I just said this yesterday or two days ago when they announced they were going to start paying people for content, but it truly is amazing how Reddit can find another significant thing that will hurt them as a business and move forward with it.
It seems like they’d run out of things that could significantly hurt their business, they just keep finding something else.
Soon they’re going to be down to basic features, And they’ll be like hey look so hyperlinks don’t work anymore. And then that’ll be the end of the press release.
Their “business decisions” are insane right now.
It’s very difficult to see this procession of self-mutilation technologically in another light other than deliberate corporate suicide. Like is someone going to benefit if Reddit goes bankrupt? Is that what’s happening?
I bet they just don’t like seeing all the awards go to fuck u/Spez posts.
Pour one out for the OG.
I don’t want to give Reddit any traffic so I’m reposting the content here:
Hi all,
I’m u/venkman01 from the Reddit product team, and I’m here to give everyone an early look at the future of how redditors award (and reward) each other.
TL;DR: We are reworking how great content and contributions are rewarded on Reddit. As part of this, we made a decision to sunset coins (including Community coins for moderators) and awards (including Medals, Premium Awards, and Community Awards), which also impacts some existing Reddit Premium perks. Starting today, you will no longer be able to purchase new coins, but all awards and existing coins will continue to be available until September 12, 2023.
Many eons ago, Reddit introduced something called Reddit Gold. Gold then evolved, and we introduced new awards including Reddit Silver, Platinum, Ternium, and Argentium. And the evolution continued from there. While we saw many of the awards used as a fun way to recognize contributions from your fellow redditors, looking back at those eons, we also saw consistent feedback on awards as a whole. First, many don’t appreciate the clutter from awards (50+ awards right now, but who’s counting?) and all the steps that go into actually awarding content. Second, redditors want awarded content to be more valuable to the recipient.
It’s become clear that awards and coins as they exist today need to be re-thought, and the existing system sunsetted. Rewarding content and contribution (as well as something golden) will still be a core part of Reddit. We’ll share more in the coming months as to what this new future looks like.
On a personal note: in my several years at Reddit, I’ve been focused on how to help redditors be able to express themselves in fun ways and feel joy when their content is celebrated. I led the product launch on awards – if you happen to recognize the username – so this is a particularly tough moment for me as we wind these products down. At the same time, I’m excited for us to evolve our thinking on rewarding contributions to make it more valuable to the community.
Why are we making these changes?
We mentioned early this year that we want to both make Reddit simpler and a place where the community empowers the community more directly.
With simplification in mind, we’re moving away from the 50+ awards available today. Though the breadth of awards have had mixed reception, we’ve also seen them - be it a local subreddit meme or the “Press F” award - be embraced. And we know that many redditors want to be able to recognize high quality content.
Which is why rewarding good content will still be part of Reddit. Though we’d love to reveal more to you all now, we’re in the process of early testing and feedback, so aren’t ready to share official details just yet. Stay tuned for future posts on this!
What’s changing exactly?
Awards - Awards (including Medals, Premium Awards, and Community Awards) will no longer be available after September 12.
Reddit Coins - Coins will be deprecated, since Awards will be going away. Starting today, you’ll no longer be able to purchase coins, but you can use your remaining coins to gift awards by September 12.
Reddit Premium - Reddit Premium is not going away. However, after September 12, we will discontinue the monthly coin drip and Premium Awards. Other current Premium perks will still exist, including the ad-free experience.
Note: As indicated in our User Agreement past purchases are non-refundable. If you’re a Premium user and would like to cancel your subscription before these changes go into effect, you can find instructions here.
What comes next?
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about a new direction for awarding that allows redditors to empower one another and create more meaningful ways to reward high-quality contributions on Reddit.
I’ll be around for a while to answer any questions you may have and hear any feedback!
First, many don’t appreciate the clutter from awards
“Hide Awards” in settings?
It’s almost like they’re allergic to working on their app.
It’s good that Reddit did this today because the memes on the fediverse have been extremely good lately. Reddit Remainers checking it out will find a fun, active community
You can always tell when a community is going downhill when they say they’re “empowering users” with their latest changes. They’re never actually empowering anyone but the shareholders to make more money.
Empowering users to give us money
Although they’re just taking an existing feature away here. Not sure how that’ll create more money.
TL;DR: I’m no fortune-teller but I feel like they want to change how we perceive and consume Reddit posts: to kill ways of engagement and make you just scroll feed.
I bet they’d add new subscription-based service, something musk-esque, that would promote you to the top of the feed or comment section. In new Reddit there are like a dozen of top comments visible before you tap to show more items. They’d probably be mostly from paid users. Also, no ability to visibly promote others’ posts – it’s bad for PR when something bad gets gold, like advertisements for Lemmy. And, in general, Reddit should (in their vision, imho) be like tiktok, where you just scroll through a queue of curated content – staying in comment section for too long or showing your opinion (with up\downvotes or gold a.k.a superupdoot) is wasting your time while you could as well watch some ads. In this case, killing comments and any kind of active and natural reaction is obvious. As a bonus, there’d be more advertisers, as critique of them won’t get viral and their post won’t get downvoted into hell. Oh, and if their board of managers won’t get booted, downvote button and post stats would be cut next.
The fact that this even sounds plausible is stunning.
I love the fact it is stunning for you. It’s heartwarming to know just some of us, including you, arem’t used to the worst possible outcome 😅
I guarantee there are spreadsheets and roadmaps and OKRs with a plan that ultimately leads to them making more money. Maybe it’s increased engagement leading to more ad revenue. Maybe it’s a replacement with other micro transactions. Whatever it is, it starts with removing rewards and the end goal is shareholder profits.
I’m myself in meetings where OKRs and spreadsheets are created. Just because an idea makes it through such a meeting doesn’t mean it’s a valid one.
Absolutely, but the goal remains the same. They’re spinning their wheels looking for a way to generate revenue.
THIS. exactly this!!
Comments are saltier than expected
I feel like I’m standing on the shores of sanity while I watch Reddit sail off into the sunset.
Except the whole ship is on fire and everyone is fighting each other.
What happened to them being so desperate to make money that they’d charge third party all devs $20 million a year for API access? Surely removing ways to give them money won’t help that situation, right?
I know the API thing was all about control and not the actual money, but they’re just being so blatant about not giving a fuck about the site or the users. What a dreadful company.
wish me luck :) I’ll keep you updated.
Who cares. reddit has killed reddit. Just be here now. Ready to move on.
You dare link me to that vile place?!
I see the “follow twitter” business model is proceeding.
“We’re having cash flow issues? What should we do?” “I know! Lets cancel the one thing that we’re doing that people are just giving us money for!” “Brilliant!”
Next: Subscribe to /r/Pics - $.89/month!
