Operating costs are something I worry about a bit as a user. If there’s nothing or nothing obvious enough, the site will just die because it will become too expensive. Surviving off donations for the sake of donations is possible, but it’s hard. I mean, Wikipedia is a household name and it still has to beg for donations with massive, guilt tripping banners.

And Reddit Gold gave some perks I think perhaps from the start? I forget the exact details of what it was like when it was first introduced, but at the very least, its biggest usage was as basically a “super upvote”. It wasn’t just to donate to the site, but also to inform someone that a post or comment they made was really good. I think it may have also given a short period without ads?