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Reddit CEO Says Paywalls Are Coming Soon (gizmodo.com)
submitted 2 years ago by pepsi_not_coke@sh.itjust.works to c/world@quokk.au
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Reddit, a platform founded in part on the premise of openly and widely sharing information, is ready to put up some paywalls. In a video Ask Me Anything (AMA) session hosted by CEO Steve Huffman following the company’s quarterly earnings report (which went poorly), the founder and exec said Reddit is actively testing ways to make some content require payment to access and plans to roll out a “paid subreddit” feature later this year.

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago

Reddit might have some room to eat into Patreon’s model, allowing creators to put certain content behind paywalls. Lots of creators have their own subreddits already meant to facilitate community conversation in a way that comments on Patreon posts don’t totally allow for. So perhaps there’s some room for Reddit to sneak into that space.

That might actually work.

[-] RagnarokOnline@programming.dev 29 points 2 years ago

I have a feeling they’ll have a way to fuck it up tho

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

My first thought is their MO that they own whatever's uploaded.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

No, they just want to control the distribution. If they do, they can insert their ads and monetize directly.

And it's not just Patreon, it's onlyfans too. We all know reddit has plenty of porn, and by that I mean onlyfans spammers. So, since reddit already has the content creators and the content consumer userbase, why not cut out the middleman and monetize it themselves?

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I believe they've already updated their TOS that they own whatever's uploaded. They want to train AI and own search results and all that. That will conflict with being like onlyfans where people want legal control of their content.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee -1 points 2 years ago

I recall their TOS having a clause like that years and years ago. And usually it's not a problem for the users or the creators, since everyone gets a cut.

I don't think the creators mind too much. Even if reddit takes a cut, the net profit is still much greater due to the size of the audience.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Seriously? It's a problem if you want LEGAL ownership over your content.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Most creators are willing to let that go to get access to the audience. It's not an exclusive license.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Have you ever met creators? No most aren't so happy to give up their LEGAL ownership. Plus, that's why I said if you want. This is especially true for certain sexual content. And, exclusive or not is an entirely different concept than ownership. You just want to be a stick in the mud, I'm out of this conversation.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

I am a content creator, so yes I'm familiar with how these things work.

[-] Arbiter@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

But why would they do this through Reddit and not Patreon?

You can already make private subreddits.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Probably because Reddit is massive.

[-] misk@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

That’s why porn (which Reddit calls „NSFW content” not to scare advertisers) is not accessible over API at all. We should refer to Reddit as „that porn website” now because that’s what they’re going to make money on.

[-] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

If I know nothing else in this world I know this: Reddit will never get a penny from me.

[-] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 16 points 2 years ago

Fuck /u/spez

[-] FelixCress@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

New argument is coming soon:

"Lemmy - FREE alternative to Reddit"

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

I bet they figure paywalled areas will produce more consistent, high quality comments for selling to LLMs too.

It’s probally partly a data farming move.

[-] Godort@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's probably the other way around. I can see him saying that paywalled subreddits won't have their data mined for LLMs so if you want to keep your content out of that mill, you better pay up.

[-] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

I’d have to be delusional to believe that they won’t sell that data to LLMs despite what they may claim.

[-] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 years ago

They'll probably paywall NSFW subreddit because they can't monetize those with ad revenue, and I doubt they're selling that content for LLMs anyway.

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Farm data, or sell the solution to a problem they participate in creating.

[-] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 years ago

Make the platform even more irrelevant? Go ahead, guys. 👍

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Please just do it already.

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

God I fucking hope this will be their digg moment.... however I know this is strictly geared towards OF creators

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

surely the people posting in the paid communities will get some kind of remuneration for their posts, right? they wouldn’t just try to sell other people’s stuff without giving them anything in return? surely they don’t think that little of their userbase.

[-] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Great, now can we have Google omit Reddit by default?

[-] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 years ago

Oh shit, my porn!

[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

Reddit CEO can go fuck himself!

this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
224 points (97.1% liked)

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