So my next question would be what's in it for the creator of SBI/HBI and can this service exist without middlemen taking a cut if that's the case and if the manual work is still so minimal from that end yet there are positives that come from it thus there's a demand for it.
Not sure if they take a cut or much of a cut tbh, but I do think that it has some effect on engagement and retention on the platform.
While it is automated on the vote (as it votes a lot), the people who have HBI have at least "often" been chosen based on their activity. For example, the ones I mostly gave to where from the number I sponsor (10) on the Engagement League. I would put a couple SBI for them, as at least on that week, they likely put around 200 comments onto the chain, and unlikely got paid much for it. Getting that small vote from time to time probably matters to them.
Most sponsorships have been based on contests of some sort, and we used to run a twice weekly post that listed all the contests giving SBI as prizes. About two-thirds of SBI members were sponsored by others and never paid anything in.
This is an interesting metric to look at. Thanks for adding some information. Out of curiosity, what is your own return?
As I mentioned to @acidyo, I get 5% 'bonus units' as new sponsorships create regular units. Since I have to post to get benefit from those, and then the benefit is limited by HBI's total HP and VP... I mostly run at a loss.
If the program were to wind down, I would payout Liquid Refunds based on our refund policy and then anything left over from the SP base would belong to me. Unlikely anything would be leftover though, because most revenues go into dlease to keep member returns as high as we sustainably can.
Basically I run it as a service to extend my reach and help as many people as I can in a sustainable way.
(edit: I keep forgetting to mention that 40% of the bonus units I get actually go to @holger80 for developing the codebase and providing support during the rare windows when it breaks down)