idk. people say that now because we all know what happened in this timeline. but hasn’t there been an option to pay reddit via reddit gold for a long time? i do not even know how that system works because I was so disinterested in it.
seemed to always be a pretty marginal thing.
i speculate that if we go back in time to, say April 2023 and change the course of history so that reddit just announces a more aggressive freemium price plan directed at users, many/most people would be pissed. given how shitty the website was, to me it would feel like a ripoff to pay them. the reason reddit is good is because of RES on desktop and 3party apps on mobile. I can confidently say that i would have scoffed at paying reddit. now that I have learned how bad their native setup is for mods, I feel more strongly that way.
if there was a model where they took a cut out of fees paid to the people who actually make it nice to use, maybe i’d be more friendly.
even then I might be clouded by hindsight in terms of what has actually happened which I do view as a total fucking disaster.