Reddit is planning to introduce a paywall this year, CEO Steve Huffman said during a videotaped Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Thursday.
Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.
When asked this week about plans for some Redditors to create “content that only paid members can see,” Huffman said:
It’s a work in progress right now, so that one’s coming… We’re working on it as we speak.
When asked about “new, key features that you plan to roll out for Reddit in 2025,” Huffman responded, in part: “Paid subreddits, yes.”
Reddit’s paywall would ostensibly only apply to certain new subreddit types, not any subreddits currently available.
Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform. The push for ads follows changes to Reddit’s API policy that, in part, led to the closing of most third-party apps used for accessing Reddit. Reddit makes most of its revenue from ads and can only show ads on its native apps and website.
Reddit started testing ads in comments last year, with COO Jen Wong saying during an AMA that such ads are in “about 3 percent of inventory.” The executive hinted at that percentage growing. Wong also shared hopes that contextual advertising, or ads being shown based on the content surrounding them, will be a “bigger part of” Reddit’s business by 2026.
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You’re gonna pay the mods then, right?
Right?
no
Do it, please, the subreddits need to migrate here
well, not all of them.
I can think of a handful I would much rather see thrown into a furnace.
I wanna talk nerd shit about Sonic, Yugioh, and Sims again
More ads? There’s already a bunch of them mixed with posts and comments. What more, force people to watch an ad before loading pages?
There are ads in comments now?
Yep, ads masquerading as comments. It’s awful. I’m so glad I moved to Lemmy.
Yeah, people like me and I assume you, who used to browse reddit via a third party app or with RES + an adblocker on pc did not see it but it’s a bit insane how much ads there’s already on reddit right now. I migrated to GNU and firefox last week and forgot to add the extensions as I was just looking for some information in the Endeavour subreddit and I was shocked at the state of “default” reddit… I’m glad I left and I hope most of the userbase will…
Yea ads have been in comments for at least a year now
They snuck them in during some AB testing like 5 years ago, they didn’t stick though obv
i hope there is a mass migration here
The more they do shit like this the more they will
I mean, honestly Reddit is a dead site walking. At this point is not if it will “die” but how fast and I guess more importantly where will its users go. Hopefully here but who knows
Ok tidy up this place. We have visitors coming soon.
The announcement is why I created a username here. I doubt I’m coming alone.
Welcome! We can definitely still use a few more people, especially if they’re willing to contribute to content.
Still no frictionless account migration…
On Voyager app you can “migrate subreddits” at least
Not sure what else would even be feasible
What’s to migrate other than your name? My reddit usage was limited to lurking so I genuinely don’t know.
History, reputation, relationships (this a nuch bigger problem on mastofon) (yes migration as a lurker is easy)
How do you even migrate history? Would people even want that
Reputation definitely not. Also who even cares about reputation
Subreddits you can migrate in some apps at least
If you can’t do these things then users and communities will remain locked to server instances and dominated by server owners and their moderation delegates just as they are on reddit. This is repeating the problem is not enacting the any of the promises of federation. It is federation for prisoners.
fuck /u/spez
I’m not on Reddit much these days but every time I am and I see threads with people discussing these Reddit policy changes Lemmy gets mentioned. Usually with people complaining they already tried or couldn’t figure it out or that it isn’t good enough…
I think as the enshittification marches on they’ll be some more exodus from Reddit but generally I think everyone is just getting used to all online social media being a total corporate disaster.
It’s not that everyone’s getting used to the current hellscape of the internet. Kids born today have never experienced a world without it. I watched my niece playing on my dad’s phone, and she was just blasting through every single ad, interacting with every ad until it took her to the install page, and then she moved on to the next ad. People were upset about the tiktok ban cause they didnt care about their data. Shit like that is wild to me, coming from the early internet era.
Unless countries step up with better tech laws, I only see it getting worse from here.
the internet was better when it was anonymous, where you were explicitly and forcefully told that no one should know anything about you but your handle.
I just joined yesterday because of this article. Honestly I feel like I’m using Apollo to access Reddit again. My Reddit account was 12 years old and I deleted it.
This is a cool guide for starting https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/get-started
Thank you! I literally signed up 30 mins ago after seeing Lemmy mentioned a few times on Reddit. I’m at the ‘what the heck is this, where am I’ stage but feel like I understand how it works a bit better now!
Welcome to Lemmy!!
Oh god, you’ve out me down a rabbit hole. Thank you!
Welcome friend. :)
Thank you!
Welcome
We’re happy to have you here
Lemmy was hard to use a year ago or so.
No it wasnt.
I’m not particularly tech savvy and I found it confusing and hard to parse at first. It was worth it to figure out, because fuck Reddit, but I can understand people struggling with it, especially at first.
Yes it was.
Been here 2 years. Its just as easy to use as its always been.
I dont know where this sudden anti-lemmy “OMG ITS TOO HARD TO USE CAUSE WORDS ARE HARD I PREFER (insert site with same exact fucking usability” misinformation/propaganda has come from in the past few weeks, but its patently absurd and obviously fake.
Honestly, I was just giving up going here, lemmy is very complicated, also I miss my beautiful snoo :(
I’m glad I jumped ship back during the ban on 3rd party apps. That was it for me.
Same. I had even paid for the paid tier of my 3rd party app because it was such a good value to me that I wanted the devs to have some of my money. Thanks to that app, I was on the site more and pretty much never via computer anymore.
I think it was for the best though. Quality over quantity here. I find it to be far less toxic on Lemmy overall. It’s like how people tend to be nicer in a small town because you know you’re gonna run into these people over and over again, but the big city you came from had more variety in stuff to check out. Definitely a trade-off, but I think it’s worth it to have this much more pleasant space that isn’t so packed with content as to be addictive. Good vibes.
I’ve gone back to reddit a few times from searches, and after spending time away it is really apparent how negative most of the comments over there are.
For example, anytime someone asks for help, someone always has to show up and get angry that they didn’t search instead of asking. Then a third person shows up and says that a search brought them to this thread… and no one ever answers the question. Thanks reddit!
There are some instances where Reddit is still a great source of information just due to the sheer size of the community. But there’s a lot more shit to wade through after the exodus a couple years back. I haven’t signed back in for years.
Its improving over time, I think it’ll find a decent grove as more communities pop up. I find the comment sections really engaging too I’ve had some solid conversations over here.
I don’t even use any apps and was just planning on boycotting it for a few days in solidarity. Then Greedy Little Pigboy made his statement about how everyone will come crawling back and that was that.
Oh i didn’t even hear about that. Fuck spez.
The memo is in this article, if you’re curious.
thank!
This is the actual reason for me too. I’m making a point to never visit that website again.
There’s exceptions like when searching for troubleshooting help and a relevant result happens to be on Reddit, but otherwise I avoid it as much as possible.
I figure as long as you visit with adblock enabled and don’t post anything, you’re not contributing to them in any meaningful way.
Agreed, and to be fair I still stop in at niche subreddits I used to follow to see what’s new, but never logged in.
Same, my mouth dropped reading the article.
Obligatory fuck spez
Me too.
Man people really like taking a beating.
Yep. When RIF was killed, I closed that door immediately (was not easy). It was to be expected though, I think. Once a site reaches critical mass, money interests enter the picture and greed can always screw up a good thing. It’s a shame.
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That’s the truth. It was tone deafness, a lack of responsiveness, and a clear lack of principles that made me leave during that.
Wild that that was almost 2 years ago now…
Hi, I think I’m doing this right. Just joined Lemmy lol because of this. Can people see my comment?
si
One of us!
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Yes! Welcome to the fediverse
yep, even from my solo instance
Happy cake 🎂 day!
One of us!
Welcome!
One of us!
yes we can :) welcome!
hunter2
Same here.
imagine charging for displaying content you didn’t even make.
the balls are astounding, but this ain’t gonna go well for them.
I just left, deleted my account of 15ish years tonight, no regrets. Happy to be here.
I left 2 years ago from my 13yo account, deleted everything as well
Obligatory Fuck You spez
No regrets, I love Lemmy
The internet feels post-apocalyptic now. I no longer have any social media accounts (does lemmy count?) . Places that I spent over a decade on now feel so hostile and foreign. I joined reddit as a teenager wanting to read f7u12 comics, and now reddit feels like a total outrage machine. I mean the ads are crap but the algorithm doesn’t show me content I WANT to see anymore. It just shows me videos of car accidents and street fights and other things that get my cortisol levels up. Blocking subreddits straight up doesnt work. I like that on lemmy I can just filter only by the communities I subscribe to
I’ve been online since the late 80s and the Internet, generally speaking, has gone to shit. I’ve been on Reddit for 16 years and it’s been going down the tubes for a while now. Too many people, overzealous mods and now a soft paywall? Yeah, I’m done.
Yes same. I don’t want to be stressed out by the internet anymore. I want internet for millennials back.
Nice to meet you, everyone’s been so lovely thus far.
Same thing here… I only just discovered Lemmy. I don’t know how I managed to only discover it now. But so far so good. It’s not quite as active but that’s okay, Reddit used to be the same way and was actually better then.
I do feel like the old parts of the internet were decentralized and based on protocols, not single websites. So this is very refreshing and feels like getting back to the roots.
With the API changes, I became read-only (without an account) on Reddit.
I now skim the communities that don’t really exist here.
… it’s actually saved me a lot of time now that I can’t (and thus don’t feel the need to) debate local politics with morons anymore!
… unless and until they come to Lemmy.
The energy and time I’ve saved not arguing on reddit is wild, I initally came here defensive and its been so nice
Looking forward to having more conversations with fewer people. I’m not trying to argue politics anymore. It’s fruitless.
Reddit: Here’s another reason not to use our site.
Users: Ok bye.
Just came to lemmy again after learning this shit!! mass exodus coming soon
I wouldn’t be too sure just yet, seeing how annoying youtube and it’s ads have gotten yet it isn’t replaced still.
We might have an increase, but plenty will never leave.
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Youtube is probably the most difficult platform on the internet to replace. Video content delivery is extremely resource heavy and technically complicated, especially once you start to scale. Many, many competitors have attempted it over the years, and while some found their niche, none of them have achieved anywhere close to the scale of Youtube.
It took decades of Youtube to become profitable, only doing so after achieving mind-boggling economy of scale. The majority of humans on earth have used Youtube. About half of all (global) internet users use it monthly. I don’t know if any other platform can claim stats like that.
Youtube is one of those platforms that only exists because it got a head start in the unique conditions of the early internet. I don’t know if it’s even possible to create a true competitor, though I could see multiple platforms taking over different niches.
This is what people always seen to ignore about YouTube. It’s not just another database frontend to use generated content. That is definitely part of it, but behind that is probably the largest public facing content library on the Internet with a full video recoding infrastructure attached. YouTube is the platform for which I understand that they need to monetize.
Sure, nowadays there’s also tiktok as another big video service. But I like to think that YouTube is way bigger in most metrics.
In order for lemmy (or any alternative) to really take off, efforts need to be made to mass migrate content. The biggest inhibitor of adoption is the lack of communities, and the user submitted info backing them. Not only would it be beneficial for alternatives to have this on their servers, efforts should be made to index and back up the mountain of how to and general hyper specific sub reddit information for the good of society. The world already lost so much during the last purge of users comments and posts, further enshitification of reddit will only lead to more getting lost. Are any groups working to scrape all (or the most important data) from reddit and break it out in a searchable format here?
Well Reddit started off with a bunch of sock puppet accounts to make the site look larger than it was. Now they have bots doing that so when you refresh Reddit it’s always new. Back when it was good there was a point where you’d just run out of Reddit. It was a meme. They figured out how to stop that feeling.
But that feeling is good! We will have to get used to the fact that real human sites don’t constantly update if we want nice things.
That is something that some tech savy Lemmy users could already easily do. I repost stuff from all over the web. But some systematic preservation of good old subreddits aught to be automated.
Digg: “join us reddit…”
We all float down here 💩💩💩
