410
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by lvxferre@lemmy.ml to c/snoocalypse@lemmy.ml

Excerpts from the link:

Fake internet points are finally worth something!
Now redditors can earn real money for their contributions to the Reddit community, based on the karma and gold they've been given.
How it works:

  • Redditors give gold to posts, comments, or other contributions they think are really worth something.
  • Eligible contributors that earn enough karma and gold can cash out their earnings for real money.
  • Contributors apply to the program to see if they're eligible.
  • Top contributors make top dollar. The more karma and gold contributors earn, the more money they can receive.

Not just anyone can be a contributor. To join and stay in the program, contributors need to meet a few requirements:\

  • Be over 18 and live in the U.S.
  • Only Safe for Work contributions qualify
  • Earn xx gold and karma each month
  • Provide verification information. You must have at least 10 gold and 100 karma to begin verification.
  • NSFW accounts aren't eligible for the Contributors Program

Here's my take on this. Since this is from the latest version of Reddit's ~~broken browser for a single site~~ "official app", it's likely a recent development, triggered by recent changes in the platform. Reddit Inc. is likely worried about contributors leaving due to the app-pocalypse, and is trying to counter it by throwing them some spare cash.

And I'm going to be honest: holy fuck this sounds like a Bad Idea®. For three reasons.

The first one is demographics; since 47% of the users are Americans, and 21% of them are 10-19yo, it's safe to say that ~60% of the users are ineligible, and thus will only contribute for free.

Will they? People often don't mind contributing for free, as long as the others are in the same page. The picture changes once you get at least someone making money out of it - odds are that those 60% will disengage further.

The second reason is that Reddit Inc. is disregarding the fluff principle. If the money threshold is the number of upvotes and awards that someone gets per period of time, why would the person bother with high quality content? Or even quality content at all - it's easy to make up for lack of quality with quantity. For example, setting up a simple bot to scrape the top posts and repost them. (Is Reddit expecting the mods to delete those reposts? OH WAIT)

The third and final reason is who you expect to give awards to those people, before they feel pissed and discouraged and leave the program, breaking even further their trust in the platform. Who would even buy Reddit gold on first place? The Reddit community has been outright mocking Reddit gold for years, and the suckers actually buying it were the ones who were the most engaged and emotionally attached to the platform, to the point that they're willing to "help" it. (As if corporations need help, but whatever.) It would be a shame if Reddit happened to piss off exactly that demographic... like it did.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Until they ban you with little to no explanation

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

"You've been permanently suspended from Reddit on account of multiple, repeated violations of the code of conduct". There's some appeal system, but since you don't know what you did wrong, you can't actually appeal the suspension; and if you say "I don't even know why I'm being suspended", they say that they "reviewed your suspension" and decided to keep it. It's just like in Kafka's The Process - they hope that you either find something to feel guilty or give up defending yourself.

And always with that implicit "it's a user, you can't tell it 'don't do this', it won't be able to get it and change its behaviour."

[-] jarfil@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I got suspended for "sexualization of minors". Appealed that I did no such thing, and in response got permanently suspended for "repeated violations".

So when "they" say you did it, you better believe it, because claiming otherwise is an additional violation 🤦

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

Wow. Just... wow. That borders libel. But odds are that they know that people won't sue Reddit for libel, for such a small thing like a suspended account.

There's even a name for that specific style of kafkatrapping that they used against you, it's model "A" kafkatrapping: "your refusal to acknowledge that you're guilty confirms that you're guilty".

[-] jarfil@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Probably can't be libel if they don't make it public, just stuff that happens behind closed doors and they can say "no comment". Would be different if Reddit had a public modlog like Lemmy.

My guess is, after 10 years without a problem, someone around 2 years ago might have marked me for takedown for whatever reason. I always tried to be respectful, but didn't start self-censoring until they suspended me for "violent content" without even referencing what was the supposed content. I kind of hoped that using Power Delete Suite to blank the account history, and avoiding most polemic topics from then onwards, would keep it safe, but apparently not.

Ironically, an alt account I created to participate in more polemic topics, got zero problems... but they now banned it along the main one, so bye Reddit, so long and thanks for all the fish.

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

That's a shame - this whole "we're claiming that you did something that you didn't do" sounds clearly illegal though.

It's possible that they deemed you as unprofitable, and decided to kick you out based on that.

Ironically, an alt account I created to participate in more polemic topics, got zero problems… but they now banned it along the main one, so bye Reddit, so long and thanks for all the fish.

Something similar-ish happened with me, except that I did violate the rules (I told a declared Nazi to kill himself). They went out of the way to ban my old, inactive account; the newer account that I used for topics that I didn't want to associate with the main account; but "curiously enough" they left the mod account alone. It was when I decided "nope, there's some shady shit going on, I'm not modding for this shithole".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
410 points (98.6% liked)

SNOOcalypse - document, discuss, and promote the downfall of Reddit.

3 readers
1 users here now

SNOOcalypse is closing down. If you wish to talk about Reddit, check out !reddit@lemm.ee, !reddit@lemmy.world and !RedditMigration@kbin.social.


This community welcomes anyone who wants to see Reddit gone. Nuke the Snoo!

When sharing links, please also share an archived version of the target of your link.

Rules:

  1. Follow lemmy.ml's global rules and code of conduct.
  2. Keep it on-topic.
  3. Don't promote illegal stuff here.
  4. Don't be stupid, noisy, obnoxious or obtuse (S.N.O.O.)
  5. Have fun, and enjoy the popcorn! 🍿

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS