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.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    …He does realize this isn’t going to work on a platform that bans you for breathing the wrong way right?

    • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Yeah. 4 accounts getting randomly banned was enough for me. This will just prey on the clueless who don’t know your account can get shadow banned for any reason (or no reason).

      • Emmie@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        I got banned from kickstarter scam subreddit then forgot about it, commented on another account and got IP/browser banned sitewide thrice that way.

        It just doesn’t make sense that you can comment on some shady subreddit then get banned site wide by some scummy company/mod/russian troll that operates the questionable subreddit.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        It was just one for me, they banned me for “abusing the report button”

        Apparently I can’t report rule breakers if Reddit admin agrees with their bigoted bullshit