Sad. I will need a new way to communicate with my guy.

Ha, and it was also used as a kind of low-rent/unmoderated alternative to Onlyfans.

Certainly, there were enough people making money through it that they should have been able to cover operating expenses. How did they go about appealing for donations - was there a notification inside the app, or did they rely on word of mouth?

https://simplex.chat is the best option.