I can confirm this is probably happening because some of their staff are leaky leaky among certain groups. Unless they cancel which I doubt.

I have suspicions that it might even be crypto related, they actively pursued a reddit blockchain thing at one point in the past before sacking the main person responsible halfway through the job with 1 week notice.

Predictions on how this turns out?

  • Bakzik [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    You know? There was (technically still is) an argentinian site called "Taringa". It started back in the early 2000, as a software sharing site. By 2008 it blew up in popularity. You could find music, movies, games, books, etc. Awesome with folk who didn’t know how to use torrents.

    Which each site update they added more "social media" features. Communities, profile personalization, etc. But, by 2010 approximately, they were forced to stop the "pirate share" stuff. Instead of dying, the site become another forum. People were sharing recipes, tutorials and, above all, shitposting.

    From there on, the site underwent a steady "enshittification". Without downloads, popularity came from the forum aspect. And, being one of the more prominent sites in Argentina (and the region too) astroturfing became a more prevalent, and notorious, thing. The 2015 elections doble down on the politic discussions + reactionary content became the norm.

    The point? By the end of 2015 they implemented a "revenue system". They paid in bitcoins to each user who made a popular post. Bum, the site was invaded by bots, reposts, etc. By 2017 it was a desolate wasteland. The tech bro owners sold the page to a random company and ran.

    There is more to it, but fuck post 2010 Taringa and I hope Reddit finds the same end too.

    • Awoo [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Incentivising botting sounds like something reddit would do.

    • mittens [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      (technically still is)

      they were pushing their shit hard on twitter before the muskening. they had a brand redesign but i never even liked the taringa's "social media" features. not surprised reactionary stuff became the norm either, post-link sharing, taringa survived on the shoulders of poringa, most of the userbase was incredibly porn-brained. with that in mind, you can tell exactly what the admins were thinking when monetizing posts.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Loooool the enshittification accelerates. Now they're going to have people doing upvote optimization to create the clickbaitiest posts possible. Fuck this shit. I want a do over.

    • Beaver [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      People with capitalism brain genuinely think that monetizing stuff causes the magic of market forces to improve things. Reddit kind of works when people's only motiviation is either the lulz of shitposting, or the passion of effortposting about something they care about. That will all be washed way by monetization.

  • Jenniferr [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Lol this is going to ruin reddit even more. I mean, people are shameless already for internet points that mean nothing. Insert actual monetary incentives ans its just going to be even more shit.

    • rubpoll [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Making a living wage by spamming "China Bad" under every post I see.

    • Awoo [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      I have no idea about details to be honest other than a staff member that really doesn't like it there talking about it vaguely.

      I expect it'll be linked to something everyone has to pay for. Maybe like Discord Nitro Boosting a server except applied to people? I don't know how you'd link anything to crypto to be honest that's just my assumption that it'll be maximum bazinga. The more obvious one is literally making a reddit gold style thing into a direct donation to posters and commenters that receive it.

      Another possibility is that they might be taking some notes from Tiktok Lives maybe?

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    ooooooooooooooh the wholesome award was one of my favorites wholesome <- i love this seal. thank fuck Hexbear emotes are free

  • mittens [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have suspicions that it might even be crypto related

    thanks for the ape slurp juice kind stranger

  • JohnBrownsBussy2 [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Obviously, this will incentivize increased bot usage and push posting to the lowest common denominator.

    Of course reedit is going to try something like this to juice their user stats before going public and cashing out.

  • Concured [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Love how both Twitter and now Reddit seem to have gone fully with the And also, you should win things by watching! sections of their userbase.

    • Oomfart [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Got banned from a sub on there after asking what the karma threshold was to post (I had something like 40,000 of each, they removed the post sayng I had "not enough"). Mod was like "what are you doing with your life" in response. Gee I dunno, mate, working a proper job instead of modding a reddit sub on the dole?

  • Owl [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    wait they got rid of awards?

    wasn't that their only source of revenue

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    They better pay me for all my useless analysis of racecars and shitting on Dunning Kruger effect nerds before I got banned from there