Reddit @lemmy.world fne8w2ah @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

Reddit discontinues coins and awards after switching to paid API

www.androidpolice.com Reddit kills one of its easiest revenue streams after switching to paid API

Have you ever received a Reddit award? You may not have a chance to much longer

30 comments

This was literally the only piece of development they've done in like 12 years that actually generated value to the company.
- The only reason which this decision would make any sense is a new feature which is going to generate more money for reddit
  
  You dont buy Reddit awards anymore, now you subscribe to them for a monthly fee.
  
  Assuming anyone is left to spend money on it by that point.
Worth noting they're not just 'discontinuing' coins and awards - but removing them retroactively.

This Admin comment notes that the awards themselves will be removed, so posts and comments will no longer display the awards they received; it's not just that the feature is being sunset, but all awards will vanish from the site.
- well on a postive note there were tons of fake awards given by admins to make it seem like posts were popular. So those are going away
- That’s BS. People paid money to give out awards and they’re deleting them?
  
  Spez is a little weasel.
  
  call spez like he is.
  a greedy little pig boy
They're speedrunning the destruction of their website
- It’s kind of beautiful and approaching Legendary.
I cannot work out what the benefit is to them of doing this.

Someone somewhere has paid for those awards. Is it because you can get gifted premium and not pay for it yourself?

It's like the company had a collective aneurysm.
- If they wanted to get rid of gifting premium why wouldn't they just do that? "Awards no longer give premium for free" and that's it, or maybe just massively reduce the amount of premium, maybe it doesn't accumulate if you get more than one award, etc.
- The only thing I can think of is awarding a comment with gold means it can never be deleted. They're probably trying to mass delete everything that makes them and that fuckwad u/spez look bad.
What a fuckin shit show …
Reminded me of a guy whose comment got rewarded so much that he said he would have premium until the 2030s.
- good god i remember that comment!
It's like there's a contest to see which site can do the most awful fucking thing possible to their users and Reddit is prepared to do whatever it takes to win.
Is high inflation really the thing causing all these companies to kill their golden geese?
- No. No, not at all.
  
  It's the increases in interest rates. The Venture Capitalists are ok not seeing a return on their investments while interest rates are effectively nil, but higher interest rates change the risk/reward balance.
  
  I mean, why are interest rates high? indirectly its inflation
How can Spez justify his job now?
Aww, but I liked people giving me pretend medals for the dumb things I said on Reddit!
- 🎖️
  
  Your emoji is like sweet, sweet methadone to this former Reddit addict.
I hated those awards and I’d be happy they’re gone if I were to ever go back. Don’t know why they didn’t just say a year “hey if you buy premium you can keep using Reddit like you did for the last 15 years, otherwise you’ll have to use the official app, deal with ads, etc.”
and kids this is why you should never mod r/jailbait.
This will anger Redditors.
- The ones who remain, anyway.

You've viewed 30 comments.