The new system to replace Reddit coins and awards is here. You got out at the right time.

Bucky@816am.ddns.net to Reddit@lemmy.world – 1364 points –
Community Points - Own a Piece of Your Community
reddit.com

Read all about it at the above link. There's way too much to process here. This is going to be wild.

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Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

The way to be independent of Reddit is by having a token on a blockchain maintained by Reddit?

Also an odd statement from a company that just strong armed a bunch of communities into either conforming or having their leaders replaced.

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Holy shit.

I did not expect the next wave of new users on Lemmy to be happening this soon.

Batten down the hatches mateys. Tharrr be a storm brewin' ☠️ 🏴‍☠️💀

New LemmyFediverse boi since the Great Purge; this is seriously happening again, already? Glad I got out when I did. Compared to the old place, experiencing and interacting with Lemmy is like a calming dip in the Great Link (not a Changeling honest)

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Me neither. How long till old.reddit.com goes away? That was supposed to be the next big spike in the Lemmy growth curve.

I can't believe I read that whole thing. I take that back, I can't believe Reddit actually thought this was a good idea and put it out into the world.

Well in January I believe they told third party app developers that they weren't going to charge for the API this year (but that someone was in the works). Then May I believe is when reneged on that? June? I know the charging went into effect on July 1.

In May/June Spez said that old Reddit wasn't going anywhere. So we can extrapolate ~October for them to announce it's ending, and then it being killed by the end of the year.

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Guys, you missed the block chain boat, this isn't going to save your IPO

They'll do something with AI in 3 years or so, if they still exist.

Y’all heard about that Web 2.0 thing?

Although I'm not in any way aware or alive when that was happening back then - that ".com bubble" blast I think? - I surmise that was a real crash-and-burn phenomenon, McKinstry's "CR6" internet show being one of its casualties, despite its significance in online emergent media history.

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Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence or control anything of value.

That's hilarious, when they literally just trapped users in their app and killed 3rd party apps.

In case anyone's confused about what this is all about:

$5/month per community

It's easy to miss, but they snuck in that Special Memberships (subreddit subscriptions, which unlock badges and emojis and stuff) cost $5 a month per subreddit, outside of Reddit Premium. You can also spend 1000 Community Points, but if you don't have the balance and want the benefits, you'll be giving reddit money.

It feels like reddit has come to understand how much closer redditors feel to their communities than reddit as a whole - reddit is hated, but users still cling to their communities. A sitewide Reddit Premium badge is irrelevant, even repugnant and a badge of shame, but special flairs and features in close knit communities are still desirable.

This is reddit exploiting their users' relationships with their communities with a stackable 5 buck alternative to Reddit Premium.

Probably the only smart thing Reddit has done all year. All you have to do is invent some sort of perk for a community and put it behind a monthly paywall. Make it a pooled system with a goal and peer pressure will get you more subs. Discord has been making bank on this concept for a while now.

If they can leverage subreddit tribalism, it might have even have more potential than Discord, which isn't nearly as interconnected. Or it would have, if they hadn't hitched this to the blockchain.

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In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

Is this a fucking joke

Reading this: are they implementing ActivityPub?

Blockchain

Oh sweet lord, no. No, they are not.

Someone at Reddit had Blockchain missing in their buzzword bingo for 2023, I swear.

I think that's their point, to sound like the Fediverse but is actually a different way for them to get money and control the narrative. They're also possibly trying to take away shutting down shitty sites "by giving the communities control."

Like, they're giving users monopoly money, and try to pass it off as control. Like, the fuck are they gonna do with the monopoly money?

Plus imagine if users actually believe the monopoly money is important. We're back on the days of BB Forums where you can make a factual point but oops, you're level 2 and the forum regular (4506 posts) just called you a cocksucker.

Edit: Oh god, the moderator wallet thing. They're letting moderators moderate themselves. This is going to set off a massive amount of infighting as some admins will take the whole wallet and the other moderators will call them out and the seriousness of the whole thing (moderation teams not getting along) will get drowned out with all the people shitposting about fighting for monopoly money.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read.

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So long as you have Reddit Mobile installed since your vault is tied to it

That’s been their mission ever since they bought and killed alien blue and released a pile of shit in its place. They can’t make a good app so have been slowly tying more and more exclusive features to it, and to new Reddit, hoping that this new shiny useless thing that no one asked for or wanted will get people to use it. I think with interest rates rising, their investors are looking for profits higher than t bills and so this trend that has been going on for the past few years is now kicked into overdrive.

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Glanced over it. Complete word salad. Corporate nonsense: baffle them with bullshit.

You get points from communities. These points are stored on the block chain, because why not? The points themselves come from reddit, but the communities distribute them. Since they're on the block chain, reddit can't take back your magic bean points or whatever once you get them. Nevermind that they're worthless and that reddit controls the only platform that they're even remotely useful on.

For now, Reddit will cover gas costs for distributing Points to users and allowing them to spend Points on features such as Special Memberships.

Emphasis mine. Someone has to pay for it, because that's how the block chain works. For now it's Reddit. In the future? Who knows!

How does this benefit the consumer? It doesn't, really. Potentially it gives posters more control over a subreddit, but looks like mods will still hold essentially all the power when it comes to a subreddit, which is how it works now.

How does this benefit reddit as a business? It doesn't, really. They're handing out magic beans with the selling point being that they can't take them away from you once you get them. It costs them money to do this, because it's on the block chain as opposed to some in-house database. This replaced coins, right? They killed an income stream and replaced it with an expense.

They get to tell investors that they're into the block chain when they launch their IPO, I guess. All I can say is buyer beware. Chances are high the powers that be unload their stock options in the IPO hype and then get the hell out of dodge. They might have waited too long, though. The tech bubble deflated, and I don't know if the books are impressive enough to draw in the big bucks from investors.

If you want genuine control over your community, start one on the Fediverse and self-host an instance. No admins will kick you off since you're your own admin and head mod rolled into one.

its main value to the owners is that it is a more direct means of controlling user behavior.. once they get people used to "real" rewards, they can better use the platform as a means of controlling discourse.. which is why the Mukser is doing it on the other thing, and where they got the idea..

they're trolls.. they want to use it to troll harder..

Thank you for making this more understandable. It really feels like a "the people who pay us more will have a louder voice" and I am grossed out, if that's the case.

Yeah, I had missed the $5 per month per community part, which does basically boil down to that.

They’re handing out magic beans with the selling point being that they can’t take them away from you once you get them.

And that's not even true in any practical sense. If reddit decides that the token in your crypto wallet is invalid, then it'll stop working on reddit. And since they're the only issuer every possible use is going to be tied to reddit in some sense.

How does this benefit reddit as a business? It doesn't, really

$5/month per community

You may have missed it, but they snuck in that Special Memberships (subreddit subscriptions, which unlock badges and emojis and stuff) cost $5 a month per subreddit, outside of Reddit Premium. You can also spend 1000 Community Points, but if you don't have the balance and want the benefits, you'll be giving reddit money.

It feels like reddit has come to understand how much closer redditors feel to their communities than reddit as a whole - reddit is hated, but users still cling to their communities. A sitewide Reddit Premium badge is irrelevant, even repugnant and a badge of shame, but special flairs and features in close knit communities are still desirable.

This is reddit exploiting their users' relationships with their communities with a stackable 5 buck alternative to Reddit Premium.

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As blockchain tokens

Thanks I read enough.

Hey.... Hey boss. I got an offer for ya. How would you like a crypto that you cannot take off of reddit! Only exists on Reddit. And gives you "exposure."

"All the downsides of any other cryptocurrency, and like all the other ones, none of the upsides! It's redditcoin!" *crowd jeers, C-suites look confused*

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You should continue reading. It's a comedy gold mine.

Ok truthfully I read more, but that's where I was like "That's not going to fly"

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" In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away"

WTF???!?! They literally just took communities away from the members because they were protesting Reddit intentionally degrading their site....

Freaking hilarious. You have to be a complete idiot to swallow all that bullshit.

Huffman is using the same strategy as his idols; just blatantly lie. It's far harder to refute lies than it is to lie.

I wouldn't think for a second that Spez has any self awareness. He's like those fuckers that recently docked their party boat where it clearly wasn't supposed to be. It's a false sense of entitlement.

I was going to comment the same thingg

I mean, ok you want to launch your new feature but after all the chaos that just happened they could at least phrase it differently ahah

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Nice to see that reddit started to advertise for lemmy / kbin. 🤣

I read that and thought "This can't be real. This is too on the nose." then I read the rest and had to check the URL to make sure it's not a joke, because it reads like one big joke.

If you read just the next section that's where the other shoe drops. Blockchain. It's blockchain of course it's blockchain because everyone there has tech bro brain rot.

Community Points

Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities. They are earned by making contributions to the community, like creating content and moderating. They not only represent ownership and reputation within the community, but can also be used for community governance, moderation, and unlocking premium features. They can even be used in custom tools outside of Reddit and on other platforms.

Most importantly, Community Points are a flexible tool that each community can shape to its needs. Each community has its own Points that it can customize with its own name, symbol, distribution rules, and uses. Every community has its own needs and we expect each to use Points differently and in novel ways that help take them to the next level.

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Guaranteed that people smarter than the reddit staff will exploit their processes or code to cause mayhem and chaos.

100% guaranteed.

I can hardly wait for someone to find a vulnerability in their blockchain implementation that allows community points to execute arbitrary code.

After watching the literally insane ACE that speedrunners have been able to figure out, I'm pretty sure you're hitting the nail on the head. Someone is going to get up to some serious skulduggery with this one.

Is this old, or just something that has been in the works for a long time? No one is talking about it on Reddit, so I'm pretty sure that it is old information. This is a post about it from three years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CommunityPointsHelp/comments/gj779g/reddit_community_points_faq_guides_multiple/

Good catch, I think we've been bamboozled ladies and gentlemen. Well played OP

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So it's basically Reddit NFTs. Let's just call it as it is.

It is time for them to take back ownership and control. It is time for a change.

Lol. You're still on Reddit. You're not controlling shit.

As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities.

You don't own it, it's made by Reddit, distributed by Reddit, and only useful on Reddit and not anywhere else. What's the meaning of decentralization and ownership if it's only useful in one place?

Yes but "NFT" has been exposed for what it is, a bag holder scam, so now they're trying to rebrand.

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So you get points for posting and for moderating. It's this literally being "paid in exposure"? Don't we joke about this all the time how worthless it is?

Oh God, now they've actually monetized all the repost bots. It's like they WANT their site to turn into a bot hellhole.

Well, they kinda do. They don't have to be human to look like users from the outside.

Looking at this screams that they're planning to cut and run, though. It's arson for the insurance money. Nobody would look at this longterm and think it was going to turn out well

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A crypto scam? All this was building to a crypto scam? They burned Reddit to the ground to pump some shitty Redditcoin going into the IPO?

I expect nothing and I'm still let down.

Is there even anything new here? Everything mentioned in the OP link has been a thing on Reddit in a few communities for a couple of years now.

Edit: I just checked Wayback Machine, this page hasn't changed since it was first published in 2021.

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They could still pull another Twitter move and change the name to something like fukit or whatever.

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It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens

Lmao how can they say that with a straight face

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Lmao

Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence

Trapped in apps like the official Reddit app? Because they ruined 3rd party apps? What are they sniffing over there, the trapping of communities is their own doing.

I'm done with reddit, so either way I don't really care. Tbh I don't think this will necessarily be a dumpster fire. It might even be interesting, depending on the specifics of this implementation. It's probably fueled by higher ups hearing hype words like blockchain. My expectation is that things will mostly just continue as normal, but now the management and CEO's etc can masturbate to the idea of having a blockchain application.

In order for contributors to claim the Points they have earned, they need to create a Vault within the Reddit mobile app.

“Free from apps! …also you’ll need our app for this.”

"And we just killed all the other apps last month because... Uh, because we don't want you trapped inside apps. Yes, that's it. So use our worse app, which only accesses what was previously our mobile website, to avoid being trapped inside of apps. Yes! Very double plus good!"

It's time for communities to take back ownership and control says company that just took away ownership and control from communities.

This was the most baffling statement. They literally just took control of some subreddits weeks ago. Do they really lack any self awareness?

They have full self awareness. They know they're lying out the ass. They're lying and laughing at users as they write this doublespeak because they know that the userbase that stayed through the last fiasco will stay through any fiasco. This is their way of publicly shitting on their userbase. They're making the power structure perfectly clear to anyone smart enough to actually think about it. They're saying "We're in charge. We don't owe you anything, not even honesty. We own this platform. We will lie to your face and you'll pay us for it. We know you'll never leave, so we think it's funny to abuse you."

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Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms,

How ironic... Reddit trying to lock me in was the exact reason why I stopped being active there....

My god, that copy makes me want to vomit. It reads like it was written by an executive in a coke bender.

Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

I can almost hear the zoom call they brainstormed this shit in. This is some PragerU level slime. “Crypto Currency will grant users autonomy that they would otherwise never possess!” Right, anything that can’t be bought has no value. Oh THANK YOU for creating this system where everything is tied to crypto, so we can experience real community again! Finally my voice can be heard. Not like that horrible, communistic, voting system that counts every user equally.

In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

Oh, fuck off.

Translation: "look, if very profitable Nazis join our platform and harass users in very profitable ways there's nothing we can do about it because Blockchain."

Right? Like someone actually wrote that.

After what Spez did. A few weeks ago. Fuck, maybe Spez himself wrote it.

I know we lost and the protests failed, but still, to write something like that... Doesn't actually surprise me, but also I'd think even a total moron would have enough self awareness not to say that.

Protests didn't lose. They made lots of people leave who never would have.

I was a mod. Now Reddit doesn't have my free work anymore. Fuck em.

They planned on implementing a change, and we protested that change, but users and mods gave in and that change happened anyway. The protest failed.

You can reframe that all you want, but we did not accomplish the actual objective of the protest, which was changes to API pricing. We lost.

I was a mod too. A very active user too. I left. And I'm happy I left, but that's just being happy that defeat doesn't taste nearly so bitter because there are viable alternatives.

Defeat? Do you think a forum exists independent of its users? If so, Spez has already brainwashed you.

Reddit can 100% make any changes they want to their site. That doesn't mean they win. Digg did the same the same thing and flopped. Myspace did what they wanted and flopped.

Users determine what wins by their presence. Do not give a fuck about Reddit.

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Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities. [...] They can even be used in custom tools outside of Reddit and on other platforms.

How the fuck would this work, I wonder? I tried to read through some but it makes little sense to me. It sounds like putting karma on blockchain and making it into a currency acting as reddit gold.

Rest is just regular cryptobro talk formulated so that Reddit looks like it cares about communities - or am I missing something?

I don't think you're missing anything.

It's just tradable karma on the blockchain.

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I like how they stripped communities from their members during the protest but now they are all like "Oh yea... members should own their communities!"

We owned our communities during the protest but they didn’t like that.

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Yeah... It's about "freeing yourself from Reddit's control"

Image

I mean, I'm not totally opposed to the idea of rewarding users in a decentralized way but speaking of freedom and decentralization on a platform that really gives a shit about values is pure hypocrisy.

That sounds lucrative: buy Reddit shitcoin, participate in one of the large subs and have a non-rule-breaking comment get you arbitrarily sitebanned as they often do, and Reddit keeps your shitcoin.

Maybe it really is permanently tied to your "vault address" and maybe it's not, but you won't ever know because now you're forever locked out of your Reddit shitcoin vault.

Nice work if people are naïve enough to play the game, I suppose.

"you deserve to be free from Reddit's oppressive thumb, and this system will let you do just that!"

"What if I piss the mods or admins off?"

"Ha get fucked"

Earn points through generating content and moderation? Okay, sure, why not?

Use those points to weigh votes in community governance? Suuuure, okay I can see how that could be cool.

The points are on the blockchain? Uh… so what’s stopping rich assholes from buying up points and using their capital to take over communities?

If the points are non-transferable then I can see the merit of a points system… but then why would you need a blockchain at all? It’s all still a closed off walled garden despite what they are pitching.

Or just create bots to farm community points and then you don't even have to pay that much at all.

If you get downvoted that means less points at the end of the month so you better conform.

That’s no different to now with Karma. And it seems like this new model doesn’t give them any real money so what’s the incentive to contribute at all?

This system basically encourages karma-whoring reposting behavior that slowly turns Reddit into a TikTok mirror. What could go wrong?

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so what’s stopping rich assholes from buying up points and using their capital to take over communities?

Oh silly boy/girl, that's exactly why it's set up that way. :D

JK. Seriously, though, I doubt reddit cares where the funds come from. Pretty short-sighted to me, tbh. When money takes over, I wonder how redditors will react.

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Yeah it's not the worst idea in theory but implementation needs to be perfect. Even if they don't allow token transfers I feel like this will make power users even more powerful without some kind of forced regulation. A repost bot could get the lion's share of tokens and take over governance.

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Reddit is talking about decentralization and stuff like that like they aren't a centralized platform themselves. Giving control to the community, but remember if we don't like what you're doing with your communities we'll threaten your moderation team!!!

Complete corporate happy-go-lucky fake unawareness, gaslighting, no shame, but even feels like they are just saying this to humiliate the people who understand what it really means and banking on the memorilessness of their cattle...is there a word for this?

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"It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online."

So, literally the fediverse ?

Yeah, the first section made me expect they were going to say "Which is why we're shutting down and recommending users migrate to Lemmy".

Of course it's some crypto bullshit for investors.

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LMAO ITS BLOCKCHAIN

we called it, reddit goes fucking crypto bro

Everybody knew the second he started talking to Musk. Burn it down to chase off everyone but the farthest right whose only concern with a platform is not getting banned for the n word, then load it up with buzz words they don't understand but will worship anyway.

Haven't they been crypto bros for years now? The Avatars have been blockchain NFTs for a hot long minute.

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Okay but "In order for contributors to claim the Points they have earned, they need to create a Vault within the Reddit mobile app. When a user creates their Vault, they will receive the Points that they have earned up to 24 weeks (~6 months) before. Points earned but not claimed within 24 weeks will expire." So... Yes, it definitely was about getting everyone to use the shitty app. This is their second wave of that. And also "Moderators receive their Community Points at the beginning of the following distribution cycle. The actual amount of Points they receive depends on how many Points were distributed to users' Vaults in the previous cycle." They are trying to rope in the mods to convince people to join the app.

Wonder what kind of wild exploitation someone is going to come up with, because rest assured this is going to happen.

Most mods who actually cared were purged and replaced with lackeys which I'd bet money on were checked to see if they use the official app.

The new and current mods won't be a problem. They'll happily eat this bullshit straight from the trough.

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communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

uuuuh

They are trying to win us back by... gaslighting.

Hey, no baby, I didn't just ban some mods because they refused to do what I said, no way baby, I respect you too much for that! Now, you're going to stop dating that lemmy guy and come back to me, right? You know I love you. You know I would never ban a subreddit unless they broke the site wide rules, right? You need me, you know it's true.

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we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way

they have shown us that their goal is profit, not user experience, you can never believe them

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This reads like the propaganda of a MLM church.

Yes, get the internet back to the people, with money, but we don't call it money. Also you were free to go and do what you want but we took this away, see you're restricted, but now we give this option back, well ...only partly because now it's soaked with money, we mean community NFTs. Isn't this fucking exciting!!!!?? We make a shit ton of money, I mean... You will make money! Yeah! Get into the group!

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Instant eyeroll when I got to 'blockchain'.

I don't even understand the problem they are trying to solve? The only way we are 'second-class citizens' is how the reddit admins treat their users.

Instant eyeroll when I got to 'blockchain'.

Haha, same. These tech bros just keep recycling the same bad ideas.

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Can someone copy/paste it? I refuse to visit Reddit and give them views.

Introduction

It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online.

The Future of Online Communities

Communities are the lifeblood of the Internet. They are the places where magic happens online — where people meet others like themselves, think and talk about the same things, and laugh at the same jokes. From newsgroups and chatrooms and forums, communities have always been the centers of the Internet that draw people in.

But online communities are much more limited than their counterparts in the real world. In the real world, communities are independent entities, free to choose where and how they hang out. No one tells them what to do or where to go.

Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence or control anything of value. This limitation makes them second-class citizens, unable to chart their own destiny on the Internet. It is time to put communities in their rightful place as the foundation of the Internet.

It is time for them to take back ownership and control. It is time for a change.

Community Points

Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities. They are earned by making contributions to the community, like creating content and moderating. They not only represent ownership and reputation within the community, but can also be used for community governance, moderation, and unlocking premium features. They can even be used in custom tools outside of Reddit and on other platforms.

Most importantly, Community Points are a flexible tool that each community can shape to its needs. Each community has its own Points that it can customize with its own name, symbol, distribution rules, and uses. Every community has its own needs and we expect each to use Points differently and in novel ways that help take them to the next level.

In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

What the fuck lmao you can't make this shit up 🤣🤣

They literally admitted the problem, but they're doubling down on siphoning even more money from their users instead

It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online.

This has big "Landed Gentry" energy to it. These people really do think we're fucking morons, don't they?

That's on point. Steve Huffman said openly in an interview last year that he expects the collapse of society in the next couple decades, and that he will be one of "the leaders and not one of the slaves."

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lmao that is embarrassing

sadly spez will still make millions from the IPO before he abandons ship, so I guess in the end he still 'wins' at the expense of the users

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Here you go

The Future of Online Communities

Communities are the lifeblood of the Internet. They are the places where magic happens online — where people meet others like themselves, think and talk about the same things, and laugh at the same jokes. From newsgroups and chatrooms and forums, communities have always been the centers of the Internet that draw people in.

But online communities are much more limited than their counterparts in the real world. In the real world, communities are independent entities, free to choose where and how they hang out. No one tells them what to do or where to go.

Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence or control anything of value. This limitation makes them second-class citizens, unable to chart their own destiny on the Internet. It is time to put communities in their rightful place as the foundation of the Internet.

It is time for them to take back ownership and control. It is time for a change.

Community Points

Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities. They are earned by making contributions to the community, like creating content and moderating. They not only represent ownership and reputation within the community, but can also be used for community governance, moderation, and unlocking premium features. They can even be used in custom tools outside of Reddit and on other platforms.

Most importantly, Community Points are a flexible tool that each community can shape to its needs. Each community has its own Points that it can customize with its own name, symbol, distribution rules, and uses. Every community has its own needs and we expect each to use Points differently and in novel ways that help take them to the next level.

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"It is time for them to take back ownership and control." Funny that this is coming from Reddit. Actually more like ironic.

It says you get them by contributing, so like 10 people are going to own 80% of all the coins on Reddit.

10 repost bots will own all the coins

Honestly if the coins are tradable on an online market for real money, I'll also be setting up repost bots. Might as well make money while you can.

That is absolutely hilarious. Yeah Reddit, I totally buy that you want internet communities to not depend on platforms like Reddit. This would be totally monetizeable for you, not that you care about monetization and not that monetization has proven to work at cross-purposes with making good internet websites/communities. And once you mentioned blockchain, well that's when I recognized the subliminal cues suggesting a well-thought-out proposal that positively impacts the world.

EDIT: Ugh just saw that again, they just linked an old post, this one apparently from 2021. I don't think it changes things much insofar as they're presumably planning to replace awards with something and this proposal presumably describes it. But I already didn't see them successfully implementing the thing as written, and knowing now that it's from 2021 it just makes me more certain that whatever they roll out is unlikely to be exactly what's described here.

I'd say knowing this was written two years ago makes the text less hilariously on-the-nose but that depends on whether they'd write something different today doesn't it, I'm not sure they wouldn't.

3 questions:

  1. Does reddit think their users are complete morons?
  2. Are they right?
  3. Where can I get checked if I have accidentally consumed at least ten times the daily recommended dose of buzzwords?
  1. Absolutely

  2. Probably on average for the remaining users.

  3. You have. Please seek solace.

wow, thats impressivly tone deaf. "break free from walled communities, with our walled community! you will be free to do what you want with your community points, inside this one community you cant remove the points from!"

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They're not NFTs, NFTs are bad, no these token are called Community Points! Totally different than NFTs!

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I'm pretty happy not going to any Reddit links, I'll get it from the comments here.

And the FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Reddit doing this?

Reddit is built on tools that empower the community to be creative. We believe that Community Points can be a very useful and very powerful tool that communities own. We are excited to see what communities do with it!

Isn't crypto terrible for the environment?

Not all crypto is the same. Different blockchains work in different ways, with different amounts of energy consumption. In our case, Community Points is built on a network that leverages the is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which is upgrading to a new version that uses 99.95% less energy.

In addition, our project does not run on the Ethereum blockchain directly. We run on a "layer 2" scaling network, which further reduces energy consumption and lowers costs. In general, as crypto technology evolves, we expect it will become more efficient in order to scale to more users.

Why didn't I get Points?

Go to your subreddit and look for the most recent post from u/CommunityPoints.

If the post ends in "Proposal" then Points will be distributed one week after that post was made. You'll know it's distribution day when a new post is made saying "New [Points] Are Ready!" Hang on, they'll be out soon!

If the post says "New [Points] Are Ready", open the post and download the CSV inside. You can open this in any text editor or spreadsheet software. Do a search for your username and see if it is in there.

If your name is not in this list, you either did not earn positive karma in the community because of downvotes or penalties from the rules in the community.

Keep in mind that your own votes don't give you karma.

You may also have been excluded if you were banned from the community or banned from Reddit at the time the distribution was proposed.

If your name is in the list, you should receive Points. Open your Vault and look for a card that starts with "Claiming Your Points".

If you have not created a Vault yet, you can create one by going to "Vault" in the left drawer of the Reddit mobile app.

If you do see the card in your Vault, we are still sending Points out to everyone. Please wait at least 24 hours after the "New [Points] Are Ready" post before filing a ticket in case there are delays.

If you do not see the "Claiming Your Points" card, it's possible your Points are being sent to an old Vault of yours. Have you created or recovered a Vault recently? Check the address ("0x…") of the Vault in Vault Settings and try to match it with the address in the CSV.

If the address number does not match, your Points were sent to an old Vault that was active when the distribution was originally proposed. If you can still recover that old Vault:

Copy your new Vault address and make sure it is backed up to Reddit. You can do this from the Vault settings page

Sign out of your current Vault

Recover the old Vault by signing back in and choosing the old address and providing the password, or by entering in the Recovery Phrase for the old address

Send the Points in the old Vault to the address you copied for the new Vault

Sign out of the old Vault and recover the new Vault

If a) the address in the CSV matches your active Vault, b) you don't see a "Claiming Your Points" card, c) it's been more than 24 hours since the post was made, and d) you still do not see your Points, then please file a ticket with your username and everything you have checked so far. We'll be happy to take a look!

How do I cancel my Special Membership?

It depends on how you bought your membership:

If you purchased your Special Membership subscription on reddit.com using a credit/debit card, you can cancel it by going to https://www.reddit.com/settings/special.

If you bought your Special Membership subscription with Points, you can cancel it from the Memberships tab in the applicable subreddit page on the mobile app.

If you purchased your Special Membership subscription using Google Play, you can manage or cancel it by visiting the Subscriptions section of Google Play.

If you purchased your Special Membership subscription with your Apple ID, you can manage or cancel it through your device's Account Settings or in the Manage Subscriptions section of the Apple App Store.

Help! I've lost my Recovery Phrase and/or Vault Password, can you reset my Vault for me?

Unfortunately, by design, Reddit does not have access to your Vault to recover it or the Points inside of it. If you're absolutely sure your Vault is not stored on any of your mobile devices and you absolutely cannot remember your Recovery Phrase or Vault Password, there is nothing we can do to unlock your Vault and you will have to create a new Vault.

Also note that Points are tied to the Vault that was active when the distribution is finalized. If you change your Vault between when the distribution is proposed and when Points are actually distributed, your Points will go to the updated Vault.

What if I get banned? What happens to my Points or my Special Membership?

Your existing Points will forever remain tied to your Vault address, but you will get locked out of Vault. You’ll also stop receiving distributions, and any Special Membership renewals will be cancelled.

I don't see Vault in the app.

Vault will appear in the left drawer when you meet one of the following conditions:

Have unclaimed Points

Have a non-zero Points amount

Subscribed to a subreddit with Community Points

Make sure your account satisfies any of the above conditions. In some cases, it can take up to a minute for the Vault to appear in the menu after starting the app.

If you are still having trouble, please file a ticket.

I'm not seeing my Points on my account.

If you have just created your Vault, your Points can take up to 24 hours to land to your account. When 24 hours have passed and you still don't see any Points, please file a ticket.

Points are bound to your Reddit account, so your alt accounts won't have Points from your other accounts. Make sure you're using the correct Reddit account when accessing your Vault.

If you created a Vault on a second device, it becomes active and the reflected balance is from that Vault. If you wish to go back to your Vault:

Go to Vault → Settings

Tap on Log Out

Select your old Vault address from the list

Recover using Reddit Backup or a Recovery Phrase

I got charged for a Special Membership but I haven't received it.

Please file a ticket.

I converted my Points into Reddit Coins, but I don't want them anymore. Can you revert the transaction?

This is not possible. Conversion into Coins is final and cannot be reversed, since Points are burned in the process.

Why can I no longer convert my Points into Reddit Coins?

Reddit Coins (including monthly coins from Reddit Premium) are winding down September 12, 2023. Learn more.

How do I delete my Vault?

Because Vault is a digital wallet on the blockchain, you can't permanently delete your Vault. While you can't delete your visible public address for Vault or any prior Community Points transactions, you can sign out from your Vault through the Reddit app, which will delete Vault from your local device and delink it from your Reddit account. To do that, go to Vault —> Setting —> Sign out.

I haven't found my answer. How do I get support?

If you have questions, please file a ticket.

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Waves hands in an arc with a dreamy look and goofy grin while stage whispering "Blockchain".

That's about it.

Article/post whatever

Introduction It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online. Imagine a crypto future The Future of Online Communities

Communities are the lifeblood of the Internet. They are the places where magic happens online — where people meet others like themselves, think and talk about the same things, and laugh at the same jokes. From newsgroups and chatrooms and forums, communities have always been the centers of the Internet that draw people in.

But online communities are much more limited than their counterparts in the real world. In the real world, communities are independent entities, free to choose where and how they hang out. No one tells them what to do or where to go.

Today's online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence or control anything of value. This limitation makes them second-class citizens, unable to chart their own destiny on the Internet. It is time to put communities in their rightful place as the foundation of the Internet.

It is time for them to take back ownership and control. It is time for a change. Community Points

Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities. They are earned by making contributions to the community, like creating content and moderating. They not only represent ownership and reputation within the community, but can also be used for community governance, moderation, and unlocking premium features. They can even be used in custom tools outside of Reddit and on other platforms.

Most importantly, Community Points are a flexible tool that each community can shape to its needs. Each community has its own Points that it can customize with its own name, symbol, distribution rules, and uses. Every community has its own needs and we expect each to use Points differently and in novel ways that help take them to the next level.

Reddit and CP. Name a more iconic combo.

Steve must have missed moderating r/jailbait.

Sweet baby Jesus what the fuck did I just read

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I see Reddit's solution to the class problem they created on their platform is to checks notes create another class problem.

Community Points

At least the way I see this going.

$$$ ------> Reddit -------> Redditcoin --------> Community coin ------- > Weighted polls in your favor.

Did you see it? Where the money went? It doesn't go to the creator, it goes only to reddit, the person that posts on reddit only gets community points. Which can only be used for "Premium services like a reddit subscription"

Think if twitch.tv basically took all the money you donated to a streamer and only gave the creator "exposure" for his hard work.

I'm sorry but this is some dystopian bullshit that's all centred on the false premise that communities are anything other than the people who choose to count themselves among them and engage in them.

Reddit is just the tool some communities chose to use to gather their members and communicate. That's it. If a community decides that Reddit is no longer the appropriate tool for the job, they can leave and build their community elsewhere. That may be a bit of an oversimplification, given the resources and tools those communities might lose through the transition, but strictly speaking, Reddit can't do anything to stop the members of any particular subreddit going elsewhere, and a cryptocurrency absolutely is not going to fucking facilitate the ownership or mobility of a community.

It's a bullshit form of control that they want their users to willingly bind themselves to. Suddenly you're not just participating in a community, but you're genuinely invested, tied to something with a perceived monetary value, that even if you can theoretically remove from Reddit and take elsewhere, won't have any more value than people choose to place on it, and won't represent the community that generated it in any meaningful way.

It's literally "Hey, the more you use Reddit, the more of our crypto you'll earn, which could be worth more than zero one day! You better keep using Reddit, huh? You wouldn't want to lose that potential for more than zero eh? In fact, why don't you encourage more people to use Reddit too? Then they'll generate their own crypto, and the more people use our crypto, the more it'll be worth for everyone! See, if you get five more people to use Reddit, and those five people also get another five people each to use it etc etc etc..."

The fuck out of here.

I love how they talk about community independence yet Reddit can come in at any time and remove the mods if they don't like the content those communities are producing

Okay. Each sub gets fresh points according to it's size, activity and admin preference.

Every month your karma in a sub gets converted into these new points. These points can then be used to tip others, buy animated emojis or badges to show off. They are also used to make your vote count more in polls.

Mods can give commenters fines for misbehaving and make posts earn less points.

Sounds very capitalist. I guess it makes everybody go to a few big subs, as little subs don't earn anything. And those big subs are overrun by a few big players who floated to the top and stay there because of their influence. Little subs get overrun by alt-right as the fines mods can give there are just pocket money.

But that's what you get when ideology and dictators rule.

Sounds completely awful. They are really good at draining the fun from social media.

They are gamifying the experience. Soon there will be loot boxes randomly found...

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“Own” your community, but if you blackout or post John Oliver, we’ll take it away from you.

For now, Reddit will cover gas costs for distributing Points to users and allowing them to spend Points on features such as Special Memberships.

Spez: "We are not profitable"

This is where Spez is spending money. Not on making the App/UI/UX better, but on crypto scams lol

Good lord. They've looked at the last few years of crypto and thought..."Yeah, that looks like a good way to do things! What could go wrong?" What a ridiculous scam. The fact that the Cryptobros at /r/CryptoCurrency are excited tells me all I need to know that this is a scam.

Worse: they saw the previous few years AND the utter, complete crash of most things crypto and THEN thought the above.

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The SEC or FTC or someone should sue Reddit for using the word 'decentralize' in connection with a feature that's only available within...Reddit! I don't care how many 'blockchains' and other buzz-terms they surround it with.

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This is pure comedy at this point. I don't have a popcorn bag big enough.

I wonder if whoever wrote that announcement really doesn't see the irony in what they wrote. Or maybe they do and they secretly hate reddit?

Either way, lollercoaster. Lollercopter. Lollapalooza.

I'm convinced a lot of admins are not happy with the direction reddit is going. You tend to notice it in little things, like them accidentally using old.reddit.com in their monthly newsletter. I'd love to see the shitshow going on behind the scenes.

When I read it, it sounded like they heard everything we were protesting in favor of, harvested all those words, and put it on the press release in order to try to convince some of the people on the edge of breaking free to stay, and maybe entice some of high-karma people who left to come back. All while glossing over that what they're saying is the exact opposite of what they're doing.

This reads like shit. it starts off with this ground breaking tone, then its just crypto bs? and then the article just ends abruptly. The fediverse is the solution to the problem theyre talking about not some shitcoin. sheesh

Had to get blockchain in there somewhere to appeal to the idiot investors.

They're about 8 years behind the curve though. Just like a client who recently told me they were thinking of getting into NFTs to make some money.

Ah yes, the good ol' "let's solve this problem with blockchain". I thought we're already past that.

People who have contributed more to the community and earned more Points are able to have a larger say in the direction that the community takes.

When karma-whoring repost accounts have more say than actual community members... What could go wrong?

In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

You mean, like . . . landed gentry?

They have been experimenting with this on /r/cryptocurrency for a long time. I was a moderator in that ecosystem and am good friends with some of the mods there. I've always been weary of moons, but I didn't think they would actually bring it to the whole platform.

This is definitely a paradigm shift that'll be an interesting dumpster fire to watch.

I work on Ethereum related things full time (and love the core parts of it), but I also, like you, think most crypto stuff is a slimy scam. Stuff like this is exactly why. It's a way for reddit to encourage bots to farm karma for real/fake money on garbage repost content.

I know crypto/blockchain in general is mostly hated in this community, and stuff like this absolutely does not help.

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Ah now they can add the buzzword "Blockchain powered" on every page of their IPO prospectus

I'd bet my bottom dollar a reddit LLM is being worked on too. They won't stop milking their communities until the end.

Knew before clicking it'd be crypto crap

If this were written by anyone else, it would read as an absolutely sarcastic and ironically self aware lampoon-esque post

What? No. The idea of internet points is.... They're talking about internet points, so, like .... collecting..... internet........ points............

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What the fuck is in the water over at the Reddit HQ, lead?

Research shows that if you train AI on the output of other AI, there happens a "model collapse" where the AI makes more and more errors and distortions.

The same happened with tech bros.

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Corporate centralized social media: advertises "decentralization" through crypto People on actual decentralized social media: "That's the stupidest thing I heard in the last 2 days"

How many community coins make a Shrute buck?

Exchange rate is equal to the ratio of unicorns to leprechauns.

I am so glad I made a bet with a friend about reddit being much smaller or dead in 5 years, it just keeps getting better for me.

So, they’re saying they’re going to pay people to post and mod, but in a cryptocurrency whose value isn’t listed here? I’ll bet someone’s already coding a whole bot forum to get all the community points.

Points are not an investment opportunity, and any exchanging, listing, selling, or trading of Points is against Reddit's Previews Terms of Use

That's what they call breaking out of the walled garden. You can't sell the things so they have no value.

They didn't list the value because actually saying the value is a flat Zero is really embarrassing.

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Is this just a way increasing their perceived worth by making people buy their shitty crypto and locking it into the platform that can only be spent on reddit features?

Sounds a lot like scrip.

Feel free to sell your soul to the Reddit store.

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Oh! So they know most of the people still on their platforms are gullible doom scrollers they can milk with crypto or whatever monetization scheme they want. They know they're scum and are cool with it.

that was the plan all along... phase 1 was to get rid of those who objected/called out their bs, phase 2 is to execute their agenda knowing that those who remain will be complacent, phase 3 is profit.

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Wow... You will be much more free... if you pay us...

What.

You won't be locked in a walled garden now. You'll be free to be in our walled garden where we convert your money to cryptocurrency scrip that's only valid in our walled garden so that you won't be trapped in walled gardens. We also think people should be free from apps, so it is mandatory to use our app to purchase your walled garden corporate scrip. Double plus good!

Missed the crypto craze a bit late there.

They should put their money where their mouth is - give out shares of their upcoming IPO for Karma. 10000 Karma = 1 share or something like that. If you thought their system was broken before, just you wait!

Adblockers should add reddit.com as a shaddy and unsafe link

It’s a fucking blockchain. I’m fucking done. That’s it. I’m going to put the Reddit app in a folder and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Why not delete it? The more they see people uninstalling the app, the better.

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tl;dr, it's more crypto bullshit and it requires the reddit mobile app.

Am I the only one that used Reddit till just recently and has no idea what coins or awards are, or what purpose they served?

No you're not. I mean, I know these things existed, but I had never made any effort to use them or even find out how they worked.

It's a lot like Duolingo I think. The core functionality of the product is there and is good, but they insist on shoving coins and gems and new avatars down your throat. I don't care! I just want to study a language or discuss a topic. Good lord.

I used reddit for almost 9 years and aside from reddit gold, I had no idea what the modern awards did / can't even see them on my (now depreciated) app.

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FUCKING CRINGE REDDIT, FUCK SPEZ, FUCK REDDITORS AND ALSO FUCK EVERYONE WHO STILL USES REDDIT FOR ANYTHING AFTER THIS!

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so what am i missing? how are these points awarded? just by purchasing them? like the awards? this sounds like some dumb mother fucking shit.

Yes! It's the same thing but worse and uses block chain. Progress, baby. Progress.

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Lmao the crypto bros on reddit are talking about how amazing this is - fucking morons lmao

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Reddit's hypocrisy is mind-boggling!

After proving in recent weeks that 1) they want anything but free and independent communities, and 2) they want nothing more than complete control over their communities and their data, and 3) they have no interest in being an open platform (where are the 3rd part apps? why force the app when you open Reddit in a browser?), they have the nerve to say all this about freedom and independence?

Who believes it? Is this a way to win back lost users? Restore damaged trust? It's obviously not what they say it's about. Companies don't give away freedom, Reddit least of all. There's plenty of evidence for that.

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I had to keep reminding myself that it’s August, not April 1st. This is asinine.

I got their email about ending the old awards, etc.

I told them to shove what I had up their ass along with their shitty app.

I guess I'm off the mailing list.

IDGAF about fake internet points from people I don't know. I don't need validation.

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Community points=CP? Back in my day, CP was something else

Well, you see, spez was in charge of naming --

The fact that it just spits out a CSV in an announcement post per subreddit that you have to manually download and CTRL+F your username is hilarious for a company this big. They couldn't implement a proper dashboard?

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Holy. Fucking. Shit.

"Own your community with our blockchain bullshit, but fuck you gently if you try to exert any control over it if it works against our IPO."

What a bunch of shitbirds. Fuck me, I'm so glad I'm shut of that dumpster fire. Let 'er burn.

Damn that’s just strange. Reddits explanation still doesn’t really explain what “community points” actually do. I don’t really get what their angle is with this.

Why would they do a 180 (from recent policy) and talk about how subreddits should be semi-independent? And are they really planning on making “community points” based off if you moderate and post, rather than paying for them?

Why would they do a 180 (from recent policy) and talk about how subreddits should be semi-independent?

Well, the just dusted off the group of people who could read and do math. Now they have the people who will do what Reddit wants as long as it sounds okay. “These Are People Of Reddit. The Common Clay Of The New West. You Know… Morons”

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I only needed to see blockchain tokens. No need to know anything else.

"This limitation makes them second-class citizens"

You mean like being subject to arbitrary moderator abuse?

This Reddit coins on a blockchain has been happening for a while. The cryptocurrency subreddit had "Moons" for years now.

I sold 110k Moons as soon as they came out, nobody tell me how much they're worth now

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Wow. I read through most of the pages. What a convoluted system! Besides several new terms that are interdependent and poorly defined, this scheme is going to be impossibly opaque to users and orders of magnitude more complex than upvote/downvote. I especially don't like that points are directly related to karma, when karma whoring and botting are prevalent. Last thing we need is karma earning one some measure of influence or control in a community.

They clearly think this is something people will simply get used to should they not enthusiastically embrace it. Why they think that in an era of other platforms dumbing down interaction to nothing more than an upvote I can't wrap my head around.

What a colossal waste of resources. Thankfully it appears to be opt in by sub for now, though I doubt that will last.

Aww, poor spez, missed the crypto hype by about a year. They say timing is the hardest part of product management, and spez again proves he is really fucking terrible at it.

Got an email from Reddit the other day telling me to "spend my Reddit coins while I still can". It reminded me that I still have a Reddit account, so I just login and delete it (mass delete all my posts and edit all my comments since July).

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Do they not comprehend the irony of this? "It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online. Imagine a crypto future"

It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens and take ownership of their existence online.

Knowing Reddit, this means implementing blockchain technology and crypto shenanigans...and I'm right.

Didn't bother reading their entire docs, but this all looks gamified as fuck. I knew this would happen, with these stupid points ingrained in every aspect of the site everything just became predatory and hostile unless you pay. It's literally a game of "free2play" users grinding whatever is needed to get points (which probably is not feasible) vs buying the "special subscriptions".

Then the introduction is laughable, I want to peek into the brains of these mfers who not even weeks ago were taking subreddits from mods by force, and now preach of community independence from platforms.

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They just took away a shit load of freedom and had a PR disaster, so they're trying to fix by gaslighting us with crypto scam bullshit? God this company can not go out of business fast enough.

Ugh, I just left. Why does u/spez insist on coming up with all these shitty monetary schemes???

From one of the pages describing "reputation":

Governance Polls have a Decision Threshold that they must meet in order to pass. This is the minimum amount of weighted vote that the winning option must have for the poll to be considered approved by the community.

The Decision Threshold is set to a minimum of 10% of Points in a community and is updated algorithmically according to the activity on recent governance polls. As more votes are cast on Governance Polls, the Decision Threshold for future Governance Polls increases.

Governance Polls can be used to change distribution rules for Points or get input on other community decisions, such as content rules or flairs. They are enacted by Reddit in the case of distribution rules and the moderators for rules that require nuanced community input.

I mean, what do you say to this? They've gone completely insane.

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Call me when you get past the “first step” where Reddit controlled NFTs somehow make communities independent from Reddit.

I don't if I trust crypto man now if they were paying in nfts which are totally lagit I might consider it

In the real world, communities are independent entities, free to choose where and how they hang out. No one tells them what to do or where to go.

I guess the people who run Reddit really think none of their audience was educated by say... Snoopy.... or seen a "no skateboarding" sign in their life. You can just hang out anywhere IRL!

Am I just too old to understand this? I don’t get it at all. Does any of it translate to real money?