Reddit has announced plans to pay its top contributors cash for popular posts. The new program will start in the U.S. and will see the company split revenue with users who are awarded “gold” by other users. Gold awards range in price from $1.99 to $49, with users receiving as much as half of that.
Users can tap the upvote icon on mobile or on desktop to choose from six award options ranging from $1.99 to $49.00. Instead of the old system, users can purchase and donate rewards in-app.
Additionally, there are two tiers, namely “Contributor” and “Top Contributor.” Contributors earn $0.90 per 1 gold, while Top Contributors get $1.00 per 1 gold. Payments are monthly and based on karma and gold earned.
The announcement has proved to be divisive on the platform, with some users expressing concern that it may lead to the site getting “substantially worse”, while others remain cautiously optimistic.
Social media expert Matt Navarra believes that the move is necessary to reward Reddit’s most valuable users and to incentivize top creators. However, he also warned that there is a risk that incentivising people with real money could have an impact on the kind of content that gets popular on the site.
“X now rewards Premium subscribers with an ad revenue share tied to the number of impressions, or views, of ads a user generates in their tweet replies,” he said. “This incentives X users to post content that sparks the most replies, and the characteristics of content that typically generates the most replies is content that is divisive, polarising, provocative, and controversial… exactly the sort of content that brands do not want to have their ads placed amongst.
The sources for this piece include an article in BBC.