Typically when tech companies go public, the predatory features begin as they now have to demonstrate they can generate profit and have a duty to do so. Given that Reddit already engages in behavior that could be described this way, in what ways can it become more severe? If the changes so-far haven't run everyone off, will this be their V4 moment?
Spitballing a few ways it could be? Right now all reddit users have the same rights and privileges to use any subreddit. I expect this to change and all these rights are going to get parcelled out, including:
• Pay-to-access subreddits which would have “curated content” or education materials in them
• Subreddit subscriptions which would allow or require ongoing monthly payments to have subscriber permissions granting special feature access.
It can come with post visibility increases (you can upsell this), both algorithmic and graphically on the interface, options for more powerful voting rights on polls and posts, gated posting rights etc., and would be upsold to creators as a value-add they’d push on their audience
• User “blue checkmarks” - you pay money for some kind of proof of identity
• Paid “super” upvoting - perhaps “pay 10 bucks, and we add 100 upvotes to your posts, no questions asked”
• Charge for subreddit creation or growth - limited mod slots, limited subreddits per person, and no creating subreddits over a certain size without paying up
The above are the “nice changes”, you can go meaner but I’d be worried about giving them ideas.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 26.7 ms ] threadSpitballing a few ways it could be? Right now all reddit users have the same rights and privileges to use any subreddit. I expect this to change and all these rights are going to get parcelled out, including:
• Pay-to-access subreddits which would have “curated content” or education materials in them
• Subreddit subscriptions which would allow or require ongoing monthly payments to have subscriber permissions granting special feature access.
It can come with post visibility increases (you can upsell this), both algorithmic and graphically on the interface, options for more powerful voting rights on polls and posts, gated posting rights etc., and would be upsold to creators as a value-add they’d push on their audience
• User “blue checkmarks” - you pay money for some kind of proof of identity
• Paid “super” upvoting - perhaps “pay 10 bucks, and we add 100 upvotes to your posts, no questions asked”
• Charge for subreddit creation or growth - limited mod slots, limited subreddits per person, and no creating subreddits over a certain size without paying up
The above are the “nice changes”, you can go meaner but I’d be worried about giving them ideas.
https://www.reddit.com/policies/privacy-policy