this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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SNOOcalypse - document, discuss, and promote the downfall of Reddit.

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


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

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[–] dan@lemm.ee 103 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I can only imagine we’re going to see it replaced with something altogether more exploitative.

The admin that posted that has been working on blockchain/crypto/NFT stuff for the last year… I can only imagine they have some awful plan relating to that.

[–] keeeener@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

technically you aren't wrong...

there was an APK teardown once the API changes happened that showed the following information because Reddit broke for a bit:

Android authority page on it here: link to article

Fake internet points are finally worth something! Now redditors can earn real money for their contributions to the Reddit community, based on the karma and gold they've been given. How it works: Redditors give gold to posts, comments, or other contributions they think are really worth something. Eligible contributors that earn enough karma and gold can cash out their earnings for real money. Contributors apply to the program to see if they're eligible. Top contributors make top dollar. The more karma and gold contributors earn, the more money they can receive.

Not just anyone can be a contributor. To join and stay in the program, contributors need to meet a few requirements: Be over 18 and live in the U.S. Only Safe for Work contributions qualify Earn xx gold and karma each month Provide verification information. You must have at least 10 gold and 100 karma to begin verification. NSFW accounts aren't eligible for the Contributors Program

Provide the following information to get verified for the program and start earning: Email Personal Information Tax and bank account information

Once you hit the payment threshold, you'll automatically be paid out via your Stripe account. Approximate calculation before fees. Exchange rate and payment thresholds are subject to change

apparently these are already active in r/cryptocurrency and r/eth or w.e the Ethereum subreddit is...

definitely not looking good and I'm glad I switched to lemmy when I did

[–] alternative_factor@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago

That'll be very interesting. I always forget about the NFT shit despite having been a redditor for years. I don't want to give them ideas, but I'm guessing they would let people "reward" each other those fugly ass avatar NFTs.

[–] theDoctor@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago

I saw a post over here earlier today about someone data mining the Reddit app code and finding monetization options for top contributors. Literally paying people to shitpost.

Hopefully someone not on mobile can link it here. Seems like it’s already set in stone.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

My bet is a "buy karma with money" program, mirroring the "sell karma for money" one, but geared towards advertisers. That means native, built-in advertisement in the platform, that you can't block through ad blockers because it behaves the same as the content there.

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[–] ChrisFhey@kbin.social 82 points 1 year ago (8 children)

So, any bets on what's the next feature that's getting killed?

My money's on old.reddit.com.

[–] TheNightBird@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't give them ideas.

Or do, i moved here anyway

[–] ChrisFhey@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think I need to give them ideas. Seems like they've got the whole "destroy reddit" thing covered.

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[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Irreversibly doing away with the old UI was what killed Digg.

[–] ChrisFhey@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

In that case, we should potentially encourage reddit to get rid of it faster.

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[–] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I'm surprised old wasn't next after third party apps. I'm surprised they decided to kill the literal "give us money" button.

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[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

Access on Sundays and Wednesdays.

It has come to our attention they Sundays and Wednesdays aren’t always the best content days. In order to return to smarter thinkin and good design, we are discontinuing reddit’s feature known as “being accessing on Sundays and Wednesdays”.

This comes after much thought. We know some of you have gotten great value out of using Reddit on Sundays and Wednesdays, and we hope you can cherish with us the memory of those days’ access on Reddit.

But the future is progress, and the market has spoken. Despite what the market says, we are listening to management. Not to worry though. Sunday and Wednesday access will still be available until September of 2023, when we will begin a phased shutdown of two sevenths of our service.

Why are we doing this? The current move is a compromise between those who wanted Sunday removed but Wednesday to remain, and those who wanted Wednesday to be removed while Sunday remains.

For those of you who just can’t do without your Sunday or Wednesday Reddit fix, we recommend trying Reddit on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays.

We are absolutely dedicated to continuing to bringing 24/5 news, cultural, and community-driven content straight to your web browser or Official Reddit App.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My money's on automod. It's yet another of those "pesky tools" used by the "landed gentry" against advertisement disguised as content.

I also predict that a few subreddits criticising corporations might get banned, such as r/hailcorporate and perhaps r/assholedesign.

I don't think that they'll get rid of old.reddit now because the ghost of Digg still haunts Greedy Pigboy.

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[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That and the mobile website. They're already running an A/B test where they just flat out block mobile users and instead demand they download the app. That fucking app man... They'll try anything to push the app, anything except making it actually enjoyable to use that is.

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[–] Spendies@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm honestly surprised it's lasted this long. Especially given the third party app shutoff.

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[–] ChrisFhey@kbin.social 67 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For those that don't want to give Reddit traffic, this is the post by the reddit admin:

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!

[–] patchymoose@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's so on-brand for Reddit to announce killing these features without any explanation of what is to take its place. Just a vague mention of more communication "in the coming months".

How exciting.

Reminds me of when they killed Reddit Gifts/Secret Santa.

Reddit and Twitter are racing to see who can kill themselves faster.

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[–] Karlos_Cantana@sopuli.xyz 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

The community isn't empowered at all. u/spez is a dictator who doesn't care about the community.

[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep the leaked coming moves will be the death of Reddit. Screwing your users doesn't really matter because the vast majority will obviously contribute to tolerate it.

This will just make Reddit a shitty place to be. They just need to admit that there's no viable business model.

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[–] darkghosthunter@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (23 children)

This is half-confirmation for what Android Authority discovered in the app as the incoming “Reddit pays you for your content”.

For that to work, they have to remove coins and awards.

[–] Thitherwards@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Wow, how they gonna get rid of all the karma farming bots after this outstanding move?

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[–] observer@feddit.nl 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could some please paste the post here? 🙏

[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Reworking Awarding: Changes to Awards, Coins, and Premium

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!

[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh yay, spez is getting ready to piss off reddit again.

[–] Terevos@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyone who actually cares about what reddit does has already left or is in the process of leaving.

[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Highly doubt it. The world has a lot of different sorts in it, including ones of varying stubbornness. People get older, change, etc. It'll never be "over". Not for as long as reddit is still big and ran by spez anyway.

[–] rawfox@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Well, -for me- its over. There is just no Reddit anymore.

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[–] bakaraka@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

It hurt itself in its confusion

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yeah got this pm from Reddit:

* I only have premium because I was awarded Platinum. No way in hell I'd buy it.

[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

Just like reddit to include the entire, long email after assuring you the following is the TLDR.

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[–] Prontomomo@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I always disliked the crazy number of awards when they came our, it felt like they all suddenly became meaningless when there were so many. I will miss gold though, getting that shit always made you feel like a celebrity

[–] Serinus@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Reddit gold was great and classy design. Reddit silver should have died the same month it should have been released, April. The rest were dumb money grabs that no one really fell for, and that's why they're killing them.

Might as well throw the baby out with the shitwater.

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Archive link.

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.

Might as well say "we're changing it because capybaras need to learn to fly better", as it makes as much logic as they said. (None.) Or just, you know, admit why you're actually doing it?

In the most lenient of the hypotheses, they might have been taking old feedback into account... but only after said feedback lose relevance. Users hated awards when they were implemented, as they were clearly a way to convert money into post promotion. Except that now users grew used to those awards, so their removal will be clearly met with resistance.

Another possibility is that they're trying to simplify the system not for the users, but for advertisers. Think about it: if Reddit plans to allow you to sell karma for money, perhaps it's also planning to allow you to buy karma with money. Advertisers would love this; instead of buying coins to grant themselves awards, now they would be able to buy an arbitrary amount of upvotes to boost their spam.

A third possibility is some unknown party bribing a few Reddit key positions here and there, to wreck their product on purpose. So when the IPO happens, Reddit prices are in the rock bottom, and the unknown party can buy the platform really cheap.

Frankly none of those things seem remotely sane for me. That's how puzzling their decision is in my view.

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.

So your actions did absolutely nothing, and now you're realising it? Might as well call yourself Epimetheus.

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[–] FizzOnMyJayce@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

This is only good news for the lemmiverse

[–] pursuit@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

is reddit trying to kill their platform on purpose?

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[–] Poob@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

Soon: "Buy NFTs of your favourite comments and posts! The creators get crypto worth $0.50 for every purchase!"

[–] Compactor9679@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago
[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ugh, they're gonna replace awards with NFTs and crypto aren't they?

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's possible. But another possibility is that they gave up the idea that users would give Reddit money, and instead they want advertisers to buy upvotes with RL money.

Fake currencies like Reddit coins are useful when you're milking users, as it's harder for them to determine the real cost of their actions. For example: how much money would you need to spend to award your own post to become the most awarded post of a subreddit? (A: it depends on which coin package you bought, which award you're granting, in which sub you're posting, etc.) It's probably more expensive than the user thinks, i.e. the "sucker tax".

This backfires for advertisers because they will run the maths and notice your outrageous prices, and they won't pay the "sucker tax". And any additional loop between money and service raises their suspicion, thus the risk that they associate with your platform. When dealing with them, you're better off streamlining everything, and getting rid of things that they might see as risk-increasing uncertainty.

And one of those risk-increasing uncertainties is the value of awards vs. votes in the visibility of a post (i.e. a potential ad). How many users sort by "top" vs. "awarded"? Are you better off buying awards or upvotes? Reddit just removed those two uncertainties, plus one loop (buy Reddit coins to buy stuff → buy stuff directly).

If my reasoning above is correct, bots running rampant in Reddit will be the least concern. Expect stuff like the top post in r/linux being Microsoft "informing" you on the "risks" of running Linux, and the moderator responsible for correctly marking as spam to be "relieved" from his "duties". r/cooking will be full of nothing but advertisement for food chains, r/youtube with an "exclusive promotion for Snoos who buy YT Premium", stuff like this.

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