I'm pretty sure no one is earning a full-time living on Stacker News. At best, I'd say it can be supplemental income for people who are already earning money online or through the Bitcoin economy.

For most of us, it's a slightly lucrative hobby.

If he can get by on about 10k sats per day, then maybe he can make it work, but that's about where the top earners are at right now.

A quick scan through the responses to your question so far seems to reveal a consensus that SN probably cannot (yet?) provide for a "full-time living" in most countries.

Something I've been wondering about for quite a while now, is how accurate stackers really track their time spent on (or for) SN. I suspect we don't really want to admit how time-consuming it can become.

To me SN is a way of getting comfortable moving sats around and learning more about Bitcoin. The sats I eventually stack are a nice bonus, but not my main goal.

Also, if your friend's goal is to avoid the risk of being deplatformed, SN may not be the solution he's looking for. It is still centralised, even if the people in charge have shown themselves not to try to abuse that power. Maybe look into NOSTR and clients built on top of it that provide YouTube functionality. And then, maybe complement it with SN to promote it and increase its earning potential.

No, I'm definitely not earning full time with SN nor do I plan to, I like posting and earning some sats for it, but what I like most is the community and the shared content.

I earned about 250k sats in two months. That translates to about $200 in my currency. It helped me buy some groceries and order takeout, but I wouldn’t count on SN as a full-time job

This is an interesting question. Interesting to consider what it would take to make SN a full time job as a contributor. There's more you can get zapped for than just posting content, so a strategic person could leverage all the ways of manipulating SN for profit. Hmmm.... The things that make you popular and profitable at other sites won't work here. There's a delicate incentives scheme, and it is very precious to me. Don't fuck with it haha.

For me it has been a good social aggregator to speak about Bitcoin. I don't find it a full alternative or make a living of it.

I'll put it like this: If you're active and the people like what they read, the heap will grow, but in small steps.

It's nothing one could sustain themselves with, hence why I use it as a sort of "piggy bank"; some day, it'll buy me something. 😜

I think it’s great as a hobby where you can earn some sats but I wouldn’t considerate it as main income.

It's not a living, but it's honest work is what I always think.

I would suspect that people here who do get enough zaps for their comments can probably monetize that better in other ways. But SN seems fun :)

I don't think trying to earn a living off of SN even if you live frugally is an efficient use of your time if you need money. Also, even if it was possible, people trying to maximize earnings on SN as opposed to maximizing fun and learning would definitely erode the value proposition of the site.

not full-time, sats wise more like coffee money, but the things I've learned here are really valuable, not to mention all the fun I had here.

Last year SN was exploited using a wallet-drain bug #217122

But the user who found those neglected sats decided to give most of them back.

Maybe he would have been the first user to earn a living on SN

I'm more of a part timer 🤣😅

I dont know if you can actually make a living with SN. Unless you work for SN or are one of the founding members? That is not really what this place is for though.

I've adopted SN as a full-time platform, but not for living.

For me, it not for earning, it's kind of a learning platform.

I won't reply in negative for your friend. I think he should join and give it a try for one month. May be he can be the first one to start earning full-time living from SN. Then, he can be an example for others as well.

What I mean that I'm open for all possibilities.

I'm no stacker, I'm a cowboy 🤠

alternative ways of contributing to ones income is what all of us do or aim to do whether we use rakuten, lolli, etcetera, side jobs, work for family friends. start a small business. all of these things add value i would argue . i like to pick up satoshis in free time considering possible appreciation , whats earned here today may be worth more tomorrow. to flat replace an income is an ideal many of us strive for but wind up finding we need multiple avenues to offset cost of living.