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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[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 330 points 3 months ago (31 children)

That dude is really trying to kill his own platform, isn't he?

[–] Erasmus@lemmy.world 191 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Taking lessons from Elon.

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

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 66 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Taking lessons from Elon.

Wasn't Huffman singing Elon's praises after the Twitter purchase?

[–] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 47 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Huffman is a full on Musketeer.

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[–] Technofrood@feddit.uk 41 points 3 months ago (4 children)
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[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 96 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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 57 points 3 months ago (9 children)

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.

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[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 42 points 3 months ago

Quarterly reports demand that line go up.

The line must always go up.

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[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 239 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The enshitification will continue until all value is extracted.

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 55 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I kinda love to see it. These companies can't help themselves.

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[–] witx@lemmy.sdf.org 184 points 3 months ago (6 children)

The truth is in the better days of Reddit I would've paid 2 or 3 dollars to access Reddit if that helped maintain it sustainable and if some of that money reverted to mods. Now? Reddit can burn

[–] a_guy_at_home@lemmy.world 84 points 3 months ago (4 children)

That was the first sales pitch for Reddit gold. That they just needed a couple bucks a month to pay for the servers. Lots of power uses back then did just that, and felt pretty good about themselves. There were people also arguing even then that anybody who paid Reddit’s bills for them was an idiot, but lots of people did.

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[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 157 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

“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

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 76 points 3 months ago (10 children)

If anything, they're the ones benefiting from altruistic users giving them free labor to profit off of.

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[–] smithbird02@lemmy.world 138 points 3 months ago (24 children)

I just made a Lenny account because of this. Fuck them

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 40 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] SlapnutsGT@lemmy.world 129 points 3 months ago (4 children)

What’s next? Change the name of the platform to Y.com?

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 56 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Then following up by threatening to sue all the users who deleted the comments they made and left

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[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 106 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] ResponsibleBorder746@lemmy.world 104 points 3 months ago (25 children)

lol I saw this on reddit and was like fuck it, and made a lemmy account.

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[–] WatDabney@sopuli.xyz 81 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Altruistic? ALTRUISTIC?!

Just who in the fuck does he think he is?!

The only altruists on Reddit are the users who freely provided the content that this fucking parasite feeds off of.

I'm so glad I left that awful shithole of a site.

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[–] ruk_n_rul@monyet.cc 81 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Aaron Schwartz didn't die for this.

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[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 68 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 62 points 3 months ago
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 61 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (19 children)

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?

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[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 60 points 3 months ago (9 children)

Why do all of these companies decide they are so tired of existing?

[–] Wilshire@lemmy.world 42 points 3 months ago

It's the final stage of the pump n dump.

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[–] micl@lemmy.world 57 points 3 months ago (3 children)
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[–] SykotikFiend@lemm.ee 54 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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!

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 50 points 3 months ago (5 children)

...

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.

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[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 49 points 3 months ago (5 children)

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

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 44 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"Oh pics_free exists let's quickly ban that community before we loose revenue ... I mean because they violated the rules"

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[–] pdgfc@lemmings.world 48 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] mugshot@lemmy.world 48 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is the reason i created an account here lol

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 47 points 3 months ago (10 children)

Second wave of Reddxiters on Lemmy in 3...

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[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 47 points 3 months ago
[–] vxx@lemmy.world 45 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Porn, they're going to monetise it.

I always wondered when they will do it. They have the set up.

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i love seeing so many new accounts in the comments

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 43 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

This is a terrible idea for a site that relies solely on user-generated content and even user-moderation. It's not like Twitter hasn't tried this before - didn't work out so well, I'd say. But hey, this concept probably works for the upper management. I guess it doesn't matter to them if all that's left is scorched earth, as long as they can cash out.

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[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago (7 children)

So...this is for porn.

Only fans, but on Reddit.

I suspect it will work out sickeningly well for them.

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[–] XiELEd@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I hate how everything has to be monetized nowadays, or how money is to be expected for everything. Eventually people who provide free service or altruism will be seen as competition.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 37 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I dont usually upvote posts about Reddit...

...but when i do they're shooting themselves in the foot

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[–] SonOfMothman@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Saw this on Reddit 20minutes ago. Saw someone post about lemmy… now I’m here lol

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[–] Soulderp@lemmy.ca 36 points 3 months ago

Just created an account here because of this.

[–] MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml 36 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Describing Reddit as altruistic is some next level delusion.

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[–] Fuckreddit777@lemmy.ca 36 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Just joined because of this. Hopefully I’ll be able to leave that cesspool.

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[–] kemsat@lemmy.world 36 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I bet it’s for the porn. I bet you he’s going to paywall the porn.

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