Comment by llamageddon01 on 23/10/2021 at 14:57 UTC*

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: The NewToReddit Encyclopaedia Redditica v2

Powerups

In 2020, Reddit announced the testing of a new concept[1] which at first was only available in a few Subreddits[2]. This proved to be popular and for a while, many subreddits had a banner blazing lightning[3] across the top or in their sidebar[4] “advertising” for Reddit Power-ups.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/iicyi1/testing_a_new_concept_with_select_subreddit/

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/l0duo5/reddit_is_testing_powerups_paid_perks_for/

3: https://i.redd.it/4cmzotx93cc91.jpg

4: https://i.redd.it/0r8uzgjc3cc91.jpg

However, in July 2022, it was decided[5] to retire the concept in favour of rolling out some of the benefits across Reddit as a whole, and the official announcement[6] followed shortly after.

5: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/vt002w/powering_down_powerups/

6: https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/vyyne6/changelog_outerspace_gifs_in_comments_fixing_the/

**What did Power-ups do?**

A subreddit’s members could become “patrons” of the subreddit by buying monthly subscription-based power-ups. A subreddit then had access to new features when it met a minimum threshold of power-up subscriptions; our little sub needed 25 per month minimum. When the requisite number of users - known as “Community Heroes” - had powered up a community, some new features were able to be unlocked for everyone to use, provided they were enabled by the mods:

GIFs in comments (not applicable in NewToReddit).
New Reddit emojis, called “snoomojis”.
More features such as better video quality (not applicable in NewToReddit).
Achievement icons next to your username and in your profile when accessed from the powered up sub.
A new, free Highlighting Award “Power-ups Comment” was occasionally given out randomly alongside the normal free award, but this appears to have been discontinued at time of writing.

If the monthly power-ups dropped to below 25, the features were removed until we achieved 25 once more; this happened twice to my recollection. We never had more than 26 at any one time but some of the larger subs had hundreds, yet received no extra benefits than we did by just making the threshold.

**Our Community Heroes**

Our first Community Heroes were our long time lovely friends u/vancityace, u/MasterYoshi5 and u/Vapidmusings, and while the power-ups feature was running, each time they - or any of our subsequent Community Heroes (except the five who chose to remain anonymous) - posted or commented in r/NewToReddit, you would see a ‘Shazam’ style lightning bolt next to their usernames, a bright red frame on their snoo thumbnail on posts and comments, along with a special mention in the Power-up Community Heroes sidebar. We also gave our Community Heroes a choice of user flair. There was a list of all our Community Heroes in our sidebar and I would give them all a hug if I could for supporting our little help sub at the time.

**How you could get a monthly Power-up**

Paying Premium users were given one free power-up per month, and anyone else had to purchase a power-up subscription for $4.99 a month by clicking the "Become a Hero" button on the sidebar. If a paying Premium user wanted to power-up multiple subreddits, they had to buy a separate power-up subscription for each additional subreddit.

Power-up Heroes ware not committed to keep powering up the subreddit they first chose. They could move their monthly power-up to a different subreddit by going to their settings and selecting the Premium tab: https://new.reddit.com/settings/premium[7] where they could see the option to manage power-ups at the bottom.

7: https://new.reddit.com/settings/premium

**Important Stuff they had to know**

Before considering becoming a Community Hero, it was important to understand the following from https://www.redditinc.com/policies/previews-terms[8] :

8: https://www.redditinc.com/policies/previews-terms

Power-ups are a subscription membership. When you purchase Power-ups, your subscription is subject to the Reddit Premium and Virtual Goods Agreement. Purchasing Power-ups does not provide you with the right to post or comment in that subreddit. Participating subreddits are run by moderators and your ability to post or comment, or the removal of a post or comment, is at the discretion of that subreddit’s moderator(s). Moderators also have the ability to opt out of certain perks, including GIFs in comments and Emojis. When you purchase Power-ups, it is possible the subreddit will not reach the Power-up total necessary to unlock additional perks.*

More information is available here:

https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403699823629-Powerups[9]
https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403386953108-What-are-Powerups-[10]
https://www.reddit.com/powerups[11]

Before giving any money to Reddit, please familiarise yourself with the full Reddit Premium and Virtual Goods agreement[12].

9: https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403699823629-Powerups

10: https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403386953108-What-are-Powerups-

11: https://www.reddit.com/powerups

12: https://www.redditinc.com/policies/premium-and-virtual-goods-agreement

**I was a little controversial here.**

If a user was considering purchasing power-ups for us or any other community, I suggested they might want to think about buying Reddit Premium at $5.99 a month instead. That is $1 extra each month but came with a monthly power-up and many other benefits too[13]. Reddit Premium members use Reddit free of adverts, get 700 Reddit Coins a month (plus first-time subscribers get an extra 1,000 Reddit Coins just for signing up), exclusive items for dressing-up your Snoovatar, exclusive awards, custom app icons, and access to the lovely r/lounge.

13: https://www.reddit.com/premium

*See Also:**

Achievements[14]
Helpers on NewToReddit[15]
Premium Reddit[16]
Profile Page[17]
Reddit Premium[18]

Comment by llamageddon01 on 23/10/2021 at 14:57 UTC*

Powerups

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