Reddit Reintroduces Its Awards System (techcrunch.com) 20
After shutting down its awards system last July, Reddit announced that it is bringing it back, with much of the same and some new features. There'll be "a new design for awards, a new award button under eligible posts and a leaderboard showing top awards earned for a comment or a post," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The company sunset its awards program last year along with the ability for users to purchase coins. At the same time, Reddit introduced "Golden Upvotes," which were purchased directly through cash. In a new post, the company said the system wasn't as expressive as awards. "While the golden upvote was certainly simpler in theory, in practice, it missed the mark. It wasn't as fun or expressive as legacy awards, and it was unclear how it benefited the recipient," the social network said.
Users who want to give awards to posts and comments will need to buy "gold," which kind of replaces coins. On a support page, the company mentioned that, on average, awards cost anywhere between 15 to 50 gold. Gold packages in Reddit's mobile apps currently start at $1.99 for 100 gold. Users can buy as much as 2,750 gold for $49.99. The company is also adding some safeguards to the awards system, such as disabling awards in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with mature content. Additionally, users will be able to report awards to avoid them being used for moderator removals.
Users who want to give awards to posts and comments will need to buy "gold," which kind of replaces coins. On a support page, the company mentioned that, on average, awards cost anywhere between 15 to 50 gold. Gold packages in Reddit's mobile apps currently start at $1.99 for 100 gold. Users can buy as much as 2,750 gold for $49.99. The company is also adding some safeguards to the awards system, such as disabling awards in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with mature content. Additionally, users will be able to report awards to avoid them being used for moderator removals.
Convertible? (Score:1)
I can't see myself buying Gold on Reddit (why buy that would I can buy real Gold!).
However, if I am awarded gold for my many insightful and helpful posts, will I be able to convert that back into money I could use to buy real Gold?
Re:Convertible? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a negative. It is still Not quite like the Old gold where Gold awards would grant the recipient of the award Benefits
such as Ad-Free viewing, and the other Reddit gold features for a certain number of days.
“Earned gold”, like karma, is just a measure of your contributions on the platform. It means your content was great enough to receive paid recognition. It can’t be spent, transferred, or redeemed.
However, if you earn enough gold and karma, you may be eligible to receive a payout! As part of the Contributor Program, we use earned gold as one signal to determine eligibility criteria and potential payouts. The more gold you earn, the greater the payout
So you're saying there's a chance (Score:1)
However, if you earn enough gold and karma, you may be eligible to receive a payout!
Well that sounds kind of promising! It will probably be some very large amount, but maybe possible... just being helpful and/or funny on Reddit seems to get you quite a bit of Karma.
Re: (Score:2)
It's slightly less useful than slashdot karma
Great.. (Score:5, Informative)
So basically they voided all our purchased and not yet spent coins awarded from Reddit premium subscriptions to switch to a "different" system: And now they're turning back, except they're calling it a different name because Of course they don't want to return the coin value they stole from us subscribers.
Meanwhile, even those of us silly enough to keep paying the Reddit Subscription in spite of that massive coin heist don't get any of this new gold But have to pay a hefty fee to give these awards just like anyone else... Sorry fellow Redditors, but I wouldn't pay $5 or $10 extra lump sum just to award you - I wouldn't trust Reddit not to just randomly strip the paid up gold balance off me in a few months, either, when they once again decide they feel like making some changes.
Another way to advertise on Reddit...yuck! (Score:5, Interesting)
The "gameplay loop" for reddit awards within reddits gamification makes no sense as part of an organic users day-to-day use of the platform. It only serves as a way of laundering signal boosting. It's about folks who work for corporations being able to promote content that supports their business model while remaining hidden. That's the only use-case for reddit awards that actually make any sense given the incentives at play. So let's be honest, this isn't about rewards for users, this just another way for marketing grifters to ensure that corporate-friendly content appears first and foremost on a users feed.
The top comment on every single reddit article for the first decade of the platform was always a critical examination of the fact pattern and sourcing of the article itself. Now the top comment on almost every single news article is an ironically posted pop culture reference that promotes a popular brand that also happens to advertise on reddit. This reward system is about getting folks to pay reddit for signal booster instead of paying for swarms of upvotes. Except both strategies make the platform and the product less effective.
So this is just about promoting ads, right? Here's the funny part...guess what happens when you put too many ads in front of users...users hate ads. Remember Digg! These awards are actually just going to signal to users that a comment or post as having a monetary value to an advertiser. And folks will eventually just stop looking at stuff because of the awards!
Marketing doesn't work because everyone hates it. So when they are inundated by marketing content that can tell what's being promoted and they blame that thing for the spam. Go ahead, dinguses, keep burning on the promotion of bad ideas, the more money you burn the faker your message looks and the less effective all future marketing becomes. Paying for ads on the internet makes advertisers look less honest and more predatory.
NO ONE LIKES SPAM
Re: (Score:2)
The new system sounds like ass, but I did find value in the old system: I had an esoteric OS problem that I could find many questions about but no answers. Finally, after play
Re: (Score:2)
The premise behind the reward system has always been completely implausible
It used to be you contribute something of marginal cost, and the person awarded would receive some sitewide Perks for a few days, depending on how much you spent to award them. Kind of like a temporary "gift subscription" to Ad-free access, etc.
That was a compelling award, not like the Gif nonsense.
OpenAI (Score:3)
OpenAI announced that they're buying user data from Reddit today. The return of the award system likely isn't so they can make money (they tried that and determined it wasn't profitable, otherwise they would've kept it), but so the comments have an additional indication of user engagement and score.
Re: (Score:1)
but so the comments have an additional indication of user engagement and score.
What part of the ChatGPT experience makes you think OpenAI is in any way discriminating enough to pick "good" content out from "bad"? If anything past performance shows that they train their LLMs with literally any shit they can throw in there.
Re: (Score:2)
brainlet take
Reddit needs to die (Score:2)
Reddit has been on a turbo-enshittification tear the last couple of years.
I'm mostly done with it, but I swear to God it has some addictive qualities.
Re: Reddit needs to die (Score:2)
Oh What Fun (Score:1, Troll)
Users can get a red ribbon for posting the most consistent America-last narrative.
Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to say Reddit was communism, what I meant to say is Reddit is communism.
Gahahahaha (Score:1)
It was an ok platform until.... (Score:3)
Fuck Spez (Score:2)
Too late, already left
I got gold and you didn't (Score:2)
So it's obvious I'm right