I really like the idea of an app or a service calling their paid offering a membership. Perhaps it’s not quite a community, but it’s creating a similar feeling that you’re part of something. It’s less transactional in nature. There are likely some cooling things you can do with Badging. That could be nice. I’ve heard of this in the past, but I feel like the Arc team truly understands this. I feel like Muse understands this as well.
Things that I build in the future, should probably do the same thing. It’s kind of like Patreon on steroids where there’s some software component, there’s some support component, and some community engagement component. Perhaps that would need to change over time if the community grows larger, but I think it’s a great place to start.