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.

  • @smithbird02
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    1394 months ago

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

    • @Chespirito
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      224 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.

      • @clickyello
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        184 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
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          74 months ago

          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.

      • Captain Aggravated
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        124 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
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          84 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
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            34 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.

        • @dezmd
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          44 months ago

          Comms and subcomms?

          • Captain Aggravated
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            34 months ago

            No such thing as a subcommunity AFAIK. There are instances (like lemmy.world or sh.itjust.works) and those instances have communities (like Technology or AskLemmy or…do we have a MallNinjaShit yet anywhere on the Fediverse?)

            • @dezmd
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              24 months ago

              Lemmy.world is a community, /c/news is a subcommunity in that context.

              It is whatever we collectively decide it is with enough traction at the end of the day, right?

      • @[email protected]
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        114 months ago

        “Sub” is a generic term from the BBS days, short for “subforum”, “subcommunity”, whatever, so I just use that. I don’t like to use “community” because it’s long and clunky.

        • @Chespirito
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          44 months ago

          I wasn’t aware of that! Thank you for educating me on the term.

      • @MataVatnik
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        4 months ago

        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

          • @MataVatnik
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            4 months ago

            Maybe contact the mods, but I used it to identify a fledgling with great success when I couldn’t find an active birding community

      • @[email protected]
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        44 months ago

        My guy create a Lemmy community about whatever topic and I will post something weird and offputing there, high-five !