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Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO

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.

admin ,
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev avatar

They already are. They put all nsfw content behind a privacy paywall (pay with email and browsing habits). Luckily it can still be subverted through old.reddit.com - but the question is for how long.

conciselyverbose ,

Luckily it can still be subverted through old.reddit.com

Wait, really? That’s hilariously stupid.

givesomefucks ,

…

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.

originalfrozenbanana ,

Sure till they copystrike their own subs

HobbitFoot ,

I’ve seen some content creators having a discord channel that is pay to get into where the content creator participates in it as a way to generate additional money. I suspect Reddit wants to do something similar and take a cut of fee.

And I fully expect this to devolve into becoming a new OnlyFans.

captainjaneway ,
@captainjaneway@lemmy.world avatar

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.

rebelsimile ,

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.

ruk_n_rul ,

Aaron Schwartz didn’t die for this.

sunzu ,

The decent ones always either die or turn into a boomer parasite

violetraven ,
@violetraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The sad thing is yeah, he did, and Alex Ohanian played Switzerland

IchNichtenLichten ,
@IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

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 ,

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.

index ,

reddit ad remove

Telorand ,

sudo rm -rf reddit*

kemsat ,

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

jprice ,

It’s steve huffman so it’s definitely for jailbait porn.

lefty7283 ,
@lefty7283@lemmy.world avatar

Oh no! Where will I go to see OF spam bots now???

TimeSquirrel , (edited )
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org avatar

Who goes to Reddit for porn when so many other better options exist? I always thought that was weird. That'd be the last place I'd look for it.

Also, commenting about porn is creepy as hell to me. Like, I do not want to read some other person's opinions/fantasies about a piece of media I'm jerkin' it to. It's like the people that try to make smalltalk at the urinal. Get in, do your business, get out, and keep that shit to yourself.

CarbonIceDragon ,
@CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social avatar

Under a few specific circumstances comments can make sense, like if it’s a community for drawn stuff of one variety or another, that’s used by newer artists looking for constructive feedback.

Deepus ,

I use it only to get niche porn that can be a pain to find manually online.

kemsat ,

I don’t read the comments lol

echo ,

Paywall all of them… don’t care. Why do you think I’m on Lemmy?

ChaoticNeutralCzech ,

I’m glad I’ve overwritten all my comments.

The easiest tool: PowerDeleteSuite
Don’t forget to make the script prepare a backup file and download it once complete. In the replacement string, link to your Lemmy account so that anyone looking for the content can just PM you.

puppy ,

If only there was a free and open platform as an alternative to Reddit.

circuscritic , (edited )

Really this just sounds like YT membership, allowing users to create subscriptions for premium/special content e.g. gambling picks, porn, etc.

If that’s all it was intended to be, it could have been an actually useful and not intrusive monetization strategy…5 years ago.

Even if that’s how the feature gets rolled out now, unless it’s an unmitigated disaster, I don’t see them being capable of not overplaying their hand.

They will assume that because some users are willing to pay for private porn content, or gambling pick subreddits, that of course most users must also be willing to pay for cat photos and memes.

Personally, I am all for it. I am for Reddit making the worst choices possible and speed running their decline. Mostly, I would like a user exodus that results in Lemmy finally getting growth in a lot of their more niche communities that still keep me using Reddit on occasion.

mysticpickle ,

Tone down the snarky comments already guys. Never interrupt the enemy when they’re making a mistake :>

kikutwo ,

True, don’t want to risk a permanent ban lol

almost1337 ,

Trying to stop scrapers, I would imagine.

Sludgehammer ,
@Sludgehammer@lemmy.world avatar

If scrapers have anything to do with the decision, I’d guess its not so much “stop” as it is “make them pay to scrape”. However I’d guess this is just Huffman trying to squeeze more money out of Reddit.

venusaur ,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

So OnlyFans for Reddit. More spam incoming.

LEDZeppelin ,

What a fucking moron

dinckelman ,

Proves yet another time that Aaron died for nothing

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