this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has hinted that in future some subreddits could be paywalled, as the company seeks to devise new sources of income.

He suggested that the company might experiment with paywalled subreddits as it looks to monetize new features. “I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said. “But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature.”

This is another move likely to anger Redditors. While the platform is a commercial enterprise, its value derives almost entirely from freely offered user content. That means Redditors feel at least some sense of ownership in a community endeavour, so the company needs to tread carefully when it comes to monetization at user expense.

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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 2 points 3 months ago

Why not all?

[–] almost1337@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trying to stop scrapers, I would imagine.

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[–] FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Damn, so now I gotta use reddit less than I use it already?

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

Instead of gonewild girls promoting their OnlyFans, maybe now they can promote their paid subreddit lol.

[–] KhalBrogo1@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I want to switch aswell, but what is to stop bigger servers from doing the same on Lemmy?

Also where can I find the best instance for each of the Reddit equivalent? For instance I want wall street bets, where is the most active instance of that?

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The obvious reaction to anything typically free getting paywalled is vehemence, of course - and that's my thought given Reddit's track record.

Still, if it weren't them, I'm thinking about how this could be done in a classy way. Most people are not willing to engage on topics like politics because there will always be an unending army of trolls arguing in bad faith about them or needlessly engaging in flame wars. If there's some form of friction behind entry, that CAN at least get people to think twice about insulting each other.

Price tags as a form of friction are problematic, of course, in that they "only allow access to the rich". As such, I'd also be open to other ways of making it "difficult" to enter in a way that people could still do with no money. The silliest idea that comes to mind is that people must mail a physical postcard requesting entry (which could then loop back to price tags, since that uses a stamp)

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