this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 330 points 1 year ago (12 children)

The concept behind the program is straightforward. Redditors who receive substantial gold and karma from other community members can potentially convert these virtual rewards into real-world money that can be cashed out.

sigh, that's desperation. This means that the discussion on Reddit will not be natural or organic, it will cease to be human. Redditors will be like dogs, where they shitpost and post comments that everyone agrees with so they can make money, basically doing what the master tells them in order to get their treat. Reddit as we know it will cease to exist.

[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree, though I also believe that Reddit is like that already.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is like that already, but try, if you can, to imagine how bad it will get if the incentive isn't fake internet points, but actual money.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Soon on YouTube "how to make money on reddit", "top 10 comments that will get you 9999 upvotes"

[–] Nobody 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This!

Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

We did it, Reddit!

[–] HiDefMusic 3 points 1 year ago

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

"Easy trick for TOP GOLD Reddit admins don't want YOU to now!"

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Basically Quora.

Quora started to pay people to ask questions, rather than reward the people who put efforts into answering.

I skipped that stupid thing instantly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"I caught my 12 year old son playing Minecraft so I smashed all his things and beat him. Was I wrong?"

That was roughly one of the so-called questions I saw on Quora recently. Absolute garbage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well they get paid to ask absolute garbage so you'll see oodles of these shitty "questions"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That explains why content quality over there is so damn bad, I didn't know about that before since I skipped the Quora train.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I used it for some time before, since it was just people asking questions and doubts and curiosities.

But once this paid stupidity started, it was adios time.

[–] Halosheep 33 points 1 year ago

Looks great for engagement when everyone is greedily making posts for the most likes though. Just another step towards a golden facade for IPO.

[–] SCB 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Worse, I don't think it's desperation. I think the senior leadership genuinely sees this as a good idea. That implies they view reddit no longer as a series of communities that organically develop and more as a social network that should pursue reach and "quality" content.

To me, that's way worse than desperation. That's like the exact opposite of what reddit was stated to be when I first joined.

[–] tomthegeek 16 points 1 year ago

That’s like the exact opposite of what reddit was stated to be when I first joined.

It is exactly the opposite of what Aaron Swartz created.

[–] Acronymesis 15 points 1 year ago

We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive.

-Steve Huffman-

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is a good idea from the point of view that a lot of platforms are compensating their content creators for their work to keep them on the platform.

It is a bad idea because most power users used third party apps to help provide their content, and Reddit just pissed a lot of them off.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah this will make discussion 100x worse now that there's a strong financial reason to be ungenuine and follow the hive mind. Not to mention this decision has terrible timing with the rise of ChatGPT bots, as if bots weren't already an issue. Did they think these bots were actually going to use the API? I'm sure communities will love Reddit offering users money to ruin their communities.

[–] veroxii 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Who is going to risk a downvote with real money on the line. Actually I can see brigading wars to "ruin someone financially" being a thing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Sounds like the exploitation of children that happens on Roblox. They may earn money if they make enough after cuts to withdraw. Just more user exploitation with the carrot-on-stick of getting paid.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or.....maybe some will use bots to make comments/post/earn money. Possible no humans needed for conversation at some point. Just bots chatting with bots making the "human dogs" money!!

Makes me wonder what the actual bot convo would look like!!!!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

r/cryptocurrency became exactly like that under a similar system.

This is also observable with all social media, where you can see that the communities shifted greatly once people started making money or getting a following, content just became mostly derivative of "what works".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I act natural around my friends and they pay me, so I dont know what the big issue is 🤷🏼‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think, "Yea!, that's desperation"...

[–] Imotali 1 points 1 year ago