11 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: We heard you… awards are back!
My issue is this: **People aren’t getting the value they think they are with the Contributor Program.**
The old system was simple: I used my real-life money to buy coins through a trusted medium with which I had a choice of various levels of award I could give to whatever I felt deserved it. I knew exactly how the recipient would benefit, from just having a shiny on their flair through to receiving coins of their own to spend and periods of Premium Reddit with most of the advantages that brought. Simple, easy to understand and easy to explain to new Redditors.
With the Contributor Program there is no way to know if awarding someone means actual money is going to them, let alone that it’s only a very small percentage of that money which in itself is also dependent on other people giving them awards.
Now, with this new Awards system, nobody really knows what they are giving out, because linking the nu-awards range to the Contributor Program (wish there was an acceptable acronym for this btw) will make it seem as though the awarder knows what benefits the recipient will give, but they won’t. Presenting them as appearing to be the old awards - but isn’t - only compounds this issue.
When I (from the U.K.) discovered my new eligibility to the Contributor Program some weeks ago, I went to sign up. Having already being the recipient of some of the new awards, this was the obvious next step. However, when I saw the level of personal financial information I would have to provide to two new outside institutions for no other reason than potentially receiving a few pennies in my bank account every so often, there’s no way I’m going to sign up.
This means right now that if someone gives me, as a non-player, an award thinking I am going to benefit financially from it - no matter how small - they are very much mistaken but don’t know it. Someone will spend their real-life money on several different award types thinking I will benefit from both “fake internet points” and real cash, but in reality I won’t? And that someone won’t know that at the point of sale? Yikes.
There needs to be clarity for the giver which currently there isn’t. They should know upfront whether their gift will actually benefit the recipient or not. (Also, as a recipient, I should be able to personally thank the person who spent their hard-earned cash on me, which currently I can’t, but that’s another matter entirely.)
The awarder clearly isn’t getting the same value for their money by giving me and other non-players an award than they would be getting by giving a fully signed-up Redditor the same award, but they have no way of knowing that. That really does not sit right with me, and seems to be very unfair to them.
There needs to be some kind of a system where non-players are simply unable to receive an award which gives benefits they’re unable to obtain. At the very least, someone should be informed that non-players are not going to benefit before they commit to giving them a gift.
Comment by cyanocittaetprocyon at 17/05/2024 at 21:21 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Llama, you have explained this far better than I ever could have. Thank you.