32 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Wrapping the Golden Upvote Pilot + New(ish) and Improved Awards
I remember getting gold years and years ago on various comments/posts and it always felt special. Someone recognized you helped them or did some good. You'd get tangible upgrades on the website. I wanted to share that feeling with others, and bought gold for them.
The elephant in the room is the reputation of the website from last year's protests, CEO's lack of good will, abandonment of old.reddit, the IPO, yanking peoples coins away, the staggering amount of spam/bots/reposts lately (partly because of the paid program), and people generally moving away or engaging less with the website due to last year.
I can't think of a single person I know, who were once die hard reddit fans ever spending a cent on this website anymore because of all of the above. The sentiment I get from friends is it's embarrassing to still be a redditor, and that the site is overrun with bots, and ChatGPT comments.
What I'm saying is there was once a special feeling about posting, commenting, and awards/gold. I really think that rekindling that feeling is part of the equation. I *get* that feeling on Twitch or Discord when considering subscribing for tangible benefits. Discord's profile effects, banners, animated profile pictures, and the vast amount of beautiful emotes is a no brainer for a lot of people.
The current proposed emotes feel a bit... facebook-y/juvenile? This isn't the first update that I immediately thought "facebook", and I can only assume it's intentional to have Reddit start making money like Facebook does. I appreciate the galaxy brain, heart, and popcorn/kermit etc... but they lack a certain visual excitement such as twitch or discord emotes would have. I would much rather prefer a clean 2d drawn image, than a low-fidelity 2.5d blender image of a generic emoji reddit-ified (although I'll admit the popcorn image looks very clean).
Not that twitch is profitable either, but people are willing to spend a lot of money there with subscriptions, emotes, and cheer bits.
Maybe my feedback about the lack of spending money atmosphere, as well as the emotes not really resonating might be somewhat helpful.
Comment by tartymae at 15/05/2024 at 20:37 UTC
22 upvotes, 0 direct replies
All of what you just said.
I don't trust Reddit's CEO team. I don't trust this new awards program. I used to buy the "reddit coins" to hand out awards. I liked that system. I trusted that system.
I no longer trust Reddit's team of Shitbird CEOs.
I will not be spending money on this system.
Comment by grahamperrin at 05/06/2024 at 06:34 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
overrun with bots, and ChatGPT comments.
That's not my experience.