--- I typed this up just before getting a call, so apologies for the first-draftiness. I refreshed the page to see if anyone was saying anything similar but I d

--- I typed this up just before getting a call, so apologies for the first-draftiness. I refreshed the page to see if anyone was saying anything similar but I didn't see anything, so I might as well post it. --- I really think they should just skip over the whole maj/minority struggle and work on a more suitable approach. What makes Reddit so special? Each subreddit and its dedicated and often unique community. When reddit was relatively new I avoided it, because on the surface all I saw were fellow tech-hungry teenagers looking for the next big place to gather. Only a few years ago did I stumble on some of the smaller, more interesting subreddits and realize that I could spend my entire time among just a few without ever caring about the rest of 'Reddit' because within those little communities, there was something really cool and fun. Expat living in Japan? There's an r/ for that. Love cartography? There's an r/ for that. Linguist/mathematician/physicist? Plenty of r/s for you, of varying quality and concentration but interesting nonetheless. Sometimes when I'm motivated to learn more about a subject, one of the first things I'll do is check if there is a decent subreddit that's relevant. Lo and behold, r/spicy and r/bonsai now come to my frontpage to shower me with pruning advice, sauce exchanges, and more. Of course, anyone can create a new subreddit if the existing ones aren't interesting enough, moderated poorly, or the subject just doesn't have a home yet. My list of micro-wikis and webpages to set up now has marks for items that would work just as well being a subreddit. But we're talking about revenue here, so let me get to the point. Don't just think about Reddit as one big thing, but rather as a world full of lively other things– some some tiny, others huge. They can make money without looking heavy-handed or causing too much controversy, as long as they see the users (all of them) as collaborators in that effort. Subreddits already enjoy a certain amount of freedom (of moderation, styling), why not gamify it somehow? For example, most people wouldn't mind if r/pics had real ads, and r/pics is probably one of the most trafficked subreddits around. Those who still don't want the ads can get Reddit Gold. However say r/crypto thought the ads were silly, and wanted them removed. Then they could, for example, buy their way out directly (garnering a few extra features for the local mods) or encourage their own subscribers to get gold, with some percentage reducing the number/location of ads until reaching zero.