Of course it's a fad. Services like this always appear in the midst of some specifically viral form of outrage, trying to exploit that opportunity while it's hot.

Well, I don't so much care whether it's a fad or not. SubscribeStar seems to be trying, and if they can keep MasterCard from harassing Payoneer into blocking them, then I'll keep trying to pay some people through them. At the end of the day, with their current traffic, they can sustain themselves. If they grow, they grow, if they stay the same, they are still fine.

I want to be able to send money to some people on a regular basis, whatever way they're accepting payments, I will do it. I've sent cheques to some people since I closed my Patreon account, that works okay too (but it's inconvenient to deposit cheques, so you have to send them once a quarter or year or so rather than once a month).

I doubt twitter is too worried about Gab

You make it sound like this activity happens in a vacuum, just people randomly getting ideas to create censorhip-free alternatives.

These alternatives come up because there are real problems with censorship on existing platforms (or let's say "perceived real by enough people"). If those problems will keep persisting and will get worse - then the alternatives will absolutely thrive. If Patreon and Visa and others will get some sense back - then alternatives will become a passing fad.

Not sure about others, but we are serious about that. 6 senior dev team, everyone left their job to make this dream true.