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.

  • WatDabney
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    1 month ago

    Altruistic? ALTRUISTIC?!

    Just who in the fuck does he think he is?!

    The only altruists on Reddit are the users who freely provided the content that this fucking parasite feeds off of.

    I’m so glad I left that awful shithole of a site.

    • g0nz0li0@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      This got under my skin too.

      That parasite constantly refers to user content and comments and as being the property or Reddit, and his schemes to generate profit off the back of that asset are almost always to the detriment of the user base who are keeping him in business.

      Like all rich assholes, he’s got this expectation that everyone will deeply respect and admire his mission to enrich himself by exploiting whatever market he has access to.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      1 month ago

      Yeah that word choice is quite a bold strategy after all the bullshit they’ve put their revenue generators (the users and mods) through over the last couple years.