Reddit could be working on a Contributor program, letting top contributors earn real-world money from the gold and karma they receive.

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[–] 54 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

"Site I only still care about to laugh at thinks I am going to give it my tax information." I'll have to think real hard about that one.

Investors should themselves have a good think about how the CEO that self-reported making zero profit in over a decade as one of the most popular social media sites — a site whose ad revenue has stuttered in the face of what is officially a month long protest — can afford to be handing out money to shitposting bot farms now.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I don't know, while I won't be going back there, I can see it help make reddit more mainstream, by attracting influencers. Imagine IG Influencers or Youtubers encouraging people to engage with them personally on reddit. I can see it actually working out alright for Reddit and possibly a small number of already successful influencers and celebrities. I don't see it making the experience any better for the average redditor, though

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  • [+] 10 points 3 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    There definitely were personalities on Reddit, like poem_for_your_sprog, who gained a following. I could see sprog making appreciable money with the proposed system.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Teah but it's not like the predominant mode of the website and it's not the same kind of like cult of personality you get with youtube creators. Poem for your sprog is like a novel little thing you randomly run into on the site and are like, ah cute. But if that kinda gimmicky shit was all the site revolved around it would for sure not be the same place anymore and I think it would lose a lot of people.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago*

    I can see it help make reddit more mainstream, by attracting influencers. Imagine IG Influencers or Youtubers encouraging people to engage with them personally on reddit.

    …please like this post and friend me, and ring that bell. Oh man, you’re right, they’re going to go the tickytocky YouTube route.

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  • [–] 33 points 3 years ago

    And here I was, making insightful comments and poop jokes for free, like a chump.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    So the incentive to make the best spambots won't just be some project for influence, but an actual financial reward? Truly, reddit will be at the forefront of innovation.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Musk did the same stupid thing just now, rewarding accounts with many retweets/views with money (of course Fascists), making sure bots will bot the shit out of other bots to make a dime, of course Musk-lover Spez follows suit.

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  • [–] 22 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Why do I suspect that, even if one were to spend 8 hours a day on Reddit, making comments that all were gilded, you'd still earn less than minimum wage?

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Zero chance this would pay better than even something like Mturk.

    And yet, content quality on Reddit will tank even further because people will shitpost for pennies.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Literally couldn't pay me to go back

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago

    We're in a better place now.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Copying my comment from the other threads:

    reddit started trialing a "Community Points" program in 2019 in /r/ethtrader, /r/cryptocurrency and /r/fortnite , where posters and commenters could earn "Community Points" that were supposedly backed up with crypto that you could eventually cash out. They announced an expansion of the program in December 2021 but, afaik, they never actually did so. Which might have something to do with the fact that one of the /r/cryptocurrency mods made $10,000 by selling community points. I don't know if the program has actively continued since then; maybe someone who was in the three trial communities can say.

    My point is that reddit has been working on something similar to this program for at least five years now. And this article isn't based on any announcement by reddit, but by someone examining their source code. It's possible that this code has been present for a while and reddit has leaked it's existence to try to attract back some of their lost contributors. Or even that it hasn't been present but they included the old code in the newest app release and then pointed it out for the same reason.

    In any case, this article isn't based on any official announcement, and reddit has been "trialing" a similar program for over four years. I wouldn't hold out any hope that this actually sees daylight anytime soon, or that it'll work well if it's actually released.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Won’t this just cause a ton of spam and meaningless discussions?

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Pretty sure that's exactly what they want. Those are way more neutral/marketable qualities to advertisers than "Sometimes your ad will be shown next to a 10-page, expletive-ridden tirade about poop-knives, and no, they won't explain what it is".

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    In the short term, yes. And in the context of them trying for an IPO, that's probably what they want. But it absolutely will kill the site in the end because no one actually wants to hang out in an ad riddled wasteland.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I'm still on Facebook because of that's how I keep up with friends I no longer live near, but you know what Facebook has been loath to show me recently? Posts from my friends. Easily 75% of my feed is sponsored or "recommended" content. If they're not going to show me the one and only thing I come to the site to see, I might as well not come to the site.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Food for the AI. This is where the money is.

    Look at a big sub of reddit: today it's made of one liners that we collapsed. This is worthless to an AI.

    Would you ask questions to an AI if it gave you a reddit like answer? No.

    They want the content creators, and the content is in the comments.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago

    They'll make everyone work like slaves and when payment time comes, they could easily change the rules to avoid paying out too much. They'll change rules and blame the content creators for it.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    Shows how desperate they've become for content creators after the fiasco that was the third party app protest. Like, they're not profitable yet, and they want to give money away? C'mon already.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Twitter literally just started paying people who tweet, so spez really is just copying Elon.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I just saw someone mentioning that on mastodon maybe ten minutes ago, and then it instantly made sense. How innovative he is. Even when he can see the fallout before engaging in it

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    So reddit will pay memelords but not mods?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    The real story is they're getting rid of coins and awards. It's confirmed by a reddit admin, whereas the cash for karma thing is speculation.

    https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/13/23794403/reddit-gold-awards-coins-sunset

    So killing a feature before any replacement is ready; cool. I'm sure those who pay for premium and will stop receiving a stock of coins will see a commensurate price reduction. Right?

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    [–] 4 points 3 years ago
    [–] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    It's a war for content. If you have ever written a comment of more than five coherent lines then you have been working for free all this time.

    We are the value, we fill the websites, we create the distraction between two ads and we teach the AI.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    The irony is that the comments that got me the most karma weren't the ones I considered of highest value. A detailed, genuinely helpful response in a small subreddit might only garner a half-dozen upvotes while a snarky one-liner in a big sub can boost karma by thousands.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    They are getting desperate after the many bad decisions that Spez made.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    This is my thought - many good content creators left and they are now desperate for getting them back. Wiping all awards and coins in the process is an idiot thing to do tho. Seems they’re just making more people mad.

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