Reddit is removing its current coins and awards system on September 12th. Users will no longer be able to buy awards like Reddit Gold to give to other users’ posts. Reddit says the current awards system is too cluttered and confusing, so they plan to introduce a new simpler system in the coming months that will allow users to reward each other in a more meaningful way. Many users are unhappy about the removal of the awards system without a replacement ready. Some are also frustrated that Reddit is not providing compensation for the coins users have already purchased. While details of the new system are vague, it appears Reddit may allow users to cash out their gold and karma for real money.
It would be neat for Lemmy to have something like it. It’s a great way to self fund in an engaging way.
There probably needs to be a foundation or something that can distribute funds to instances though to prevent heavy consolidation by way of simple popularity based funding 🤔
Just gold would be fine I guess. To endorse a comment or post you really like. Any more than that, I’ll pass.
From the funding aspect, that makes sense. From a user perspective, I always found Gold (or especially any of the other rewards) quite distracting. Being human, my eye is drawn to the metals along with the judgment that came with it, like this must be a good quality well-received post before even reading it. Often, it was just a joke though or some popular opinion without too much depth. I really hope Lemmy does not incorporate rewards for this reason.
My beef with them is it gives a comment an artificially high “vote” which tends to dominate the discussion (people feel it’s a higher quality comment point), even if the content on its own doesn’t merit it.
Just no. We already have a money raising method https://opencollective.com. This is how you donate to Beehaw and others.
So go donate and stop free loading if you have not already done so. The challenge is of course that free loading is so much fun.