1d ago

Reddit plans to lock some content behind a paywall this year, CEO says | Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform

arstechnica.com Reddit will lock some content behind a paywall this year, CEO says

How will Reddit generate content for paid-for subreddits?

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.

221 comments

Do it, please, the subreddits need to migrate here

You’re gonna pay the mods then, right?
Right?

fuck /u/spez

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

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.
- 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
  
  Welcome friend. :)
- Honestly, I was just giving up going here, lemmy is very complicated, also I miss my beautiful snoo :(

r/spezholedesign

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...
  
  What's to migrate other than your name? My reddit usage was limited to lurking so I genuinely don't know.
- well Hexbear is just about gone so that should help
  
  great timing for them to lose both of their domains

Another day of thanking my past self for leaving

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?
- 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.

It does seem like a lot of ads for "3% of inventory". I can't ever see a reason to pay for a subreddit.

Wave incoming

It’s crazy how everything slowly turns into shit in the end

great, hopefully more people leave the sinking ship

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.
  
  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.
  
  Youtube is not easily replacible.
  Creating quality videos are much more difficult than memes on Reddit/Lemmy type of sites.
  No content creators is gonna move because of the issue of monitization. And most couldn't care less about Youtube's enshittification. You cant say "Just use Peertube" when there are like nothing interesting to watch. It's like trying to stop watching popular Movies / TV shows because "big corp media bad". Piracy would be the best mitigation in the Movies / TV situation, and that in Youtube's situation is just using an adblocker.
  In contast, Reddit/Lemmy type of sites are just strangers talking to strangers. You are moving from Stanger Group A to Stranger Group B. It's the easiest transition ever.
  Not to mention, the storage for Lemmy instances is like in the GBs. Get a 1TB harddrive and you're good for a long time. A Youtube replacement? On you're gonna need PETABYTES, and all the bandwith to serve the content.
  
  YouTube hasn't been replaced because adblockers still work.
- same here lol. If they paywall subreddits ive been visiting for the past FOURTEEN years, i will lose my shit. by throwing it at the reddit headquarters.

Hi, I think I’m doing this right. Just joined Lemmy lol because of this. Can people see my comment?

Digg: "join us reddit..."
- We all float down here 💩💩💩

watch them lock old reddit behind a paywall just because it's the best part about reddit

Can't wait to see the mental gymnastics subreddit moderators will perform to defend this!
- It was wild how spineless most of them were when the API stuff happened, and it showed how attached they are to their little bubble of power.
  And some of them acted even more pathetic with virtue signaling.
  Like the r/de mods allowed memes for a full week in "protest". Such rebels... they sure showed spez with that one...
  
  I was proud of them for those subreddit blackouts, but when communities started to come back online after the mods were threatened with replacement - I knew I had to get out of there for good.
  
  Yeah it really was pathetic.
  Like they took a stand while it was cool, but then capitulated rather than face removal.

I just left, deleted my account of 15ish years tonight, no regrets. Happy to be here.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
- I left 2 years ago from my 13yo account, deleted everything as well
  Obligatory Fuck You spez
  No regrets, I love Lemmy
- 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.
- Welcome!
  The fediverse situation has been improved a lot since the first API migration, hope you enjoy it here!
- Welcome, I joined here after the API protests. It's a smaller community so content is slow to move but it's nice to have forums where you're having constructive conversations with people, not a huge amount of bots or repeated to death catch phrases
  Enjoy this little bastion before it attracts mainstream attention. :)
- Same bromo, finally felt like it was time. So many good memories on Reddit for me over the last 14 years but finally felt like it was the right move to no longer give it my attention!
  
  thére are dozens of us

I haven't had an account since the Apollo purge but fuck Spez.
- The api shit they pulled is why i left and never went back
  
  Same. I left when it was announced.
- Fuck Spez
  
  Thank you spez for killing reddit, please digg faster

I'm glad I jumped ship back during the ban on 3rd party apps. That was it for me.
- Tbh, I didn't care about the 3rd party apps.
  I just didn't like the silencing of opposition.
  If they are willing to do mass censorship for benign things like a 3rd party apps protest, what's to say they wont booklick governments/corportions and censor info of horrible things that a government/corporation is doing.
  It's the censorship that I was more afraid of. Besides, I always wanted a decentalized platform, but none of it had any users until June 12, 2023.
  
  That's the truth. It was tone deafness, a lack of responsiveness, and a clear lack of principles that made me leave during that.
- Me too.
  Man people really like taking a beating.
- 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!
  
  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.
- 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.
- Wild that that was almost 2 years ago now..
- 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.
  
  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.
- Same, my mouth dropped reading the article.
  Obligatory fuck spez

So, what's the stage after "enshitification"? "Enspezed?"
- What we're seeing with Reddit is just the first stage of enshittification: making things worse for the end users who have been captured by network effect and what used to be a good service, in order to benefit advertisers. The second stage is making things shitty for the advertisers who have been captured by all the captive users. Paid subs are probably a harbinger of that kind of thing, but I don't think advertisers are locked in enough to be really stuck yet.
- entshitification 2: electric boogaloo

Is there anywhere I can find a complete scrape of Reddit threads and comments from before the 3rd party app apocalypse? There was a lot of useful info shared on there, but I don't want anything to do with what that site has become. I'm happy just to CTRL+F a big dataset. It'll probably still work better than either Reddit or Google does nowadays. Without media I imagine I could fit it somewhere.
Also, Spez is a greedy little pig boy.
- We really need efforts made to bulk upload historical posts of value to lemmy. If done right, we could significantly expand the amount of subs and content, even if they are ghost towns initially with just the old posts from reddit. Build it and they will migrate.
- Yes, there's a torrent somewhere...
  https://academictorrents.com/details/c398a571976c78d346c325bd75c47b82edf6124e
  This is what I could find with a quick search, but I know there's a larger database backup.
- are you going to use it to train your deepseek?
  
  Not everyone is perverted like you.

As much as we'd like to joke about the sudden influx of new Lemmy users that will result from this lets all be real, it will be a few new users. Most Reddit users will accept whatever is thrown at them from that company while crying about it on Reddit. I don't know what the phenomena is but it seems that most people would rather stay on the bad platform than try something new and slightly different. I'm cool with that, I like niche platforms.
- Its a toxic relationship, I literally could not leave, became aware of lemmy maybe two months before I left and always had the intention to make an account but put it off til I was perm banned, looking at my notifications I was getting less replies than ever. And if ppl replied it was to actively not be helpful or tell me to do anything other than answer my question.
- if it's the same amount of ppl trying out Linux we might be going places
- That's fine. A more fragmented internet is better for the world
- The key part here is that (at least initially...) they won't put any existing subreddits behind a paywall. So users' habits won't really be interrupted.

imagine charging for displaying content you didn't even make.
the balls are astounding, but this ain't gonna go well for them.
- I disagree. I hate the decisions they make and personally, along with you, I think it's idiotic.
  But while I hate on them, they will get away with it. Theyre not stupid. The decisions don't align with its users but it will still work.
  Look at netflix raising prices for arguably worse content. Working for them.
  Reddit; Charging for the API essentially killing almost all 3rd party apps. Not sure the effect but reddit doesn't seem to really be hurting. Users want to move but reddit is just too good. I even still use it because the user content on there is amazing. I try to ask all my questions/have discussions on lemmy, but I'm one person. Reddit has infinity more always contributing. I think the management sucks, but the platform just isn't fully rivaled yet so they can keep milking their audience.
  
  Netflix was always a paid service though. I don’t know if people will want to pay for something they’ve had for free for over a decade, especially if the free subreddits will still exist.
  I’d also imagine that for any paid subreddit, someone will make a free version with similar content.
  
  I agree that it won't go bad for them. It costs them almost nothing to implement and when you have a big enough userbase there are always rubes who will pay for anything you charge for.
  
  Reddit; Charging for the API essentially killing almost all 3rd party apps.
  The secret is they made it easy to bypass, the API still works if you moderate any subreddit, even if it's one you just made. They made it just difficult enough to move the 99% of normie users to their own app.
  
  I disagree that Reddit has good content but even bad content is better than no content for communities that haven’t been built here yet
- This is probably targeting a adult content creators, aka trying to get a finger in onlyfans' pie
  source: my ass, but I'm just smellin where money's goin is all
  
  If the paid subreddits pay out to the creators, that seems like an okay feature. Also dipping into the Patreon market.
  
  Yeah that’s pretty much the only real market I can see for this.
- Not to mention that paywalled content being moderated by unpaid volunteers.
  
  And commented and reposted by bots.
  
  Some mods would do it. I don't know why, but they would.
- I was thinking a profit sharing concept for the people running the sub would make sense. I’m sure that’s not what it is though.
- It's like using the failed Reddit Gold lounge as a business model. A sub of awkward dudes that paid to be there and random people passing through and not sure WTF is going on with the awkward party.
  
  Have they stopped that now? I remember being in it at one point. I didn't post and didn't really look at it
- I'm going to frame your comment and sell it!

Second influx to the Fediverse?

What's Reddit? A clone of Lemmy?

That's why I left. I regret nothing.
- I’m so glad I left.

Kholer, American standard, and other toilet manufacturers are scrambling to match Toto's ad popularity in "the go" ad business.
If you've changed your extractor fan recently, you might have come out of the restroom humming something new or maybe something familiar like the McDonalds jingle. But such feats of advertising have never been part of the true #2!. Things like bidet splash modulation... Lara papa pa!!! Right in the butt! Or flush ads! A display banner integrated on to the flush tank, and if you open the lid you'll get ads around the bowl and in the back of the lid.
Clorox is coming up with a brad new cleaning chemical family. If you forget to clean you'll be presented with scum in the shape of the clorox logo and the proper code and link to Amazon.
Oh yes please! Enshittify the one and only sanctuary we believed we had!

That's why I'm here. Just made an account. Sick of everything being a goddamn subscription.

Good news for Lemmynites.
- Lemmings?
  
  Lemlords?
- Bad news is that we’re still not setup for Reddit-level user counts. Lemmy needs much better moderation tools to allow communities to stay on top of reports.
  Hopefully a lot of new users will also produce new people contributing to Lemmy. Or, maybe some people will form some sort of nonprofit that allows dedicated designers and engineers to continually work on Lemmy. When people contribute as a side gig, most give up after a few months. Most of the Lemmy clients that were build during the Reddit APIocalypse are no longer alive.
  
  We have plenty of clients tho, arctic, mlem, voyager, my favorite thunder, are all available on ios and there are more, they all get updates
  For desktop phtn and tesseract are solid.
- Lemmites?

Lemmy can expect some inbound traffic

Anyone who pays for access to “private” content on the shithole site deserves as much mockery as a cybertruck owner. It requires absolutely no self respect
- Lol I don't even pay for Movies / TV
  It's not even primarily about "I don't wanna support big corp" (although, that is one of the reasons), its just the fact that I'd be broke af if I had to pay for all that entertainment.
  I mean like... pay??? In this economy??? I don't even get paid enough to survive
  Chexk out this community btw: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com (blocked by lemmy.world instance)
  🏴‍☠️
  
  I’m very familiar with dbzer0 and its communities :)
  Huffman is delusional no doubt
- It will be the same types that buy a blue check for Twitter, like it's a badge of honor to pay for free services.
  
  One of the funniest consequences of the checkmark is people claiming "I didn't pay for it, Musk gave this to me!!"

i too deleted my 15-Year Club reddit account

I'm surprised they aren't talking about subscriber subreddits. With the amount of porn/OnlyFans posts, I would have thought they could position Reddit as a friendly and familiar OF alternative.
- That probably is the idea, to have a competitor to Patreon and OnlyFans. They should have probably mentioned that as an example before some people start thinking /r/worldnews becomes paywalled.
  
  Seems like a pretty huge opportunity for Reddit. If the article mentioned it, I missed it.
- I wouldn't be surprised if NSFW subreddit are what he is talking about.
  
  They know pornhub still exists right?
- I wonder what the legality is of that when people are posting content from these porn sites and reddit is charging users to access it. How is this any different than paid piracy streaming sites?
- Probably because OF gets a lot of their business through promoting on Reddit.
  
  So why not cut out OF and keep the users?

Late this fall, after all of the nonsense on Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram I asked myself a very simple question.
"Is the reason I joined these sites still valid? What do I actually enjoy about social media these days?"
The answer was basically "rose colored glasses."
I joined **Reddit **after the 'deaths' of Slashdot and Digg. It became my source to get new and interesting content I probably wouldn't have found otherwise. Now it's bots arguing with bots and 75+% of the content is just recycled shit by people trying to make money. Much of the rest is from people trying to manipulate you.
Delete.
I joined Facebook to keep in touch with my friends and family - especially those I don't see often. Over time, the amount of good content from people I knew dropped to maybe 25% of my feed. Most of it now is AI-generated bullshit or more of the same recycled content you see on Reddit.
Delete.
I joined Instagram to share some of my landscape photos and view some of the great photos some close friends were sharing. Over time that became less and less. Queue the recycled and AI-bullshit content.
Delete.
So, I challenge everybody to ask themselves do they actually enjoy social media? Do these sites actually add value to your life and in any way remain true to their promise when you joined them so many moons ago. Are you actually making any connections with people? The 'social' in 'social' media? Or just watching people talk at each other, not to each other.
After answering those questions, the answer about whether to stick around is pretty clear.
- Delete
  Delete
  Delete
  Mikami Teru, is that you?
- Real af, I always talked about missing old reddit and didn't realize the experience I missed was budding over here
- Reddit, Facebook, Instagram:
- I had the exact same experience except that I never got onto Insta because Meta bought it.

What's "reddit" and why does Lemmy seem obsessed with it?

How is this new? Reddit gold gave you access to the subreddit that only gold members could access. It didn't have anything good in it as everyone would rather have a larger reach.
If he intends to convert an existing sub to it, he will quickly find how much people are happy to more to a new sub.

I have eaten far too much popcorn this far, but will keep watching the collapse. My account is 17 - 18 years old at this point but I have not logged in for at least a year.

Reddit has gotten so bad that it’s funny. I love reading about whatever awkward, bumbling cash grab they’re trying next.
What’s a good word for constant, ongoing enshittification? Diarrheafication?
- Funny and sad at the same time, to be honest... That douche busted up a lot of awesome communities with wonderful people, and he's on the right track to ruin things completely...
  
  In the name of profits.

Hopefully this will drive even more users to switch over. I find myself finding Reddit less useful as time passes by
- Theyll prob ban hella ppl for commenting/posting about these changes forcing them to come here lol
- Whenever i search for a problem now, most of the posts that contain actual answers are more than a year old, and increasingly out dated.
  Fortunately, Lemmy is tech savvy and small enough that I can ask questions without worrying about the down vote brigade.
  
  Yea and sometimes these older posts are filled with answers that just say "this user deleted all their data using "whatever service"".
  
  Same I hardly ever find useful answers on reddit anymore. Most useful links have been from the native forums of the very product I'm trying to find answers for.

Man this reddit site sounds awful
- i really wish there was an open source alternative to it :(
  
  looks around
  .......wait.

After reddit goes paywall It's time to Lemmy

Man I kinda thought they had already hit enshittification bottom. And then they bring out the backhoe and dynamite.

Its never been a better time to ignore reddit

Get fuuuuuuucked, Reddit

I almost wish Elon would buy it, so he can "manage" it like he did Twitter

Enshittification intensifies.
spez is slow walking Reddit to the graveyard.
- It’s slowly becoming twitter/x
  
  It's been obvious for a while that spez is trying to be a Musk/Zuck.
- I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure greedy pigboy is doing that. Everything changes.
  It won't be what it was, and the grift will grow be off the charts, but I think it will evolve into a mix of what it was and grifters grifting. Just delineated by subreddit.

If small dick energy had a face it would be Steve Huffman's.
- Wait, I thought he was the guy who had the woflds most punchable face....
  
  They're not mutually exclusive.

Can I reply to this next week when I stop laughing
- Yes.

RIP Reddit

Please reddit, make more bad decisions faster so people can overcome switching costs finally

One could argue they already did that with Reddit Gold and /r/Lounge.
- The lounge is trash content anyways.

I can't imagine what sub-reddits they think people would willingly participate in that are paid-only. Decreasing visibility and potential participation group automatically makes those worse in most cases.
- Porn?
  
  Yeah, actually. I could see them taking on OnlyFans if they wanted to. But I think they want to be more mainstream than that.

221 comments