I have been kicking this idea of a news subreddit with paid contributors who are vetted. Essentially a news lobsters.rs. My main thought is that changing the news industry seems hard given all the broken incentives, but changing the way we discuss news to be less hive mind-y should be easier. Outside accounts would be unable to upvote/downvote/submit only read. I was initially imagining that grad-students could use the platform to make money while in school. Patreon would be used to collect a donation and money would be distributed equally. Accounts below a certain level of monthly karma would be audited. The accounts on the subreddit would be badged with their specialization (international politics, US domestic politics, economics etc.) similar to quora.

This could even be made off reddit using lobste.rs source code as it’s open source, thoughts?