This is a very simple explanation of Membership on Joystream.

A membership is something a user can either be invited to or purchase. Depending on how the user signs up on Joystream they will either have their membership paid for by the DAO, another user or they can pay for it themselves.

There are currently 3 places where a new user can sign up for a membership for free, the funds for this come from a faucet that is funded by the Membership Working Group:

• https://pioneerapp.xyz/
• https://gleev.xyz/
• https://l1.media/

A membership is required to use several parts of the DAO such as:

• Creating channels, videos, comments and likes
• Creating posts and threads on the on-chain forum
• Applying for the council, working groups

Some very limited parts of the DAO do not require membership, these are:

• Sending/recieving token transfers
• Validating, staking & nomination actions
• Voting for council members