> By making reddit "closed" in this way I suspect it will very quickly degrade. It already has. The time around the protests about the API closure saw many ne

> By making reddit "closed" in this way I suspect it will very quickly degrade. It already has. The time around the protests about the API closure saw many new subreddits rise drastically in popularity and many of these new subreddits are entirely rage-bait. The "fun and funny" front page has been replaced by "enraging and infuriating" content. You can feel the tone of comments has shifted, similar to the shift that happened in 2016 when Bernie lost. Additionally, the amount of "viral advertising" has drastically increased. There are multiple posts, daily, with 5 figure vote totals that are simply ads disguised as posts. Reddit's space is ripe for disruption. The next time money is free, I expect some big pockets to challenge reddit.