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

  • Nepenthe@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    “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.

    • NearSightedGiraffe@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      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

        • e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

          • nicetriangle@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year 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.

          • Pandantic@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            u/SchnoodleDoodleDo in the r/aww community (known for their cute animal perspective poems) was another. I could see all their upvotes being worth something.

      • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year 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.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Ranessin@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year 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.

  • e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    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?

  • athos77@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Chozo@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      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”.

      • mrbubblesort@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

    • PabloDiscobar@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • TimeMuncher2@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year 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.

  • abff08f4813c@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year 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.

    • Pandantic@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      And the fact that they still can’t see the value of good moderation after all the protests is just beyond moronic.

    • Pandantic@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year 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.