“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.”

  • Chloyster [she/her]
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    4110 months ago

    Lol I was just about to post this. Yeah this is a decision for sure. Wouldn’t be surprised if this causes another big spike in Lemmy usage

    • @thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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      10 months ago

      Spikes are not that interesting. In fact, hey can harm more than be useful (server problems during peak, maybe for days, sudden cost increase for maintainer) if its not an organic and slow increase. The longterm conversion rate is much more important.

  • comicallycluttered
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    10 months ago

    I’ve been waiting to see how they’re going to fuck up NSFW subs and I’m willing to bet that’s where this is going.

    I can only hope it affects the ones that focus on self-promotion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they just decide to charge users directly for access to NSFW subs entirely, since they already removed it entirely from the free API, which apps like RedReader use.(*)

    I know I’m not the only one who basically only has an account for that stuff, although a lot of those subs have turned to shit over the last year or so, anyway. AI generated nonsense, self-promotion even when it’s discouraged, bad moderation, some disappearing entirely because they were abandoned back last year…

    (*) Technically, you can still view that content without an account via Old Reddit (or at least you could a few months ago, haven’t checked recently), but that’s inevitably going to be killed as well, it’s just a matter of “when”.

    • @vinniep@beehaw.org
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      1010 months ago

      NSFW subs are exactly where my mind went as well, but monetizing some of that content could prove legally fraught. Instead, I’d wager the scope narrows a bit to a very specific OnlyFans type of model. Weren’t they already looking at paid awards that provide a cash reward to the recipient? Sure sounds like a tipping model to me 🤔

    • PenguinCoder
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      510 months ago

      I find a lot of good content on Reddit, but its different now as opposed to the early days. The good content used to be on Reddit. Now its not, its on one of 6 other sites, and Reddit is just the ad service they’re posting on. I am sick of the in joke comments and inane comments like “this”. I want discussion.

      Reddit no longer has that.

      • JohnEdwa
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        10 months ago

        It’s going back to the roots, just in an extremely twisted way - I’m old enough to remember when Reddit was just a link aggregator. You put your stuff on your own site/blog/forum (remember those?), and linked to that from reddit.
        People could then upvote and comment on it on reddit, but the idea of posting something there directly was ridiculous - how could anything be found later when it would get buried under the new stuff in a few hours, and bumping isn’t a thing at all?

        Fuck reddit and social media, I want my forums back :(
        Also my back hurts, music these days is terrible, and the 90s’ were just a decade ago or so.

  • @Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
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    1110 months ago

    Dude, what a bummer. Like, I’m glad we have lemmy but there’s certain subs and such that reddit had that aren’t available here.

    On one hand it has completely cured my reddit addiction, which is awesome. I’ve put a lot of time into more productive endeavors. But on the other hand, I do miss finding niche subs that had amazing communities.

    Aaron Swartz wouldn’t have wanted this

  • @Midnitte@beehaw.org
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    410 months ago

    Enshitification marches on - why anyone chooses to stay on sites like Reddit or Twitter (and its Twitter until they stop referring to themselves as Twitter in their emails), I don’t understand.

  • coyotino [he/him]
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    410 months ago

    i mean if they don’t paywall existing subs, and just make it an option for future subs…I could see a world where people use that for like their Patreon or something, like with invite-only Discords. But then, in my mind, that’s people paying Patreon to get access to an exclusive Reddit, and that wouldn’t bring Reddit new money, so maybe this isn’t working the way i’m thinking…

    • Gamma
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      10 months ago

      There would still be some users that would rather pay through reddit for access than make an account on patreon and connect their account

  • @Vigilantfox85@beehaw.org
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    310 months ago

    This sounds like testing the waters, then dipping their toes, then doing a little splashing. Then jumping right in to completely subscription based.

  • @0xtero@beehaw.org
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    310 months ago

    It’s spez so of course they’re going to go for NSFW subs. Pretty sure that’ll just cause people to move to Onlyfans and other, already NSFW platforms.

    Can’t really see anyone paying for sub access apart from porn.