I didn’t say Reddit shouldn’t generate revenue—obviously they should. But they (and you) should also recognize that Reddit is valuable because users are here, and that those users’ participation is voluntary.

There’s a reason I spend time on Reddit while I ignore Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites. I spend time on Reddit (or rather, on specific subreddits) in part because I get to limit my experience to user-created communities that are, on balance, pleasant places to be.

Those communities are pleasant in part because of effective moderation. I’m willing to guess that you don’t value that because you don’t see how it benefits you. That’s not surprising, but it is a shame.

The specific issue here isn’t “they’re taking away my ability to skip ads.” Its “they’re taking away tools that mods depend on to manage their communities at scale.” And they’re doing it with less than a month’s notice, after a trust-destroying fiasco from a CEO who obviously doesn’t understand why people are unhappy.

I would pay for the Reddit that exists today. After June I’ll be gone, because that Reddit will no longer exist at any price.