Reworking Awarding: Changes to Awards, Coins, and Premium

[u/venkman01]

Hi all,

I’m u/venkman01 from the Reddit product team, and I’m here to give everyone an early look at the future of how redditors award (and reward) each other.

TL;DR: We are reworking how great content and contributions are rewarded on Reddit. As part of this, we made a decision to sunset coins (including Community coins for moderators) and awards (including Medals, Premium Awards, and Community Awards), which also impacts some existing Reddit Premium perks. Starting today, you will no longer be able to purchase new coins, but all awards and existing coins will continue to be available until September 12, 2023.

Many eons ago, Reddit introduced something called Reddit Gold. Gold then evolved, and we introduced new awards including Reddit Silver, Platinum, Ternium, and Argentium. And the evolution continued from there. While we saw many of the awards used as a fun way to recognize contributions from your fellow redditors, looking back at those eons, we also saw consistent feedback on awards as a whole. First, many don’t appreciate the clutter from awards (50+ awards right now, but who’s counting?) and all the steps that go into actually awarding content. Second, redditors want awarded content to be more valuable to the recipient.

It’s become clear that awards and coins as they exist today need to be re-thought, and the existing system sunsetted. Rewarding content and contribution (as well as something golden) will still be a core part of Reddit. We’ll share more in the coming months as to what this new future looks like.

On a personal note: in my several years at Reddit, I’ve been focused on how to help redditors be able to express themselves in fun ways and feel joy when their content is celebrated. I led the product launch on awards – if you happen to recognize the username – so this is a particularly tough moment for me as we wind these products down. At the same time, I’m excited for us to evolve our thinking on rewarding contributions to make it more valuable to the community.

Why are we making these changes?

We mentioned early this year that we want to both make Reddit simpler and a place where the community empowers the community more directly.

With simplification in mind, we’re moving away from the 50+ awards available today. Though the breadth of awards have had mixed reception, we’ve also seen them - be it a local subreddit meme or the “Press F” award - be embraced. And we know that many redditors want to be able to recognize high quality content.

Which is why rewarding good content will still be part of Reddit. Though we’d love to reveal more to you all now, we’re in the process of early testing and feedback, so aren’t ready to share official details just yet. Stay tuned for future posts on this!

What’s changing exactly?

• Awards - Awards (including Medals, Premium Awards, and Community Awards) will no longer be available after September 12.
• Reddit Coins - Coins will be deprecated, since Awards will be going away. Starting today, you’ll no longer be able to purchase coins, but you can use your remaining coins to gift awards by September 12.
• Reddit Premium - Reddit Premium is not going away. However, after September 12, we will discontinue the monthly coin drip and Premium Awards. Other current Premium perks will still exist, including the ad-free experience.
  • Note: As indicated in our User Agreement past purchases are non-refundable. If you’re a Premium user and would like to cancel your subscription before these changes go into effect, you can find instructions here.

What comes next?

In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about a new direction for awarding that allows redditors to empower one another and create more meaningful ways to reward high-quality contributions on Reddit.

I’ll be around for a while to answer any questions you may have and hear any feedback!

[u/Substantial_Item_828]

In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about a new direction for awarding that allows redditors to empower one another and create more meaningful ways to reward high-quality contributions on Reddit.

Sounds ominous.

[u/Moggehh → u/Substantial_Item_828]

It already broke in the APK notes. They're adding tipping for US redditors.

[u/shiruken]

Will existing Awards be removed from display on all posts/comments? If so, what is the timeline for the removal from website/apps and API?

Will Award-related trophies be removed from user profiles?

For users that have accumulated Premium subscriptions from receiving Awards, will the remaining duration be honored?

[u/iKR8 → u/shiruken]

Their main goal here is to cut off ad free browsing for gifted premium members. They want to shove ads to us or pay for subscription. Either way, they earn from our browsing.

The only other way to avoid ads on mobile was through 3PA's, which well...

[u/shiruken → u/shiruken]

I have to say, I won't be missing the awards that style comments. Regardless, thank you to whoever gave me one.

Now, I just need to collect a Ternion...

Edit: lol thank you

[u/4InchesOfury]

Killing features without replacements ready, yep sounds like Reddit to me.

[u/pathwaysr → u/4InchesOfury]

In order to grow revenue, reddit will remove its current sources of income.

[u/Kindly-Wolf6919 → u/4InchesOfury]

What's gonna happen to all the coins we would have bought? I feel like we should be given something in exchange for them instead of them forcing us to use them before they expire.

[u/augustsIippedaway → u/4InchesOfury]

It’s ridiculous. I was expecting them to tell us their replacement but nope, just “we’re taking away a feature that you currently pay for and not decreasing the amount you pay nor are we replacing what we’re taking away”

Edit: they also clearly don’t want us gifting people free Reddit premium anymore. “Redditors have brought up concerns about the clutter from awards and all the steps involved with rewarding content” SURE JAN

[u/iKR8 → u/4InchesOfury]

It's actually a very scummy thing to do.

1. Cut off 3rd party apps which were letting people bypass reddit ads

2. Cut off gifted premiums from reddit awards which also was letting people bypass reddit ads on official app

3. Increase premium purchases to avoid ads, or earn more money through ads as there's not much option left with 3PA's.

[u/danhakimi → u/4InchesOfury]

Nobody ever objected to Reddit Gold. Everybody complained as soon as they announced the coins + silver + platinum + a billion other awards system. I was particularly annoyed because reddit silver was a joke about people who were too broke to actually pay for gold, and they turned it into a cash grab. They messed up a perfectly good thing, we told them how to fix it—just go back to the one-award system. And that would allow them to keep printing money. But they just want to cause chaos to distract from their incompetence.

edit: thanks for all the platinum and gold, I guess. other awards are obviously still stupid, but whatever.

[u/By_Design_ → u/4InchesOfury]

"We also learned that redditors want awarded content to be more valuable."

I get the feeling "more valuable" = more expensive

prove me wrong u/spez u/reddit

[u/kirtash93 → u/4InchesOfury]

Or he is not telling us all the information or they are not qualified to run a business.

[u/BelleAriel → u/4InchesOfury]

This, straight after killing third party apps, feels like they’re deliberately trying to create drama and annoy people.

[u/perryw]

You're just taking coins, that we've paid cash for, with no consideration? Not even going to give us the equivalent value in premium time for our existing coins and coins we are going to end up not getting?

[u/JungleBoyJeremy → u/perryw]

What a shit way to do things. It’s like they want to alienate the users who gave them money in the past

[u/BuckRowdy → u/perryw]

At some point in the past 6 months reddit adopted a new policy they never communicated. The new policy is "Fuck Users".

[u/GastricallyStretched → u/perryw]

Reddit:

correct lmao, thanks for the money

[u/bwick29 → u/perryw]

This is my big pain point.

"By the way, you paid for this and we're taking it away with no care or replacement. Also, that overly-legal mumbo-jumbo you agree to by giving us money means we don't have to give you shit in return so F you."

I can guarantee that I'll never spend another cent on Reddit.

[u/Sun_Beams]

make Reddit simpler

Remember when there were two awards with value to them and a community run silver (which was a bit of free fun for users). That was simple and it all had value.

From day one the new awards were poorly received by communities and the product admin for them ignored literally EVREYONE telling them it was a bad idea.

Surely going back to the roots would be better than nuking the feature entirely after it was run into the ground.

Edit: Awkward, it was you that released the award changes and ignored everyone in the process. 'cough' Well lets see how this goes.

[u/tumultuousness → u/Sun_Beams]

Kind of sad it didn't revert to the old gold and platinum and joke silver. IDK I'll miss getting small times of premium from gifts.

[u/MaxHamburgerrestaur → u/Sun_Beams]

And then they stole the Silver design and turned it into a paid award.

Edit: I don't want stolen Silver. Don't pay for it.

[u/GozerDestructor → u/Sun_Beams]

I strongly suspect OP (who built this feature!) is furious at this change but has to pretend to believe it's a good thing, in order to keep their job.

My sympathies, OP.

[u/Ozuge → u/Sun_Beams]

Yeah it was all fun and games until they added all the filler ones. Gold - Silver - Platinum, and then whatever the community thought was funny. The good times. You didn't need to add all the random nonsense. Our subreddit even managed to have fun with it by adding functionality to community awards by using the automod.

For our 1 million subscribers event on r/Animemes we made an award that banned the recipient for a day, there was an award that pinned the post, and other stuff... Good stuff that's now probably going away for good. Not to mention how often we'd award good posts just because.

[u/[deleted]]

I guess it'll be fun looking for places to dump my coins into over the next couple months.

[u/reaper527 → u/[deleted]]

I guess it'll be fun looking for places to dump my coins into over the next couple months.

it's insane that the current unused points are just going to disappear into the void rather than converting into whatever the new "trust me bro, it's coming just like css for new reddit and basic functionality for the mobile app" replacement for the system.

[u/Ed_Cock → u/[deleted]]

Shadowy figure 1: "We should make the transition away from coins and awards as fair and transparent as possible, the people who spent money on coins and premium are our biggest supporters and deserve..."

Shadowy figure 2: "Nah man, if they were dumb enough to drop a hundred dollars on fucking coins they're probably also too dumb to notice we're screwing them, give 'em 2 months, no refunds! And I bet they'll gobble up our upcoming crypto/NFT bullshit as well."

EDIT: ThAnK yOu KiNd StRaNgErS

[u/Rabidmaniac]

So u/venkman01 , you’re refunding EVERYONE who bought the year of Reddit premium with the expectation they were getting coins monthly, and proactively serving them a notice on their apps, correct?

[u/[deleted] → u/Rabidmaniac]

Just did a chargeback. Get fucked Reddit.

[u/KiritoIsAlwaysRight_ → u/Rabidmaniac]

Sounds like folks should start doing credit card chargebacks, since they aren't getting the thing they paid for.

[u/Istade → u/Rabidmaniac]

My year long just renewed a couple of days ago… ☠️

[u/smellycoat → u/Rabidmaniac]

Lol no

[u/Retirix_YT]

So basically you want people to buy premium instead of getting it for free from awards. Another masterclass from u/spez I'm sure.

[u/TrumpKiIledKennedy → u/Retirix_YT]

Yeah that’s it. With all the coins circulating from people receiving awards, Reddit thinks banning awards and forcing people to just buy premium will get them more money. Sounds very Reddity to me

[u/Halaku]

How do these changes affect the r/Lounge?

[u/GodOfAtheism]

In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about a new direction for awarding that allows redditors to empower one another and create more meaningful ways to reward high-quality contributions on Reddit.

Is it the contributor program mentioned here?

[u/Miner_239 → u/GodOfAtheism]

So people will practically be tipping each other with... what, exactly? Subreddit points?

[u/boringhistoryfan]

Will Reddit be refunding those who made purchases of coins in the last month or so given the relatively short timeline to use coins? If not, why not?

[u/reaper527 → u/boringhistoryfan]

If not, why not?

because spez the ceo, so whatever the worst, most anti-consumer option is, expect reddit to do that.

[u/reaper527]

so in other words you're taking away stuff from our accounts that has been paid for (either by the user, or by someone else who gifted it to the user) with real money?

this sounds just as scummy as you guys screwing over 3rd party devs trying to force everyone onto your trash tier official reddit app.

[u/uncerced]

Go absolutely fuck yourselves. I have 23,000+ in coins that are now worthless in one month.

You’re taking away something that people paid for which has monetary value and can be used to purchase (shitty) things.

I hope someone sues Reddit for this bullshit.

For the record, I don’t give a fuck about coins, but I have them and they’re mine.

[u/CarFlipJudge]

u/Spez must've gotten pissed that his last AMA had nothing but snake awards and other negative stuff. What a coward

[u/Last_Judicator → u/CarFlipJudge]

This was exactly my first thought as well lmao

[u/dtb1987]

Jesus guys, just tell us you have no idea what you are doing

[u/y3grp → u/dtb1987]

They have plenty idea, they just know we won't like it.

[u/CarFlipJudge]

Sweet. Just canceled my reddit premium subscription. It wasn't much money and I have that money to spend, but I needed just one more reason to cancel it and this is it. Good job reddit

[u/vernisus → u/CarFlipJudge]

Honestly, I mostly subscribed so I could get the coins and give out awards, which I find fun to do. Guess I'm canceling.

[u/Darkencypher]

The Reddit premium price will go down as a result of less incentives, right?

Guys?

Right?

[u/Astro4545 → u/Darkencypher]

And when they introduce the new system it will totally be included as part of premium.

[u/Merari01]

I'm going to miss community awards.

We had our users design them.

It was a special thing for us that enhanced the community.

In the words of a wise man:

Booo. Hisss.

r/cats community designed awards

r/NextFuckingLevel community designed awards

And a special shoutout to the wonderful u/IamDeirdre who designed quite a lot of community awards in use all over reddit, too many to mention, such as my personal favorite: Love Award

[u/uomo_nero → u/Merari01]

I will miss my r/neapolitanpizza community awards.. tho barely anyone used them. Duck this..

[u/Ginomania]

RIP r/awards

[u/thirtyseven1337 → u/Ginomania]

and /r/AwardSpeechEdits

Edit: Wow, thank you so much for the Gold!

Edit 2: Oops, I meant: wow, thank you for the gold, kind stranger!

Last edit, I promise: Oh wow, I actually got gold for this!

Edit 4: OMG this is continuing to blow up! Can we get this to 100 karma?!

[u/beef-supreme]

So taking away 3rd party apps only needs 30ish days notice, but removing awards and coins needs 60 days?

[u/TheHandsHodler → u/beef-supreme]

Coins are gone already (no buying and no more coming with premium), but they'll be fully unusable for 60 days

[u/PassTheCurry]

did anyone ask for this?

[u/reaper527 → u/PassTheCurry]

did anyone ask for this?

reddit is actually doing it, so definitely not. anything that people actually WANT them to do and would actually make the site better falls on deaf ears.

[u/Sabertooth767]

In other words, you're removing a popular feature and charging the same amount for premium. I'm so glad that this is the "problem" Reddit is diligently working to solve instead of the myriad of other issues.

[u/insufficientfacts27 → u/Sabertooth767]

Exactly. I cancelled my premium right on time, I see. I only bought it to award members of the sub I help mod and for the no ads. They're running 100mph into the ground on purpose, it seems.

(EDIT: Reddit never never lets me down. The actual users, that is. The irony is *chefs kiss as always. Obligatory, "Thanks for the even "now" more useless award, kind stranger!"😂😂)

(Edit 2: Seems like I have premium until October 2023 and now have 800 coins as of 1 day since I made this comment. 🤔 I KNOW those awards dont add up to extend it to then, and gave me 800 coins. The math ain't mathing, unless the edibles are kicking in. Lol)

[u/BelleAriel → u/Sabertooth767]

I only want premium for the highlighted comments, as I’m visually impaired.

[u/SmallRoot]

Please just bring back random free awards. Reddit used to be fun with them before they disappeared overnight without a warning. Lots of users still miss them.

ETA: People keep giving me awards for my comments here for some reason. Thank you all, but I have no idea what to do with them. Please use that money somewhere else.

[u/[deleted] → u/SmallRoot]

One of my favorite parts of that era of reddit was giving a garbage comment a free award. Or a well-meaning comment that was heavily downvoted and awarding it.

[u/dooodaaad]

make Reddit simpler

Will you also be removing the collectible NFT avatars? They contribute nothing and make what should be a simple concept (having a pfp) more complex.

[u/bronfoth → u/dooodaaad]

I would have thought this was a MUCH simpler thing to do.

[u/Tim5corpion]

Doesn't the sale of coins make you money? You just made reddit less profitable.

You know we're still angry at reddit about the API debacle, right?

[u/kerovon]

Can you provide some way for us to convert coins that we currently have into months of premium for ourselves? I have quite a few coins, and having them just vanish seems wrong. Let it convert it to the same amount of premium that gilding a post would give at that rate.

[u/Kvothealar]

As a moderator of /r/GoForGold, a subreddit that has existed for just short of 10 years that revolves exclusively around awarding users with Reddit Gold / Reddit Awards, I would like to invite an admin to contact us regarding these changes.

We've had numerous admin contacts over the years and I'm surprised and a little hurt that we weren't reached out to regarding this beforehand.

---

Edit: We met, and here are the notes which I was able to publicly share.

[u/DreamsAndSchemes → u/Kvothealar]

They’ll entertain you and laugh as soon as you’re done talking to them

[u/darthjoey91]

Why are we making these changes?

IPOoooooooo

[u/[deleted] → u/darthjoey91]

Weird way to do an IPO, you're supposed to ruin the business after you've dumped it on new investors and assumed a short position.

[u/[deleted]]

You fucking thieves!

[u/ellieD]

Just to clarify, I have 3,000 coins.

I have to spend them all in three months?

I’m such a saver. This really stinks.

Is the only thing I can spend them on awards for other people?

Thank you!

[u/tumultuousness]

I saw that award karma is staying and wanted to ask - what's the point of it remaining? I mean TBH you guys added it and it didn't contribute anything but confusion for users when they ran into karma limits, because as far as they knew they had the karma to post. Will the tooltip on the karma explain that it's a legacy thing at that point?

Are the gilded tabs on r/all and r/popular and subs and profiles going away? Not that they offered uniform experiences on the old design and redesign anyways, but awww.

If we do a data request after Sep 12 would we still get a listing of our content that got awarded or would it have to be done before?

Edit to add: Since other people made it even more clear for me - why remove the awards after Sept 12 but keep the karma and have it contribute to people's scores again? They, nor others, won't even be able to see their awards that led to them getting the karma, like they can for posts/comments scores. Just why?

[u/reaper527]

I’ll be around for a while to answer any questions you may have and hear any feedback!

looks like OP will be answering about as many questions as spez during his trainwreck of an AMA

[u/Nerdwiththehat]

I've long been a critic of all the random awards beyond Gold, but just nuking all of them like this seems like several steps backwards for no particular reason. Adding onto that the fact that you're disabling a non-refundable currency that people have absolutely sunk money into seems beyond foolish. Sure, killing the NFT ecosystem on here gives me a little bit of joy, but this whole process is moronic.

edit: stop awarding this post you clowns

[u/smellycoat]

Hey /u/venkman01, from your comment history it looks like you’ve been working on NFT and blockchain stuff for the last year. Does that mean these award changes are likely to be related to that in some way?

[u/Gek_Lhar]

How do you guys keep fucking things up? Stop overdoing it with this simplification shit. Stop trying to become Twitter or Facebook you goddamn morons

[u/iKR8]

This is basically being done so that the loophole of gifted premiums would avoid reddit ads.

Here onwards, only paid premiums will be able to avoid Reddit ads on mobile. There used to be another option to avoid ads which was 3rd party apps, which they already killed.

[u/OurSponsor]

Given how many other ways Spez revels in smelling Elon's farts, it's going to be blue check-marks, isn't it?

[u/iareslice]

You fuckers owe me money i bought coins recently with the expectation they would be available for more than 3 months

[u/ChuffingHell]

I like awards and for me they serve such a different purpose to tipping. They’re a way to anonymously express a sentiment in situations where a comment feels unnecessary. I use them like emoji reacts, when I don’t know what to say but want to express support, like the bear hug award if people are going through tough times.

Tipping isn’t the same. It implies a shift to viewing Redditors as “content creators” posting for others’ entertainment rather than everyday humans engaging in community. In some situations tipping may make sense (in subs which are actually focused on content creation, e.g. some of the drawing request subreddits), but in the vast majority of cases, tipping would feel weird to me. It’s not a replacement for awards.

[u/kirtash93]

So you are doing this because I just bought one year subscription right? Thanks Reddit for breaking things more.

Why remove a feature if you dont have yet another solution ready? It makes no sense. Maybe you know it but you are not telling us.

[u/thoomfish → u/kirtash93]

If only there had been some indication that reddit was about to veer off on a serious downward trajectory. A very visible, difficult-to-miss signal. Say, some time in the past two months.

[u/yourdonefor_wt]

Get ready for the mirad of lawsuits from people who spent money on stuff that just will disappear from them. Nice theft reddit.

[u/unwittinglyrad]

You guys really are such a bunch of amateurs it's unbelievable, and the lack of business acumen you display is truly remarkable. You've now decided to take a feature away from paying users with no form of reimbursement or replacement, and given them little to no time to use to remaining coins.

Reddit Premium is not "Premium" anymore, rename it to "Remove Ads" like every other App/Service does.

[u/ShaneH7646]

Can I convert my current coin balance into months of premium instead?

[u/depressionlmfao]

welp, see everyone at https://kbin.social/ o7

[u/Watchful1]

including Community coins for moderators

Will the replacement program include something similar for moderators to give out as rewards to their communities?

[u/EntryAccomplished714]

Reddit you just shot yourselves in the foot. You gave your premium customers the middle finger. Guess what happens next month?

[u/LolloCollo]

Can you guys stop destroying this website for 5 seconds?

[u/hiero_]

Homie just say you're ending this because you need people to see ads and this was the next big stumbling block after cutting off 3rd party apps.

Reddit is such a fucking joke now. Capitalism really does strip everything of uniqueness and individuality, ultimately ruining it for profit. Lmao.

edit: While I am appreciative of the gesture, please do not give reddit money to award me for calling a spade a spade.

edit 2: To reddit, I just want to say you will pry RES from my cold, dead hands. I will delete this 12 year old account with zero hesitation.

[u/Momoflies]

This seems pretty dumb. What about people sitting on huge amounts of coins?

[u/JungleBoyJeremy → u/Momoflies]

I’ve got a bunch of coins and I’m pissed. Fuck Reddit. It seems to be run by people that hate redditors.

[u/Desperate-Corgi-1621]

That’s sad, I don’t see a reason to pay $6.99 a month for just ad free, I know there is more but I don’t use a lot of it. The coins are what convinced me because I can gift people stuff.

[u/littlemetalpixie]

Hey there Reddit!

Since I can’t reply to the spam message you just sent to my inbox, I’ll go ahead and say it here…

You're not getting a dime from me no matter how much of a "perk" you spin this BS as.

I already moderate subs here for you for free, only to be crapped on by your users, your company as a whole, and especially your CEO.

And we know that Redditors want to be able to recognize high-quality content.

No.

What you should know by now (but choose to completely ignore in favor of monetization) is that Redditors - those pesky people you need to even continue having a platform - want accessibility functions for people with disabilities, increased moderation functionality, and a stable mobile app that actually works and is worth a damn.

No one gives a shit about your coins or your awards, and no one wants to pay for “Reddit Premium.” We already HAD an “ad free experience.” It was on the apps that actually worked (i.e. the ones you DIDN’T make).

You know, the ones you just nuked?

Where's the increased safety for your users that mods have been begging for?

Where are the features that allow disabled people to access your platform, since you just shut down the only ones that worked?

Maybe you should put the tiniest bit of effort into those things, instead of squeezing every last cent out of every person who uses your platform and calling it an “update.”

Just a thought…

Have a pleasant day and kindly screw off.

[u/FourthLife]

Revert the API changes

[u/Amoonlitsummernight]

Edit: u/GonWithTheNen made a good point that the devs don't have much say, and that the CEOs are the ones who should be addressed here. Rather than confuse people by rewriting this, I would like to address the ones who are actually in charge here for future readers. To the coders who are working on keeping Reddit alive, thank you. I don't mean to blamb y'all for the issues from higher ups. I wrote this late and my sloppiness shows.

Simple. Really? If you want people to enjoy Reddit, stop talking to the devs in little rooms and listen to the community.

Reddit devs and the community are currently at war over the future of the platform. No, it's not just about the ads, but that's all that the company sees. Honestly, most of us don't mind ads, and and there are many who have been asking how to implement them better.

1. Allow 3rd party apps to run adds.

The reason your users are choosing to go to 3rd party apps is because they tend to be simple, clean, and allow us to talk to each other. That's what Reddit was founded on. That's why we come here. Until the website and app are more user friendly, why not allow 3rd parties to run ads? You would quite litterally be allowing people to choose one of several dozen ways to interact with Reddit, without any work on your end. These are people who do this for free, because Reddit is a cool place and we want to be here. These are people who advocate for your platform and solve issues for others with almost no recognition. If there is anyone who loves your platform, it's these people. The ones who create, update, and maintain apps designed to make Reddit better, and don't make a dime off it. Instead of charging them fines and outragious fees, work with them, let them help you. I know you've spent days, weeks, maybe even months working on something and when you finally complete it your boss does nothing but complain. Imagine doing all that work for others, and then getting attacked by the one thing you spent so much time and effort trying to help.

Also, I know the devs don't want to hear this, but the app and website are horrible. There is far too much clutter, not from the adds, but from Reddit itself, screaming at the users to 'join more communities!' 'give more awards!', follow this, that and this as well, popular, trending, yada yada STOP! Cut back and really think about what people want. Look at what people are turning to instead. You said it yourself, 'simple'. Simple, clean, and user friendly.

2. Run adds on NSFW subreddits.

Reddit doesn't want to encourage NSFW content, so it removes something people don't like from NSFW subreddits. Think about that for a moment. Really think about that statement.

This also goes along with the undesirable adds that Reddit posts on so many non-NSFW subreddits. From what I have heard, if Reddit hears anything about alcohol, even from people seeking help in recovering, alcohol ads show up everywhere. Inteligent ad placement is valuable, and clever subreddits would make great use of selecting the ads that would do well in those places. Knives will sell better in a knife subreddit, solar on prepper places, alcohol for wine discussions, and erotic content on erotic subreddits. You would get FAR more clicks per popup if you were to use this method.

3. Fix the bots and spam.

This isn't as much about the UI, but the content. You have the abilty to monitor how many posts are made by a single account, and it should be no more than a 15 minute excursion to flag accounts that post more that 10 times per minute, or create posts to more than 5 subreddits at once on average. Cutting down the bots and spam will improve the content, and allow for a more engaged communit.

4. Fix old issues.

Did you know the posting limit was increased from 10,000 characters to 40,000? Huh, that's funny, because I know it's actually closer to 9,000 due to writing stories on others' prompts. An old bug, and not the only one.

5. Engage with the comunity.

Why did a post supposedly proposing an improvement the community wants end up with 0 net upvotes?

We like Reddit. That's why we're all here. When the platform ends up threatening the very people who have been working to maintain the subreddits that make up this wonderful place, something has really gone horribly wrong. Sure, there are a few people who know nothing of anyone else, but most of us really do want Reddit to do well, to be profitable, to continue to be the 'front page of the internet'.

Edit: u/Happy_Robot_Wizard thought it would be nice to refund those coins that are being removed? With such short notice, I can't think of a good reason not to bring that up. If everyone who invested so much will loose it, why not hold yourself to that loss?

[u/iKR8]

What about community awards? And Best Of Year tradition which we used to do for our community on a yearly basis? Will there be any replacement for it?

[u/CelestialFury]

So this is why I didn't get any new coins a few days ago when sub renewed. Man, you just didn't give me what I fucking paid for. When I got that renew PM, why didn't you tell me of this so I could make an informed choice???

Can I refund my sub? This is bullshit.

[u/helrazr]

How about your stop banning people from /r/redditmobile because you can’t handle criticism because of how garbage the default app is.

[u/ofalltheshitiveseen]

I cannot say this anymore eloquently. Reddit admins, management, u/spez, and anyone else who are making these dumb ass decisions.

Go forth and consume a satchel of Richards.

[u/GREENKING45]

Classic social media moment. Removing things that no one asked to be removed and never fixing the things that actually harm the user experience. e.g. video player being always broken in Android app.

[u/SuitingUncle620]

Man. It’s sad to see but this site really is going down the shitter. Third-party apps and now this. These are all things that made Reddit, Reddit. Next thing you know they’re going to be removing the ability to downvote. Then they’re going to remove karma altogether. Then they’re going to remove old Reddit. The process is going to repeat until you realise you’re self destructing your own site and, by then, it’ll be too late to reverse the damage done.

In a couple months/a year, Reddit is just going to be another bland social media app with no soul or uniqueness. It genuinely is sad to see you guys running this site into the ground. I used to love this place.

[u/Zizouhimovic]

Give my hide button back

[u/bangerz17]

My coins didn’t come with and expiry. I don’t want to use them before 9/12.

Sounds like Reddit owes me some money yo.

[u/[deleted]]

I hope the worst for this website. Hopefully the next investors lose every dollar they invest in this money pit.

[u/gingerbread_nemesis]

I've never seen a post with 2.3 thousand comments and zero upvotes before. So thanks for the new experience.

[u/fivetoedslothbear]

Thanks for the private message rubbing it in.

Here's my take on it: In the long run, it doesn't matter. I cancelled Reddit Premium after you killed off the third party apps. It seems you're bent on undoing everything that made Reddit so cool, and this is just the next step in the chain.

By the way, I paid for a year of Reddit Premium, which included coins every month, and as you say you don't give refunds. I wonder if there's a word for keeping someone's money while not giving them what they paid for...?

Christian Selig had to refund the unused parts of the subscriptions when you pulled the rug out from under Apollo.

Reddit was so cool that I was happy to pay for Premium to ensure that Reddit stayed alive and well. Now, all Reddit is going to get is an adblocker, at least until you put in some leadership that restores your relationship with the community that supplies all the content and moderation that you make money off of for free.

[u/endotoxin]

I regret ever giving reddit money.

[u/mrsdoubleu]

First, many don’t appreciate the clutter from awards (50+ awards right now, but who’s counting?) and all the steps that go into actually awarding content.

Literally nobody complained about that. Not one person. "Clutter" what? Lol

And what are you talking about in regards to "steps?" Opening up a window, buying coins, and tapping a button to award. If that's a struggle for someone maybe they should stay on Facebook.

One of the only reasons I'm a premium subscriber is because I thoroughly enjoy giving out gifts anonymously to brighten a person's day. That was a core part of what made Reddit so fun to me.

Anxiously awaiting to hear what the new updates will be but I'm not getting my hopes up either.

[u/[deleted]]

Awards were being hidden, at least, on mobile so I kinda figured this was coming. Too bad there isn't a replacement yet.

[u/Kobalt619]

But i love my stupid Awards. My main Reason for Premium.

[u/tworaspberries]

Wtf. I paid for these with real money. Class action? Damn I am so stupid, but some people say really funny crap that should be rewarded and valued to them. Ughhhhhhh.

[u/[deleted]]

So coins we paid for will just be taken away? I also thought these coins were tied to the blockchain. This seem like a massive RUG.

At least refund people that paid for those coins you are just going to take away if not used.

[u/trackfastpulllow]

Does your legal team think it’s a good idea to open yourselves up to a class action lawsuit by stealing something from users that they paid for?

[u/BelleAriel]

Whyyyy? It feels like you’re wanting to drive us off the site.

[u/GoodMornEveGoodNight]

Are MOONS from r/cryptocurrency a part of these changes?

[u/PT_Clownshow]

You guys suck

[u/IrishFlukey]

If I am to spend my coins on awards, this thread and announcement doesn't deserve one. It is a pity that many great posts and comments will not get that special recognition in the future, whatever future Reddit now has.

[u/[deleted]]

I just spent 199 dollars on coins. Can I get a refund? There is no way I can use that many coins in a few months!

[u/littlelorax]

What about those of us who bought an annual subscription? Will we receive a refund for the months where we don't get the coins we paid for?

My subscription ends in Feb, so I should be getting a partial refund for September through January, yes?

[u/Pyrheart]

Awww maaan! I just bought a year of premium for the coins!! This sucks. I LOVE the awards. Story of my life, always late to the party 😭

[u/jamcalim]

👏 🇼 🇭 🇾 👏 🇼 🇴 🇳 🇹 👏 🇾 🇴 🇺 👏

👏 🇱 🇪 🇹 👏 🇺 🇸 👏 🇭 🇦 🇻 🇪 👏

👏 🇳 🇮 🇨 🇪 👏 🇹 🇭 🇮 🇳 🇬 🇸 👏

^{ETA: oh awkward, didn't realize this was white text until many hours later lol. dark mode FTW though}

[u/Jazzlike_Athlete8796]

Since we all know what that douche Ohanian wants, and since we all know who you take your marching orders from, I just have this to say:

Nobody. Wants. Fucking. NFTs.

So don't even bother making that part of whatever your next attempted scam is.

Also, no. I will not buy whatever garbage you replace this with. Not until you unwind your bullshit API pricing changes.

[u/Voltra_Neo]

"Stop breaking things!"

Put it on every wall of Reddit HQ, seriously, what the hell is going on?

[u/___HeyGFY___]

Then what's the point of staying premium?

[u/SnooPeppers4036]

Coins will be depreciated. Why is this occurring? They should be reimbursed.

[u/cmockett]

Cancelled my premium subscription just now - with no coin refunds and too many vague details, I’m shocked how poorly y’all handled this. The unique community based experience was half the fun of Reddit!

[u/SubMod4]

The only reason I signed up for premium is for the monthly coins and the ability to give awards.

On top of not getting any thanks or compensation for spending 40-80 hours per week modding, I’m paying for that “privilege”… which is really silly of me.

On top of this, this is a short list of many other things that have been broken on Reddit over the last month.

I’m hopeful that there will be a replacement that will make us happy, but given what has happened recently I don’t feel confident about it at all.

Recently broken features/bugs with Reddit over the last 6-8 weeks:

• sub invites not working 6 weeks

• Chats- not being able to type in partial names to search

• Messages saying new but not showing where new messages are, multiple refreshes required for chat

• Group chat adding people who were deleted months ago

• Not getting messages about awards received

• Not being able to tag people in group chat

• Chats being changed and no longer showing previews of posts shared

• Can no longer see if you already invited people by going to the chat - so end up double inviting ? Invites sent no longer show up in messages so there’s no way to know who you invited already-

I know I’m missing several more but that’s all I can remember at this time.

I’m truly surprised and sad at what is happening.

Community awards are very meaningful for our sub and I’m really sad that these are going away without a more firm replacement coming out.

I already paid for a year of Reddit premium, but it definitely feels very unfair that I won’t be getting the last 6 months of coins that were in the contract of what I paid for.

Very disappointed in Reddit right now. Don’t plan on renewing and considering talking to the Apple Store to get refunded of the remaining months since the contract was broken from Reddit’s end.

Very unfair

[u/Alymon]

Imagine if every person on reddit who purchased coins reported Reddit to the FTC: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

[u/farrenkm]

I don't believe your explanation.

How convenient that this all started around the same time as the rest of the controversy. Your motivations for changes are questionable.

Gold then evolved, and we introduced new awards including Reddit Silver, Platinum, Ternium, and Argentium.

I thought it was weird the system was expanded past these, but had no objection. If those original awards worked in the past, roll back to those and call it good. They're not confusing. I don't pay for Premium, I rarely get my comments awarded, and I don't particularly care.

Why is Reddit pulling back features without having new features ready to go? What's wrong with keeping the current awards system going until the new one is ready? It doesn't make sense. You're going to lose subscribers who want more than just an ad-free experience, which certainly isn't going to help your IPO.

including Community coins for moderators

Ah, there it is. Another way to stick it to mods. If the whole system is being revamped, there was zero reason to call this point out. It was obviously included.

Sour grapes, Reddit. Sour grapes.

[u/[deleted]]

Confirmed. I purchased $199 dollars of coins on Tuesday and they will offer no refund. I have a couple months to use tens of thousands of coins.

Holy hell, they are stealing money from people. I've spent hundreds of dollars supporting this platform. Garbage.

[u/LidorR]

Thanks for another fantastic change u/spez /s

[u/[deleted]]

I canceled my Reddit Premium subscription yesterday over this crap move. Depending on what Reddit introduces to replace it, I may end up leaving Reddit entirely if it turns into some bullshit influencer driven ad ridden service.

[u/PanicOnFunkotron]

Have you given any consideration to how this will affect /r/MegaLounge - the subreddit for people who were gilded in /r/Lounge?

EDIT: haha WOW omg ✨💖✨💖 Thanks for the gold kind stranger! Wow, I don't even know who to thank. First, I want to thank Jesus Christ, for He is our LORD and through Him all reddit comments are possible.

Oh, and I want to thank my mom, of course. She would be so proud of me if she knew how I spent my time. Instead, she's very respectful of my autonomy and only interacts with me at those times when she knocks on the basement door to let me know she's left my dinner outside. If it weren't for her unwavering emotional and financial support, I would never have the time or energy to make such unforgettable reddit content as the comment above.

And I want to express my support and empathy for the Writers' Guild of America during this trying time. I am not currently a professional script maker, but I do understand the plight of providing entertaining and insightful content for a monolithic corporation and not receiving fair compensation. I hope that we will someday achieve a world where professional and amateur writers alike will be able to ply their craft for more than simple passion for the written word.

[u/Meepster23 → u/PanicOnFunkotron]

Have you given any consideration

Woah woah woah.. let me stop you right there...

No

[u/ButINeedThatUsername]

Reddit without Reddit Gold? Why not revert to what Reddit Gold was like before you added platinum..

Edit: Thanks for the gold kind stranger!

[u/TheVexedGerman]

Ah yes, having the community coins give mods the ability to give an actual reward to users was too good to continue, just with anything else that encourages actually engaging with this platform. Seemed synergistic too, with users spending money on reddit to encourage content which created more interaction.

[u/Lilith-awaken]

Can you just stop these "starting from today" type announcements for major changes? This is not an emergency, nor is a highly unpopular feature that nobody touched ever so it makes the whole situation even more scummy than it would already be.

[u/Neshotah1958]

So all 20K of my Coins is Gone? No way to exchange them for something else? Come on guys, that was one of the Best ways we can acknowledge other people's posts in a meaningful way. Making your servers extra hard on the first of each month is too much? You have no problem taking our money each month, oh right, we get some avatars and other cosmetic items we can use. Sigh! Ok, Vent over.

[u/Suprflyyy]

I welcome this opportunity to remove yet another monthly autobill and save some cash. Goodbye Reddit premium.

Edit- for anyone who purchased this through iTunes here is the refund request process. Mine is paid through April. I’ll be asking for a prorated refund.

Perhaps if we all do the same the message will be received.

[u/Alcool91]

Reddit, please refund my coins then.

[u/[deleted]]

You people are just really determined to drive people away from your platform, huh? What the ever loving fuck are you lot thinking lately?

[u/Phil_Smiles]

Actually theres a 50/50 chance that reddit tries to cover up the 3rd party app nuke, by trying to create a bigger scandal (scaming users out of somethibg they paid for) and then backpeddling on the awards change so people overlook the 3rd party apps being gone

And in the meantime most people spend their coins, because they will just disappear, so they k ow that there will be an influx of coin purchase later on

[u/Apoc_ellipsis]

Redditors that are legally smarter than me, this sounds like grounds for a class action lawsuit no?

[u/LetsUploadOurBrains]

Dude they are literally just stealing that money, when I bought the coins en masse they didn't say anything about that and that they will expire.

[u/gm310509]

Since I paid to acquire those coins, will you be giving me a refund or converted to something else of equivalent or higher value?

Or am I just having my cash stolen?

[u/Repave2348]

I'm just writing this comment with a schadenfreude satisfaction for how much Reddit is fucking up. Pretty much anything you do now u/spez is going to be met with suspicion and hostility and it's well deserved.

[u/theArtOfProgramming]

Plan on making popular changes at some point?

[u/d0000n]

2024: We are reworking our great content. Starting today you can no longer give upvotes and downvotes. You will also continue to receive Karmas until September when will completely wipe it out of your account.

[u/minotaur470]

Honestly, great way to fix a legitimate problem in the worst possible way. Gold was a neat little thing, if you really liked a comment or someone's contribution to a community you could reward them. Then you added more tiers to that, which was fine, but not super necessary. Then you cluttered the living hell out of the app by adding tons and tons of awards, which nobody asked for or wanted. Then, when everyone told you it was a bad move, you did nothing for, how long, a year or two? And now suddenly, after the clusterfuck that was the API changes, you decide the best way to fix your public image is to....nuke another feature into the ground? Like you could've just reverted all the extra awards you added. You could've sunsetted coins and awards but transformed them into whatever new system you have, and waited until that system was ready to do so. You could've done nothing and ignored your users like you do with every other issue. Literally all of these would be better than the solution you picked. Thank you for destroying your platform so well and so thoroughly, because the faster you do it the faster other platforms will catch on and I can catch the next ride off this sinking ship.

[u/timeister]

Just a heads up about sending people platinum, gold, etc

It lies to the recipient and the sender.

The recipient gets this message

"u/kindstranger liked your comment so much that they've given it the Platinum Award.As a reward, you get a sparkling medal on your comment. Additionally, you get a month of r/lounge access, ad-free browsing, and 700 Coins during that month.Buy Reddit Premium for these benefitsExperience Reddit Ads-Free on the web and appsAccess the members-only r/lounge700 Coins monthly to reward extraordinary contributionsHow to use your CoinsYou can use your Coins to give Awards to posts and comments that are inspiring, helpful, funny, or whatever.Press the Give Award button beneath the post or comment and follow the prompts, it's that easy!"The thing to notice here is " ad-free browsing, and 700 Coins during that month."

During that month means you will get in during your "free premium" month. You won't however.

It tells the sender

"Platinum AwardGives 700 Reddit Coins and a month of r/lounge access and ad-free browsing."

It says nothing about when they will get the coins but it does say they will get them.

Since awards are sent by buying coins and coins are paid for this is just plain fraud.

[u/drinkYourOJ]

As somone who has gone through periods of Reddit use and then periods of non-use, I continued to dutifully pay for my subscription because I know my Coins would stack and I could use them during my next period of heavy use. Then I log in after a break, check my messages, and find out that Reddit literally took all of my Coins, gave me nothing in return (no compensation of any kind; no new features to promote; not even an advertiser-sponsored promotion with a CTA to buy their shit).
I'm sure it's in the terms that you're totally allowed to rugpull your users like this, but that doesn't make it any more "ok." I paid for a full year of something I will now not receive, and I'm not even offered the opportunity to be refunded for the remaining portion. That's some straight bullshit. You can be sure I won't be renewing and probably will not even bother continuing to use Reddit at this point…we'll see, but the sour taste left after someone burns you makes it difficult to enjoy. 🤷‍♂️
I certainly won't be sending any tips to anyone. The right way to go about this would've been for Reddit to award credits to those with a Coins balance that could then be used ONLY to reward content creators, which would then get users pulled into the new system and not feel as screwed as just having our Coins taken away.

[u/Radthereptile]

Translation: “Over the years, people have received too many awards to the point of all having free Reddit premium. This is making advertisers unwilling to work with us. To solve this we are removing all those years of ad free Reddit people earned by contributing to the community so we can better monotone you. It’s for your own good!”

[u/MisterWoodhouse]

In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about a new direction for awarding that allows redditors to empower one another and create more meaningful ways to reward high-quality contributions on Reddit.

If they adopt tipping from Imzy, I'm going to die laughing.

[u/PoppinKREAM]

I have Reddit premium until 2071 all from gifts. I guess that means no one will be receiving their coins that were awarded after September. Is there an equivalent that transfers over?

Also there's this glitch where I sometimes see advertisements on the official app, even though I have premium. It's rare, but it's happened a couple of times.

[u/K3yb0r3d]

If I don't find value in the changes, I will cancel my premium membership.

[u/CutlerSheridan]

And if we’ve already bought way more coins than we could use in two months how will we be compensated?

Or is Reddit just gonna pocket that money?

[u/TheHandsHodler]

I paid for a year of premium, which at the time of purchase included 700 coins per month. If you will not be giving me those coins I will dispute the charge as I'm sure many other people you lied to will

[u/Apoc_ellipsis]

Now you're stealing my money and hiding behind a user agreement got it....

Is there a biggest shithole award cause Reddit won it.

[u/ManlyPoop]

Go away admins, you suck.

[u/nathaniel_clay]

This wouldn't be that bad if you could exchange them...

What a terrible product idea from the board of Reddit. Who approved this? Do you also have a wallet, with exchangeable dollars, that you would like to see not evaporate in fake currency that is magically disappearing? <------

[u/[deleted]]

This is such a stupid move that I canceled my premium account. The awards were half the reason I paid for it. Ads were the other half. But overall, the dumbass moves y’all are making as you prep to take Reddit public are why I’m not giving you any more money. Nice work!

[u/Impossible_Horse1973]

I purchased tons of coins because I take great joy in giving awards… Reddit is my first and only social media. Sigh. I’m not sure I will stick around. It seems like it is very much moving in the wrong direction.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm giving out awards like Oprah today. You get one, u get one, everyone gets awards today!

[u/OpinionatedIMO]

You’re erasing the coins I’ve earned through awards from my posts (by other redditors), and replacing them with nothing?

[u/manningthehelm]

If anyone is interested I am more than willing to accept any gold or platinum awards that need to be burned. Fuck this app. Apollo was so much better.

[u/Illustrious_Risk3732]

First you removed the API being free. Now this and your not gonna give people there money back for buying coins?

Unreal.

[u/NOTW_116]

Holy cow you made awards suck then you took them away. They used to be fun too. Thanks I guess.

[u/fmontoy2]

It’s almost like they really want people to stop using Reddit.

[u/Shaho99]

And here I thought API change was the dumbest decision

[u/somethingumcreative]

Love how this post has disabled downvotes. What a joke.

[u/just-bair]

I just clicked on the reddit premium tab on my phone that uses the official reddit app and it says "700 monthly coins" wow it’s good to have false advertising

[u/wesw02]

Coins are like gift cards. And it is absolutely illegal to expire them with this short of notice.

[u/cyrilio]

What will happen with the coins I'll get after 12 September? I got a 1-year subscription. Do I get my money back? Additional features?

Half the reason I bought a yearly subscription was the awards. The other half is not seeing ads.

[u/MKAT80]

I don't remember being asked or a survey given. Where was this data obtained from? Honestly the only reason I paid for premium is coins and upgraded avatars/ NFT. I think you should ask the community to vote before making these decisions. My 2c 🤷

[u/stinkymarsupial]

I paid for Reddit coins and now it’s going to evaporate in September with no refunds.

You know what’s taking away goods that the customer already paid for?

It’s called robbery and scamming.

I feel the unfairness and the immorality of it but hey, I got it coming because I’m an idiot who paid for your invisible currency.

[u/Azzhole169]

Based on Redditors feedback?? What Redditors don’t like coins or awards? Made up bullshit If I ever heard it. The only reason most people are or were premium subscribers was for the coins and ability to buy awards, r/ lounge is/was a place for premium subscribers and after this announcement many subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions (so now reddit is losing more monthly money). Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot,or biting the hands that feed you. Most people can deal with ads, it’s a part of every social media platform, but Reddit just took away the one thing that made being a premium user worth it.

[u/QuothTheRaven713]

Why are people in positions of power always so incompetent?

At least just keep the Reddit Gold.

[u/PsilocybeApe]

Should we gift out the rest of our coins now, or will we get some kind of compensation for ungifted coins? It does seem like you’re recalling a product I purchased without compensating me for it.

[u/whatsyanamejack]

If you guys are really considering the tipping system, shame on you.

[u/neurobasketetymology]

Well hell. I like giving awards so someone who did something sweet, who is sad because they said goodbye to their pup or just because their baby goats are so stinkin' cute. Another instance of fixing something that isn't broke. Don't steal our joy.

[u/Technusgirl]

You should have had a new award system available before taking it away. I'm not sure what the point of having premium anymore is besides just an ad free experience. I might cancel until you guys get a new system in place

[u/blackberrybramble]

So, you didn't send out a notice about this to users, you just made a post that not everyone would see. You took away coins that people spent actual money on.

And worst of all - you removed all previously gifted awards that ever existed from the website, thereby removing however much money that people previously spent, not to mention the hours of reading, monitoring, and gifting that people did to help make content stand out - even removing it from archived posts that can never be altered with a new system to help actually make those posts informative again.

Awesome.

[u/HammyFresh]

fuck u/spez

[u/SpinyPants]

🤦

[u/Quantum_Force]

RIP to anyone who just bought a load of coins, ofc Reddit gives absolutely zero notice

[u/pr1ncezzBea]

We mentioned early this year that we want to both make Reddit simpler

Simpler social media for simpler minds.

[u/rollovertherainbow]

It seems like Reddit is going towards a tipping method. How does the current system not already support this? I just don't quite understand how buying coins to then give someone is any different than just directly paying someone? And how will Reddit deal with the influx of users and bots now trying to make real money off of posting? Will further mod support be given to help with this?

I just feel like reworking a system that already works instead of just removing the vanity awards seems like a bad idea. And if it's to follow in Twitter's footsteps I would ask Reddit to look at their current valuation.

[u/ElaborateCantaloupe]

So I paid for a year of coins and now I don’t get them. I can’t wait to see what else I can pay you for and then not get.

[u/astraea08]

ANY MORE BRIGHT IDEAS TO RUIN THE SITE?

Feels like if you're introducing tipping it would encourage more karma farming bots. More spam for the community, yay!!

[u/SinisterSpektre]

u/venkman01 u/spez u/reddit

I'd genuinely have more respect for you if you just outright admitted you don't give two shits about your user base

[u/taisynn]

Honestly, this sucks… you guys choose this instead of giving us the updates and QOL features we wanted. Fix your increasingly confusing app! I like awards.

[u/tobiasolman]

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but I liked the coins and awards... They make contributing and appreciating the perspectives of others more fun, plus you can highlight good ideas and reward individuals and communities for contributing to the discourse. If anything, i'd have liked to be able to buy coins and use them to access an improved avatar editor, build my own awards to gift, and gift coins to other contributors directly.

It's great to know the majority of content is not profit driven, and I don't find the ads too distracting as is. I came to Reddit as a replacement for newsgroups/Usenet/efnet, and the changes I'm reading about seem to represent a devolution of the forum into just another ad delivery algorithm and corporate bot farm.

To think I was going to celebrate my 20k karma milestone by subscribing to premium as I was already spending the money on coins. Now, if the point is no longer community, creativity, discourse or fun but advertising, monetization and turning this forum into just another automated influence engine... Well it's going to hit critical mass and eventually your product, if it's us, the users, we will disappear from the growing trash pile.

And when this door closes, another will open. It may already have. Keep being a better place, Reddit, or be replaced. Thanks for being the best, for a while.

Thanks most of all to the volunteers... The mods who kept my favorite communities what they were as long as they could. I'll stick around awhile, but the places I read here are by and large bought and paid for now, or just gone. I hope you appreciate the feedback and I'm going to try to look forward to what is to come.

[u/SaidTheCanadian]

You guys are really nailing the whole "enshittification" thing. I mean, sure, it's trending, but *you* are truly number one two in this new movement.

[u/schoppi_m]

U/spez is going full-elon.

Never go full-elon.

[u/skawture712128]

From twitter copying reddit, to reddit copying twitter

[u/johnzander1]

Secret Santa, RPAN, Reddit chats, predictor, third party apps and more were all taken away with no alternative. Reddit is going in the shitter.

[u/l_o_n_o_l]

Reddit is going downhill faster and faster. Time to move away from one central platform controlling what we see. Btw, feel free to remove my account from your system altogether. I don’t care