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Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO (9to5mac.com)

submitted 4 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 77 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] pleasejustdie@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

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 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] pleasejustdie@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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 4 points 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?

[–] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 2 points 4 months ago

Can confirm. At least, mass deleting via api no longer worked last I tried.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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 1 points 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 1 points 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 3 points 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.