I've tried to implement a journal-like footnote with the authors' affiliation for each section/chapter, by adapting things from the wiki here and here. However, one thing that bugs me is that any note name I choose other than "thanks" does not work, and I have no clue why. Am I missing something, or is there a more elegant way to implement this?

As an aside, I'd rather have the footnotes below the "thanks" notes. Is there any option that does this?

\setuplist[section][
 textcommand=\SectionTocEntry,
 after=\blank,
]
    
\define[1]\SectionTocEntry{%
 \doifnot{\rawstructurelistuservariable{author}}{}
{\start \it  \structurelistuservariable{author}\stop\space-- \crlf}%
 #1% title
 \doifnot{\rawstructurelistuservariable{subtitle}}{}
{\crlf\structurelistuservariable{subtitle}}}
    
\setuphead[section][
 after=\setup{section},
 align=center,
 number=no,
 style=\bold
]
    
\startsetups section
 \blank
 \midaligned{\it \structureuservariable{author}}
 \blank
\stopsetups
    
%\foonote{\structureuservariable{affiliation}}
    
\definenote[thanks]%[numberconversion=set 2]
\setupnote[thanks][rule=off]
\setupnotation[thanks][numberconversion=set 2] % or set 1
    
%\setupnote[footnote][location=bottom] % does not work
    
%% all notes, footnotes etc.
\setupnotation[
 alternative={left,bottom},
 hang=fit, % if commented, hanging is larger
 indenting={yes,small},indentnext=yes, % please, indent everything, should be default
]
    
\setupinteraction[state=start,color=black,contrastcolor=black]
    
\setuphead[subject][align=flushleft,style=\bfb]
    
\starttext
    
\subject{Grande lista de autores}
    
\placecontent[alternative=c]
      
\startsection[title={Whatever}][author={A. Uthor},subtitle={I’d like to say}]
This is a section.
\stopsection
    
\startsection[title={Segunda seção}][author={Fulano de Tal},subtitle={Uma segunda seção de teste}]
This is a section.
\stopsection
    
\startsection[title={Terceira seção}][author={Alberto de Paiva\thanks{asdf}},subtitle={Uma terceira seção de teste}]
This is a section.
\stopsection
    
\startsection[title={Três autores}][author={Sicrano de Tal\thanks{Universidade de Tangerinas} e Alberto Steinenberg\thanks{Universidade de Nilfgaard}},
subtitle={Uma seção de teste com dois autores e comentário}]
This is a section.\footnote{Só de teste.}
\stopsection

\stoptext