Quiet falls around the boardroom table. One analyst breaks the silence. "Well, you see, you have investors now. And, well, they've kind of noticed that quality of your content is contrastically downhill over the past couple of years". An unnamed C staffer blurts out "I told you getting rid of reddit gold was a bad idea, let's just break it back and everyone will come back and contribute again!"
And then there’s coins — the tokens Reddit users previously needed to purchase with real money to buy awards.
As such, the platform is compensating users who had their coin balance removed with a “number of exclusive awards” that they can give out for free.
Instead, users will now need to purchase gold, which starts at $1.79 (or $1.99 via mobile) for 100 gold, and was introduced as part of Reddit’s Contributor Program to award other users with “golden upvotes.” Reddit said the golden upvote “wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards,” and will sunset the system now that the old awards program is back, though eligible creators can still use gold to earn money via its Contributor Program.
Unlike golden upvotes, Reddit says its Contributor Program has attracted plenty of interest and is now being expanded to cover 35 countries.
The company acknowledged user concerns about the potential for the program to be abused for spam, fraud, and karma farming, but says it hasn’t seen an increase in such behavior since the system was introduced six months ago.
So, while awards are coming back, the phrase “thanks for the gold, kind stranger” is still effectively a retired piece of Reddit history.
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