our goal of fairly compensating creators for publishing exceptional content and fostering fan bases in support of the broader Web Monetization ecosystem.

While we believe the program served this goal, it was not designed to scale beyond Coil Blogs. Now that there are more than 1,000 web monetized sites, it’s time to evolve and test new ways to reward creators across the ecosystem rather than limiting our support to any one site or platform.

Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on adding new features that reward early adopters, but in a way that works across platforms. We’re also rolling out an affiliate program that aligns with what many creators on Coil have been asking for – a program that rewards you for the followers and fans that you convert into new Coil Members. You now have early access to the affiliate program and can activate your unique affiliate link in your account.

We know this evolution may be a difficult transition for some creators on Coil Blogs. We also greatly appreciate that many of you have attracted and signed up many Coil Members prior to the creation of an affiliate program. This is why we’ve decided to continue payouts through the end of April 2021 for creators who continue to post at least two Articles or Links per month. Payout amounts will be calculated based on the average payout amount you received for each of the prior two calendar months (October 2020 and November 2020).

We also continue to invite you to explore Grant for the Web, which was founded by Coil in collaboration with Mozilla and Creative Commons. Grant for the Web is a $100 million fund to boost open, fair, and inclusive standards and

innovation in Web Monetization.

As always, we love your feedback and look forward to assisting you via support@coil.com.”

-The Coil Team

Honestly, we knew this was coming, since the Boost was meant to be an incentive for early creators, and a gift of sorts to people who were dedicated to providing Coil with quality content. But it's still a bit surprising to hear, and it really makes me wonder about the future.

Now, I almost feel unqualified to talk about these things anymore. Once I started my full-time job at the beginning of November, I've been basically inactive on here. It's been very hard just to juggle work and my personal life now, as well as planning my wedding. It makes me really sad that I'm unable to pour so much time and effort into blogging as I used to.

But, back when I was writing like it was my job, this Boost was life-changing. It gave me a huge incentive to commit to creating great content. It gave me extra savings and something to keep me occupied and creating during the pandemic. And it gave me something to show for my work – to tell prospective employers that I was being specially recognized for what I was writing. So, even though it may be disappointing that the Boost era is coming to an end, I have nothing but gratefulness towards Coil for providing it in the first place.

Plus, this affiliate thing seems pretty awesome! I have always given people information and encouraged them to become members of Coil, and now existing creators get to benefit from referring new people to the platform. That's a great incentive, and I can't wait to see how that plays out.

For now, I just want to show up as much as I can, and still read everyone's lovely content on here as much as possible. It still feels like an honor to have been an OG creator, and to everyone else still writing regularly, keep on keeping on! You're amazing!

Thanks for reading!