Its value has decreased substantially to me with time. My answer to this would have been very different years ago, but now the site is too full of what I consider to be mediocre content that seems weighted really high. For example common expressions used over and over like "nature you scary" should be given a huge penalty hit. For goodness sake, looking at the site in an incognito window right now not only is a story on the frontpage twice, it is the same URL with one different query parameter.
Of course the majority will be for the common denominator. But luckily there are some great subreddits, just like there's many great niche magazines.
Check out reddit.com/r/truereddit to begin with. It's probably closest to what reddit was back in the days.
I don't pay for those either.
I'm a freelancer consultant and I get decent clients reaching out to me from Reddit.
I read about CompSci and Machine Learning almost on daily basis and the subreddits that I visit help me on that stand point a lot.
But here is the deal! People Love freaking drama and some thrive on it. So whenever there is a 0.1% of drama it gets amplified.
Also one other thing! I respect the HN community, but I've seen harsher feedback & more harassment here than Reddit.
PS: I'm a 5 years club member on Reddit.
$500 a month for a solution that would make me do something semi-productive instead of spending time on those websites.
How much? Expensive enough to discourage those who have nothing to say but memes.
I'd recharge every now and then so I could keep commenting and voting. ( 1 cent per vote, 2 cents to comment, 5 cents to down vote ( and downvotee gets it ) ), and penalties ranging in 10s - 1000s of dollars based on severity of misbehaviour. Some kind of judicial review system would also work to establish consistency.
Although I do believe that Reddit is a very established and well liked website that would still see success if they charged a subscription fee, just not on the same scale of popularity that they currently do.
They charged $3 a month or $24 a year. Considering I pay Amazon $80 a year for a service I barely use, I should be willing to pay a community about that much.
I would make it free for contributors, and paid for lurkers (i.e., monetize karma).
If I was going to pay just for there become a free alternative elsewhere, no.
Take a view at the attitude of the current admins:
> Well, now she's gone (you did it reddit!), and /u/spez has the moral authority as a co-founder to move ahead with the purge. We tried to let you govern yourselves and you failed, so now The Man is going to set some Rules. Admittedly, I can't say I'm terribly upset.
source: http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/conten...
How would you feel if Microsoft Word started criticizing people based on the content they written? This is a thing?
Reddit was just a tool. The admins need to step out of the way. I don't care if there are "creepy" reddits.
The entitled and pompous attitude of admins is so elitist it's sick. You're a forum. You're not gods. You're not priests.