Reddit just wrapped up its second earnings call as a public company and CEO Steve Huffman hinted at some significant changes that could be coming to the platform.
Paid subs will maim (not kill) the platform. Expect to see an exodus if this happens
I’m not convinced it’s 100% the worst idea though. The fediverse is entirely self and donor funded. Paid subs as an extension to free tiers might be a viable solution for a platform like this. Not Reddit because they’re too far gone, but if there was some kind of enhanced feature set along with improved moderation and overall program support by way of paid subs, it’s not all that different from how the fediverse operates. Of course I would argue that paid subs should not be limited in content or offer any means of priority publishing and completely optional for users and anons alike seems like a fair idea.
I think the only ones with enough interest to pay for a sub are companies that want more control over what is posted there. I imagine it will be focused on companies wanting a more formal presence on Reddit.
The whole point of news aggregators like Lemmy and (originally) reddit is to encourage discussion by collecting news articles/content and organizing it. I think segregating your user base makes that harder.