Hello! I've been really curious about how the financial side of operating the site has been like, especially since many sites CS's age have had to eventually shut down due to operation costs. I haven't been able to find much information about this type of stuff in the forums -- sorry if I've missed a post with that info!
1. How well do C$ purchases (not ad revenue) bring in funds? It seems like there is a large amount of C$ floating in circulation, so it's hard to tell how much is actually being purchased monthly and supporting the website or how much is just being exchanged from player-to-player.
2. How does artist pay work? Is it on a design-by-design basis? Do they function like contracted employees?
(I did see a post that off-handedly mentioned they were paid in C$ currency, not real-life currency -- is this true?)
3. Does CS get enough funds for the site owners to stay working on it like a full-time job, or do they have to supplement their income in other ways? (Do you get any income from this project? I really hope you do!)
4. This one is the longest shot -- but if someone knows a ballpark estimate of how much the site is actually able to bring in income-wise (monthly? or yearly?), how much artists get paid, and what operating costs are like, those would be some super fun numbers to know.
I totally understand if these questions can't be answered, but thank you for your time in advance!