Comment by techiesgoboom on 25/09/2023 at 17:40 UTC

56 upvotes, 8 direct replies (showing 8)

View submission: Celebrating great content is as good as gold

Gold and the contributor program have been brought to the Reddit Mod Council[1] multiple times over the past few months, and a few of the members want to share our thoughts.

1: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484058898196-Reddit-Mod-Council-

*General thoughts**: We’re excited the admins acted on our feedback and are bringing this first to communities that are interested rather than a full scale roll out immediately. While we still have a number of concerns about the potential for harm and abuse, we recognize there’s great potential for this to help content creators and the communities and users that are interested. We��re hopeful that our continued feedback through this test will help us to improve, so that all of our communities can thrive.

*Positive for content creators.**

Our communities thrive when people contribute and create content. It makes sense for reddit to share profit with those that are providing value to the platform. We support initiatives that reward content creators

*Potential for award farming to exacerbate karma farming.**

Karma, despite having no real value, incentivizes so much harmful behavior we have a name for it: karma farming. Spam, self promotion, scams, clickbait, and trolling are just some of the examples of the negative impact karma farming has on our communities. This directly impacts all members of the community, and also takes meaningful moderation time to address. Creating a financial incentive for participation has the potential to exacerbate this.

*Suggesting Gold for Charity**

Redditors have a long history of working together to raise money (a few examples). Members profiting off of their participation is going to be at odds with the goals and values of some communities. We ask that Reddit give communities the choice to demonetize, and direct all profit from gold earned within the community to a charity of the communities choice.

*Some additional key feedback provided by council members include:**

Removed content being eligible for payout is likely encourage off topic clickbait posts in subs that have so far not had to deal with this and may not be equipped to deal with it
We need clarity on how this will interact with how subreddits decide what content merits NSFW flair
How will the platform combat the risk of money laundering through the new community contributions programme?
It’s frustrating to think of how many excellent and genuine contributors will go unrewarded if they don’t make the quota
We expressed sadness about the loss of community coins and awards and how they enabled community events, engagement, and rewarding good contributors.
Similarly, the loss of gifting premium will be missed.

Replies

Comment by shiruken at 25/09/2023 at 17:55 UTC

32 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Similarly, the loss of gifting premium will be missed.

RIP r/lounge

Comment by GuyOne at 25/09/2023 at 17:49 UTC

23 upvotes, 1 direct replies

It seems like we'll need to be very aware of and careful with new types of spam and potential clickbait posts. Also possibly discussing with teams and modifying some rules for subreddits too.

Comment by Maoman1 at 25/09/2023 at 18:21 UTC

20 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I honestly believe the admins don't care about a single thing you've said in your entire comment, except for maybe the bits that could be construed as a compliment.

Comment by Moggehh at 25/09/2023 at 17:45 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Losing the community awards was hard. It'll be pretty interesting to see the impact that new gold will have on the communities that have opted in.

Comment by Merari01 at 26/09/2023 at 02:52 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I'm especially happy that our feedback on the new gilding being potentially unsuitable for trauma support subreddits was taken on board and that these communities can now opt out.

Comment by werksquan at 25/09/2023 at 18:16 UTC

-24 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Thanks for sharing this feedback more publicly, and for all the feedback Mod Council shared throughout this process – it’s been invaluable!

We also want to prevent “gold farming,” so it’s been a popular topic of discussion on the product team and with other teams inside Reddit. In the sticky comment on this post, you’ll see more information about how we’re approaching spam, fraud, and illegal activities.

Regarding gold for charity: We love the thought, and know that redditors have a strong charitable spirit. There are some technical challenges related to how payment processors work that will make this challenging, but we continue to look for more options here. We have supported moderators interested in fundraising for a charitable cause with fundraiser matching up to $20,000 through Community Funds before though, which might be another way Reddit can support what you’re describing.

The additional concerns you’ve raised were contributing factors to our decision to roll out reimagined gold and the Contributor Program in a more gradual way than we had originally planned. As we observe how communities and redditors interact with this program, we’ll adjust the product and program to mitigate the impact of the risks Council has raised.

And then, about the loss of gifting premium, community coins and awards: understood, and I think we all have our things we were sad to see go (still sad about Firefly ngl). That said, this is the first iteration of the Contributor Program (and this version of gold), and we plan to keep evolving it. Ideally, we’ll be able to apply learnings from what was great (and not so great) about previous features as we adjust this program and feature over time.