Reddit's Contributor Program could earn you real money for your Reddit karma
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Reddit could be working on a Contributor program, letting top contributors earn real-world money from the gold and karma they receive.

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Code within the official Reddit app suggests that the company is working on a Contributor program.

  • Redditors in the US could earn real money for the gold and karma that their posts and comments receive.

  • This will likely be subject to minimum withdrawal thresholds.

Reddit has been in the news recently for its API changes that killed popular Reddit apps and the subreddit protests that followed the announcement. The company believes the official Reddit app is all you need for a great community experience. We say the Reddit app is good for giving us a sneak peek at what the company is working on. In the near future, Reddit could introduce a Contributor program that will reward community contributors with real-world money.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

Reddit v2023.27.0 for Android includes code that suggests that the online community platform is looking for ways to incentivize the community to be more proactive. Similar to how other platforms reward creators, Reddit could be exploring ways that would let community members convert the gold and karma they have received from other community members into real-world money that they can cash out. Check out the references below.

Code

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. The code suggests that the program will initially have two tiers: Contributor and Top Contributor. Top Contributors will have better rates.

Further, from what we can discern, the payout could use Reddit gold as a currency, while the karma accumulated could be used to improve the rate of exchange for Reddit gold into real-world money (possibly USD). Note that the community itself passes around Reddit gold and karma to each other. Reddit gold is purchased with real-world money, while karma is a net figure of upvotes and downvotes on comments and posts.

Before you get too excited, the program appears to have some constraints around eligibility:

Code

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 With a threshold of 10 gold and 100 karma for verification, the bare minimum is set at a high enough point to not be easy to game. Contributors will have to further earn an unspecified number of gold and karma each month to be eligible for payouts within the program.

Here is what could be the necessary information needed for verification:

Code

Provide the following information to get verified for the program and start earning:

  • Email
  • Personal Information
  • Tax and bank account information The verification appears to be powered by Persona and Stripe.

Code

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. The payout threshold is not mentioned within the code, and neither is the monthly gold and karma requirement for being part of the contributor program.

Curiously, unlike the creator programs of other social platforms, Reddit’s purported Contributor Program will be routing community-purchased gold and karma back into the community. We could not locate any mentions of Contributors receiving any part of ad or subscription revenue from the platform, which is usually how the creator programs of other platforms work. In effect, the community would be incentivizing the community.

Do you think Reddit’s contributor program is a good idea?

Note that the program, so far, does not explicitly mention any community moderators within its ambit, and no incentives have been carved out for them. However, since Reddit has not made any official announcements, things could change by the time the program goes live.

We’ve reached out to Reddit for comments and more information. We’ll update the article when we hear back from them.

  • SpaceBar@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    I’m betting a form of The Cobra Effect will occur.

    If you pay people for popular posts and content everything that we hate about reddit is going to get even worse.

    Reposts and pointless cross-posts? Catch phrases and common hackneyed replies? Copy pastas galore? Stolen content? Plagiarized posts?

    It’s going to be fun to watch from afar.

    • demesisx@infosec.pub
      1·
      1 year ago

      Interesting!

      I’ve been deeply thinking about this same crowd-source, gig economy idea and its potential for the fediverse. By tying the technology into a cryptocurrency (which could incentivize instance operation, posting, commenting, and voting) we could essentially fund all of the exploited volunteers (myself included) that want to put in work to build the fediverse…and perhaps we also would, by the nature of a open source decentralized blockchain, make sure that the middleman exists only as a mechanism for the system: a decentralized treasury.

      However, considering your Cobra effect idea, I wonder if AI’s and bots will step in to work toward these ends (when the system becomes sufficiently profitable), clogging up the network and creating a cacophony of noise and karma whoring… I wonder how each phase of this humans -> bots -> ai arms race would go and what “tokenomic” restrictions and game theory could be put in place to naturally brings things to a better status quo.

      I yearn to have discussions about this stuff…but tying crypto into the fediverse can be so polarizing a topic. Bitcoin is ubiquitous but ill-suited to the needs of a system like Lemmy or the fediverse as a whole. Then, I’m left to fight with Ethereum bros about which tech would be better. I guess it’s just whoever gets there first. I hope I’m not unintentionally throwing my support behind Cobra breeding. 😅

      • SpaceBar@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        I don’t know how to inject monetary value into an anonymous system without corrupting it.

        If there is money to be had, people will exploit whatever system is in place.

        • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Honestly, I don’t give a sh1t about the price.

          I wish for a future where my savings can be irrevocably mine, can transcend national boundaries. I wish for a future where I don’t have to pay some middleman to pay the person who grows my food, delivers my groceries, delivers my food, drives a rideshare, etc, etc. I wish for a future where voting can be public yet private at the same time using immutable public ledgers.

          For me, it is entirely about the decentralized, open yet highly secure nature of the technology. As a software engineer, it is the most difficult problem space imaginable. The way that some projects are tackling it using formal methods and scientific rigor is really educational to watch. I can watch the pros and cons of the choices play out in real-time…and they have nothing to do with the price other than the higher the price, the more activity a chain sees.

          I like to think about the aspects of the technology:

          • like how Ethereum uses a more imperative style and a massive stored-state called the accounts model to their smart contracts while cardano uses a functional style which goes well with their choice to extend the utxo model.

          • this decision while allowing Cardano the ability to go massively parallel, hinders concurrency ability

          Anyway, all I’m saying is that maybe you are thinking about it as some central entity like Do Kwan or Sam Bankman Fried, trying to get rich off of you but you just need to research which of these technologies are actually decentralized and unlikely to rug pull you and which are just run by two or three people who are waiting to scam people. Do Kwan was SO obvious…and so was SBF.

          True crypto is philosophically aligned with Satoshi Nakamoto not Sam Bankman Fried.

          • Bramble Dog@infosec.pubEnglish
            12·
            1 year ago

            If it isnt a cult why are you evangelizing to somebody you already know isn’t interested?

            I wish you the best of luck though.

            • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              If it’s a cult, so is every single other technology out there.

              I speak with the same passion about Nix which has nothing to do with crypto. Maybe Nix is a cult? I speak passionately about guitar. Maybe guitar is a cult? I speak passionately about liquid democracy. Maybe liquid democracy is a cult? I speak passionately about formal methods. Maybe formal methods are a cult? I speak passionately about Haskell. Maybe Haskell is a cult? 🤷🏻‍♂

              I wish you the best of luck being cynical and quick to shame others for wanting to speak about what they’re interested in, though. Must be nice to have to live in your shoes.

              • Bramble Dog@infosec.pubEnglish
                11·
                1 year ago

                I don’t know what you are talking about.

                I just think we should try and keep get rich quick schemes out as much as possible.

                • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  I just think we should try and keep get rich quick schemes out as much as possible.

                  I agree. NO ONE IS TRYING TO GET YOU TO INVEST. In fact, I don’t want you to invest. I LIKE IT when crypto prices are low because I am actually talking about the technology and moon boys stick to WSB while actual engineers get to work.

  • SpunkyBarnes@geddit.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    The second it becomes a profit center, the death spiral begins. Every “quick buck” opportunist will flock to the smell of easy money, let alone gamification of the system.