Reddit reintroduces a reward system, users can buy "gold" to reward posts or comments

PANews, May 16, Techcrunch reported that Reddit announced on Wednesday that the company would reintroduce the reward system after shutting it down last year. The company says that most of the mechanics related to rewards will remain the same, but there will be some new additions. For example, there will be a new design for rewards, a new reward button below eligible posts, and a leaderboard showing the highest rewards earned by comments or posts. Earlier this month, Reddit mentioned reintroducing the rewards program during its first earnings call as a public company.

Last year, Reddit eliminated its rewards program and the ability for users to purchase tokens. At the same time, Reddit launched "Golden Upvotes", which can be purchased directly with cash. In a new post, the company said the system is less expressive than rewards. "While Golden Upvotes is simpler in theory, in practice it doesn't live up to expectations. It's not as fun or expressive as traditional rewards, and it's not clear how it benefits the recipient."

Users who want to reward posts and comments need to purchase “gold”, which somewhat replaces tokens. On the support page, the company mentions that, on average, rewards cost between 15 and 50 gold coins. Coin plans in the Reddit mobile app currently start at $1.99 for 100 coins. Users can purchase up to 2,750 gold coins for $49.99. The company has also added some safeguards to the rewards system, such as disabling rewards in subreddits inappropriate for the workplace, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits containing mature content. Additionally, users will be able to report rewards to avoid them being used for removal by administrators.

Following news in October last year that Reddit shut down its blockchain-based community points program, Reddit community tokens plummeted across the board.