TL;DR: - Tested QR code vs. demo-only in the same session last night. - QR code straight to a community = "Joined directly," no commission taken. Demo without a link, people found the community themselves via Skool = "Joined from Skool network," Skool took 30%. - If Growth Boost is on (it's on by default, Settings > Discovery), Skool takes a 30% recurring commission on any join it decides it sourced, including people who navigate to you inside Skool rather than clicking a link you gave them. - Always put an actual link or QR code in front of people. Never rely on them finding you themselves. Ran a session last night with two communities of mine in play. One part of it, I did a demo on screen, walked through the community, but never gave people a direct link or QR code. Anyone who wanted to join YouTube For Skool had to go and find it themselves inside Skool. Those joins came in tagged "Joined from Skool network," and Skool took its 30% commission. That's on me, and it's exactly the mistake I'm telling you not to make. Later in the same session, I put a QR code on screen linking straight to Skool Events Daily. People scanned, landed directly in the community, joined. Those show as "Joined directly." No commission. Worth saying, we keep Growth Boost switched off for SED, which is part of why that result held up so cleanly. Here's what Growth Boost actually does, straight from Skool's own help docs. It's two things bundled together. First, it pushes your community higher in Skool's internal search results for keywords your ideal members are already searching. Second, Skool spends its own money running off-site ads on your behalf, Meta and elsewhere, to bring in members you wouldn't otherwise reach. You don't pay for any of that upfront. Skool fronts the cost. The trade is commission, and this is the part worth understanding properly. It's not a flat fee for having the feature switched on. It's 30%, but only on members Skool's system decides it sourced. And "sourced" isn't just ads.