Something I’ve seen pointed out is that if Reddit ultimately does shift to a more “democratic” model of voting mods in and out, that could easily be abused by bot farms or for nefarious purposes. Everything about the future direction the site is heading sounds bleak and barely what it once was.
I agree, the Verge’s coverage has been much better on this subject. It isn’t about not paying for use, it’s about a reasonable price that isn’t so exorbitant to essentially bankrupt them and make them go away. Christian has addressed this point several times already.
Regardless of whether or not anything serious happens to Reddit, it’s just not the same for me anymore and I won’t be going back. I can see the vibe and audience further shifting ala Twitter. It’s too big to just fail, Digg, MySpace and other older sites still exist, they’re just shadows of themselves now.
Because of how many sites don’t use RSS feeds as much anymore, I’ve found it hard to adjust to them. I’ve been trying out the app Artifact as a sort of replacement but it’s not ideal (and everything has ads when I click through).
Still looking for a good solution for up to date, aggregated info on some of my favourite topics. This site comes pretty close but is still missing some things (for now).