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This is what Reddit will become
(lemmy.zip)
Reddit will turn into modern Digg due to removing features. Can't wait for them to remove the downvote!
Visual design wise that reads 100% as a (pretty good looking) clickbait news site, not as any form of user driven social media.
The more they make it less obvious that the content is "user" generated, the less new users will be generating content. They already lost a good chunk of "original content generating users" with the API changes and all the drama around it.
Makes sense that they started pushing the idea of being paid for content generation now. Someone inside reddit realized they're headed for a serious drought of fresh content with everything going on plus this redesign, and the suits came up with the least creative and most business-like psuedosolution they could.
This push for paid content generation will almost certainly backfire, as it's tied with karma. Karma always had the issue of the fluff principle, where the most upvoted content doesn't always represent what the community would rather see the best; and now there's monetary encouragement to game it further.
They took a different road to Digg their grave.