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.

    • Erasmus@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Taking lessons from Elon.

      Maybe they need to charge users a monthly fee and add blue check marks. Lol

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s kind of indicative of how bad the web has gotten that twitter and reddit still have users. Digg completely imploded over much less than this. Just that back in 2010, there was somewhere else to go.

      inb4 Lemmy. I get it, but we’re not there yet.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I love Lemmy but I really, really miss the old web. Back when people would just create their own website and put it out there to share their niche interest with the world. People just organically linked their sites to each other to form web rings, an easy method of federation without any reliance on sophisticated server-side software.

        • The_v@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          The heyday of the forums. For about 2 years the combination of Tapatalk and forums was awesome. Centralized interface with no ads, all the discussion.

          Then they both gutted their functionality and spammed in the ads.

      • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The makeup of web users has changed a lot since 2010. The average web surfer was a lot less passive in attitude in decades past.

        • balancedchaos@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I hate listening to my younger brother talk about technology. He is just a sheep in an apple pen, and perfectly happy. I don’t get it.

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Meh, I deleted my account and moved on. Other than snarky comments I don’t really care what happens to it anymore.

  • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    “I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said.

    There’s nothing ‘altruistic’ about reddit

      • pleasejustdie@lemmy.world
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        Pretty much, when they removed search engines who wouldn’t pay them was the final straw and I went back to reddit (after not being there since the API debacle) 1 last time and replaced all my 26,000 karma worth of comments with “Comment removed in protest of Reddit blocking search engines.” Took me a while, but meh, if they want to hasten its enshitification, I don’t mind doing my part.

        • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Some users have actually reported Reddit going back and restoring those very comments.

          • pleasejustdie@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            yeah, I had heard of that, I’m hoping that since it was a while ago and most of them were the ones done by automated systems and not going through it comment by comment editing them, but I’ll keep at it, if I have to sneak one edit through a day or something.

            • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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              4 months ago

              If it’s an automated system, wouldn’t it be written to just look at the original post date, and if the comment was changed (say a month or a year) later, then the script restores the original post? I mean you could get fancy and have the script check if a user is changing all of their comments to the same message, but that seems like overkill. On the other hand, I’ve been running into quite a few posts lately where it’s obvious a single person has simply deleted all of their comments, and I don’t think those are getting reverted?

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          They have an edit history for every piece of content on the site. All you’ve done is post a giant flagpole on all your content stating “this account was previously owned by a real live human” and increased the value of those comments for AI scraping. Unfortunately your protest has done nothing but help them.

          The best way to stick it to reddit these days is to not interact with it at all. Don’t add to their data store, don’t give them traffic, don’t click on them in search results. Don’t protest-edit your content because you’re just helping them separate wheat from chaff.

          • Gigasser@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Might help just to subtly edit your comment in a way that make any advice or content you’ve given shittier. Like if you have some sort of tech support comment, just edit it in a way so that the piece of tech support you’ve offered is some standard answer for the problem that doesn’t fix anything. And while you’re at it, move the comment which offers the fix or piece of advice to Lemmy.

          • btaf45@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Don’t protest-edit your content because you’re just helping them separate wheat from chaff.

            How about just replace some of your content with this stuff from time to time.

            https://loremipsum.io/

      • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Spare a thought for those that have bought Reddit Gold over the years, only to then discover just how much the CEO was paid, up against how much Reddit actually makes as a platform.

        It’s not just free labour. They’re literally paying him.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      The users used to be altruistic, helping other people just because they wanted to be friendly. Because the site used to feel like a real community. But, now that the site is so clearly for-profit I think a lot of users are going to be much less helpful to strangers.

      It’s hard to quit the site because it gets so much traffic, which means so much stuff gets posted there. On the other hand, I think the high-quality comments from someone trying to help out are less common.

    • Chespirito@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’ve switched to using this as well but it has very little user interaction. I hope it grows and is able to compete with Reddit one day. It would be nice to be able to go to a basketball or political subreddit (what do we call them here?) and actually be able to have a nice conversation.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Where Reddit has “subreddits” Lemmy has “communities.” Which is a 4 syllable word with 9 or 11 letters depending on singular or plural and no convenient abbreviation so most of us especially the Reddit expats lapse back into calling them “subs.”

        • Chespirito@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Thank you for information! I’m happy to have joined this community. For the most part there’s actual discussions here and not just meme answers at the top of every post

          • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            For the most part there’s actual discussions here and not just meme answers at the top of every post

            Preach, no karma chasers here.

      • clickyello@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        they’re called lemmy communities, and there’s plenty of interaction! honestly it reminds me of the old days on Reddit before it ballooned into the monster it is today, I legitimately prefer it in every way other than lacking the niche communities (looking at you [email protected] >.>)

        you can find good political discussion in [email protected] or [email protected]

        dunno if there’s any good basketball communities tho, not my bag lol

        • Chespirito@lemmy.world
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          Thank you! And I like the interactions I’ve had so far. It’s just that I’m a huge NBA fan and that’s where I spent most of my time on Reddit. The nba Lemmy community isn’t very big yet but I’m trying to change that by being more active here. I really enjoy this and it feels like actual discussions can be had here unlike on Reddit.

          • Balder@lemmy.world
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            Lemmy is naturally more focused on technology, so sports communities will probably continue to be mostly on Reddit.

      • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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        Try posting on asklemmy, it may not be big enough for individual communities but I think you could bring in a crowd on a post about a particular episode, game, or event if you posted there

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    Now the IPO is done Reddit has to continually feed the investors at the expense of the quality of the thing that’s supposed to make money to feed the investors.

    This is gonna be fun.

    • RobertoOberto@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      They don’t care as long as they can get in, make a few bucks, and get out. Long-term stability isn’t the priority anymore, just quick profits.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Heyyy!!! Happy to have you here. Enjoy it while it’s small ;) feels like old Internet here.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Hey nice to have ya!

      Friendly reminder that the Fediverse is awesome, and you have the power to control the content in your feed not only by which subs you subscribe to or instances you make an account on, but also which you can block - including specific users if it comes to that. Of course, instance admins can do the same, and if that happens to content you want to see, you can always make a new account on a different instance and see everything.

      It takes a little to understand the Fediverse structure, but imo it’s one of the best ways social media can be structured.

    • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮@lemm.ee
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      Remember to try hiding vote display and see how it changes your usage. It’s underrated feature that imo makes you focus on the quality of the content rather than popularity.

    • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I haven’t been over there in a while but I noticed the AIs are starting to show up here. How was it over there? Rough percentage of how many?

  • SykotikFiend@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    After seeing this article on Reddit, that’s what made me finally jump ship and join in here. It’s been nice so far.

    Reddit is hardly even the same site it used to be. Especially with bots taking over. And I just don’t think it makes sense to make people pay for what was meant to be a user-generated experience. We’ve sadly come a long way from the narwhal baconing at midnight.

    But here’s to new beginnings!

    • SamB@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      They think that their domination is strong enough so that after an initial backlash, the users will come back since they have nowhere else to go. And they’re kind of right.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      They think they are so entrenched that the thought of users leaving is not a consideration at all. He said it himself and been proven right. Governments are also asleep at the wheel. Their users are prisoners.

      • Adalast@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        You assume that the governments of which you speak are not assisting intentionally. These companies did not write the EULA legal frameworks that allow them virtual carte blanch to take and do whatever they want just because the population is trapped in the endless cycle of coercion that is our life.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    I think this comes down to what the intentions are

    Paywall /r/videos? Fuck off.

    But create a system like Patreon where a content creator can put their own content and interact with their own users and there’s a revenue share between reddit/creator that doesn’t sound terrible.

    If they’re gonna do it on Patreon, why not try and lure them to reddit?

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      Just had some more thoughts on this as well.

      If Reddit can lure Patreon users, they could also likely protect that content creators data from being shared on the platform. The creator uploads a commissioned drawing for it’s paid users, and then someone tries to copy it and show it in /r/pics. But since reddit has the source image, they could be scanning for identical images by hash, or matching images via AI and then prevent it from being posted outside the community.

      It definitely isn’t THAT easy, but it opens up the potential, and being able to tell your potential customers you have tools to help prevent unauthorized sharing on a prolific platform probably has some merit.

    • Tilgare@lemmy.world
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      Totally. This could be reddits premium answer to a Patreon community with an exclusive Discord server.

  • Phegan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    What’s going to stop people from creating a new community and migrating the second reddit pay walls it.

    Oh pics is now paywalled, looks like everyone is using pics_free

    • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The problem with media platforms like Reddit and Twitter is that they take place in a single Instance, with thousands of communities. So it’s easy for one person (like an Elon Musk) to completely screw it up for millions of people.

      With Lemmy, everything is decentralized. Communities are spread out and duplicated over hundreds of Instances in many countries. So if somebody ruins one Instance or community, people can just hop over to the second or third most popular Instance, and the original instance will dry up and disappear.

    • bamboo@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Reddit will likely ban any community that exists to evade the paywall

    • x00z@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Hey! Welcome!

      I recently joined as well. It’s actually very nice here.

      Let’s make something nice _

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    Wouldn’t the contributors to those subs just make a new one that’s not paywalled?

    Reddit is going to be asking users to pay to generate content on specific subs, but they’re forgetting again that the sub isn’t the important part, it’s the users.

    This would just fracture the biggest subs and destroy the communities.

    • Captain Janeway@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The common thread I’ve seen online is this:

      • Google’s search algorithm sucks. I always append reddit.com to get good forum results
      • Reddit’s search algorithm sucks.

      These two tools are quickly becoming coupled for Google-Fu expert users. The historical forum history that goes back 3-5 years on Reddit is their goldmine. You can’t just make a new subreddit overnight when a sub gets paywalled. All of that historical data will be lost and paywalled.

      I think a paywall could be an effective money maker for Reddit because they’ve basically become their own Google - in that each subreddit acts like a unique website with real, human, responses. The only problem is that reddit has a god awful search algorithm that they refuse to improve. So people use Google to essentially search reddit. The “whales” so-to-speak are the only people they need to capture. People like myself (frugal people) aren’t in their peripherals. But the people that think “I’ll pay each month for NYT” or “it’s just a few dollars for the WSJ” are going to use the same logic for Reddit: “it’s a small amount of money to have access to high quality forums on X, Y, and Z”.

      In addition, this might bolster Reddit’s content even further. Since paywalled subs will automatically reduce the amount of AI content spammed on them, they will inherently increase the legitimacy of each forum.

      Lastly, this will give them a path towards monetization for moderators which doesn’t require them skimming off of their own pay checks to achieve it.

      Do I like this? No. Is this fair? Also no. People contributed to Reddit under the impression that their data would be available and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. That implicit guarantee is being violated. It’s an afront to the hard working individuals that have developed these communities brick by brick.

      But does this “solution” make a lot of business sense? Possibly. As long as they survive the changeover in the short term, I think they’ll thrive from this choice for the reasons I stated above.

      Again, it’s going to give them a pathway for:

      • Monetization
      • Reduce AI spam (a big fear of all forums)
      • They could make even more money off the back of this

      I’m pretty much over Reddit anyways. Lemmy has been my backup social media for a while now. The Internet is still free - for now. I just hope we can all find better search engines and forums in the future. Google has been degrading. Reddit has been locking things down. We obviously need to pivot to other platforms. Or maybe just go back to the old days where you find niche forums hosted by some dude in his basement. Nothing wrong with that.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      Wouldn’t the contributors to those subs just make a new one that’s not paywalled?

      My guess is that the paywalled subs are going to be a way of interacting with celebrities. Like, a House of the Dragon sub featuring AMAs with cast members, but behind a paywall. You could make a House of the Dragon non-paywalled sub, but the celebs wouldn’t post there because they have a side-deal where they get paid for posting in the paywalled subreddit.

    • rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I think you’ve gamed out the next step the right way, what that means is that older subs and their content just get locked away behind the paywall. Eventually all of reddit is on the slack free account.

    • WrathUDidntQuiteMask@lemmy.world
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      I just joined - in fact this is my first comment. I was tired of my page (and now comment sections) getting flooded with ads.

      The Reddit experience isn’t going to get better, it’s just going to get more profitable for shareholders.

      • TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works
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        Welcome! I came over during the API lockdown because I didn’t want to use their shitty app on mobile.

        I generally like it more over here, I’m not doom scrolling as much, and while not all of my niche community’s are here, I do feel like I have more of a quality experience in them though.

        • LoreleiSankTheShip@lemmy.ml
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          If Reddit pulls these kinds of moves two more times or so, I’m 100% certain Lemmy will have all the niche communities you’d ever want. This place is much better!

        • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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          I previously had issues with Reddit before the API drama, and I was happy to find a new similar community where I can hang out with people. While a smaller community, I actually think it’s usually more of a positive than a negative.