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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Reddit’s blockchain-based “Community Points” rewards crash after sunsetting::Tokens based on subreddit reputation saw dips over 85% after the announcement.

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[-] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's indisputable they failed to think this through, but did Reddit make any money off the attempt alone?

Is this entire switch to blockchain and then abruptly stopping it a net loss, or a minor, short-term net gain?

Serious question, because while I have a general understanding of what blockchain is, the whole who benefits/who loses and how that happens thing has become far too complex for me to really follow, so I'm hoping someone here can tell me.

Also, they didn't shut it ALL down, apparently there are still some rubes to be fleeced via blockchain:

Notably, Reddit's NFT marketplace was not targeted for closure.

So. Net loss? Net gain? Neutral? What's your best guess, and why?

[-] Eiim@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 year ago

Likely only Reddit can say. I don't think Reddit was ever trying to make money off Community Points directly (in contrast to their NFTs), but rather to boost engagement. Whether or not it did, and by enough to offset the costs of starting and maintaining the system, we'll likely never know.

[-] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

You're probably right on all counts, but thank you for your response. Anymore when people start talking about the never ending shell game of crypto my eyes just glaze over, lol. "We’ll likely never know" seems to be the final line of every crypto story these days, when it comes right down to it.

[-] banneryear1868@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it really boosted the worst kind of engagement. I found a whole spam network there modded by a single egomaniac who spent their whole life creating subreddits, maintaining different personas on the site, crossposting posts between all their alt accounts and subreddits, to external subs they didn't control, etc. People who noticed spammy behavior were silenced and many who spoke out were harassed by them through false reports or just the person calling them slurs in comment threads. Admins recently banned all their main subs and accounts, but they constantly lost individual alt accounts for this behavior. They still operate smaller subs on the site and behave the exact same way.

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this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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