Can owning/running a site like this be lucrative?

I don't know, ad networks pay out such a little sum. But it's certainly more views than a personal blog, and no need to create "content" either. A lot of people are using adblockers these days, though. I don't know mods and devs work on, but costs to host the site on a hosting site are likely "pocket money".

Major social media giants like FB tend to work by selling access to the data, but SW is partly anonymous and I'm not sure how much real datamining it could support. In theory you can derive stuff like "People who are interested in X are also interested in Y", but it's fairly limited when people fake their profile information and post single topic or sexuality.

So in my view I don't think it's lucrative, but it could be giving a nice return on the expenses, depending how the staffing is handled.

I think it can be. The more ads that are put up, the more lucrative this site will be.

Idk i think they need to put up billboards in major towns about it do more prople know about the site but then also that could ruin it idk cause its kinda a secret site 😄

They stay in business, so probably.

Ad revenue.

Mine data, particularly on social and political issues.

Mine data on culture.

Ad revenue is a beautiful thing. So, yes.

Just curious to see what others say 👀