Read all about it at the above link. There’s way too much to process here. This is going to be wild.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍
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    44710 months ago

    Community Points are the first step towards a better future for online communities. In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away. With the advent of blockchain technology, we now have a way to establish this freedom in a decentralized and secure way.

    The way to be independent of Reddit is by having a token on a blockchain maintained by Reddit?

    • @[email protected]
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      34110 months ago

      Also an odd statement from a company that just strong armed a bunch of communities into either conforming or having their leaders replaced.

      • @bozo
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        10 months ago

        FYI, this isn’t exactly news, it’s been publicly announced over a year and a half ago. I’m not a fan of what Reddit’s doing either, but after reading this comment section I feel like this needs to be put into perspective a bit.

    • MentalEdge
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      17810 months ago

      Holy shit.

      I did not expect the next wave of new users on Lemmy to be happening this soon.

      • @Riccosuave
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        4110 months ago

        Batten down the hatches mateys. Tharrr be a storm brewin’ ☠️ 🏴‍☠️💀

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        New LemmyFediverse boi since the Great Purge; this is seriously happening again, already? Glad I got out when I did. Compared to the old place, experiencing and interacting with Lemmy is like a calming dip in the Great Link (not a Changeling honest)

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          Yeah same. There are a couple of communities over there that I kind of miss, although one or two of them have been recreated on Lemmy basic nobody posts on the yet, or they get continually brigated.

          I need to check out the other servers though. Lemmy is just so far superior to what Reddit was in how it’s fundamentally designed.

      • @[email protected]
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        2110 months ago

        Me neither. How long till old.reddit.com goes away? That was supposed to be the next big spike in the Lemmy growth curve.

        I can’t believe I read that whole thing. I take that back, I can’t believe Reddit actually thought this was a good idea and put it out into the world.

        • @assassin_aragorn
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          610 months ago

          Well in January I believe they told third party app developers that they weren’t going to charge for the API this year (but that someone was in the works). Then May I believe is when reneged on that? June? I know the charging went into effect on July 1.

          In May/June Spez said that old Reddit wasn’t going anywhere. So we can extrapolate ~October for them to announce it’s ending, and then it being killed by the end of the year.

        • @Scotty_Trees
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          310 months ago

          I’m still using Old Reddit so the second it goes down you’ll definitely be hearing about it, at least from me 😉

      • 👁️👄👁️
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        810 months ago

        At least we got some better mobile apps now. Hopefully Photon gets replaced as a front page on more instances too. That’d get a lot more people to stay.

      • @Sine_Fine_Belli
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        110 months ago

        Same

        Oh well, can’t wait for the all new people to come here

        • @lemmylommy
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          5610 months ago

          Y’all heard about that Web 2.0 thing?

          • theJWPHTER88
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            1310 months ago

            Although I’m not in any way aware or alive when that was happening back then - that “.com bubble” blast I think? - I surmise that was a real crash-and-burn phenomenon, McKinstry’s “CR6” internet show being one of its casualties, despite its significance in online emergent media history.

            • @[email protected]
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              310 months ago

              Isn’t anything post dot com bubble considered Web 2.0?

              So we’re still in Web 2.0, or when was the cutoff?

              The dot com bubble was late 90s, early 2000s, tons of companies went under. Lot of jobs and VC money lost. People had to rethink how they could monetize, stop a lot of advertising scams, and what was really worth investing in that might return a profit.

      • athos77
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        3210 months ago

        Spez has been jonesing for redditcrypto since 2016.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          With their servers always going down I assume they won’t mine this thenselves. I bet they push that load out onto user clients lol.

  • @[email protected]
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    42610 months ago

    Today’s online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence or control anything of value.

    That’s hilarious, when they literally just trapped users in their app and killed 3rd party apps.

  • epicspongee [they/them or he/him]
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    36910 months ago

    In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away.

    Is this a fucking joke

    • MentalEdge
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      22910 months ago

      Reading this: are they implementing ActivityPub?

      Blockchain

      Oh sweet lord, no. No, they are not.

      • RBG
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        10410 months ago

        Someone at Reddit had Blockchain missing in their buzzword bingo for 2023, I swear.

      • @[email protected]
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        3610 months ago

        I think that’s their point, to sound like the Fediverse but is actually a different way for them to get money and control the narrative. They’re also possibly trying to take away shutting down shitty sites “by giving the communities control.”

      • @DrQuint
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        10 months ago

        Like, they’re giving users monopoly money, and try to pass it off as control. Like, the fuck are they gonna do with the monopoly money?

        Plus imagine if users actually believe the monopoly money is important. We’re back on the days of BB Forums where you can make a factual point but oops, you’re level 2 and the forum regular (4506 posts) just called you a cocksucker.

        Edit: Oh god, the moderator wallet thing. They’re letting moderators moderate themselves. This is going to set off a massive amount of infighting as some admins will take the whole wallet and the other moderators will call them out and the seriousness of the whole thing (moderation teams not getting along) will get drowned out with all the people shitposting about fighting for monopoly money.

        This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months ago

          the fuck are they gonna do with the monopoly money?

          Simple - the illusion of control. And, I’m sure the users will.

      • ZeroXHunter
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        310 months ago

        Thank goodness, I wasn’t the only one. I really thought they were talking about activitypub.

    • @fluxion
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      3110 months ago

      So long as you have Reddit Mobile installed since your vault is tied to it

      • @[email protected]
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        1110 months ago

        That’s been their mission ever since they bought and killed alien blue and released a pile of shit in its place. They can’t make a good app so have been slowly tying more and more exclusive features to it, and to new Reddit, hoping that this new shiny useless thing that no one asked for or wanted will get people to use it. I think with interest rates rising, their investors are looking for profits higher than t bills and so this trend that has been going on for the past few years is now kicked into overdrive.

      • @Hitchie_Rawtin
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        310 months ago

        They’ve updated their preview feature TOS as recently as last month to push forward with avatars and community points, I reckon they’re just biding time to sync it with the next bull run to maximise value and heighten chance of seeming like they have genius cutting edge foresight.

        Link here, specifically 5.1

        The bottom of that’s also funny because it makes it clear their smart contract is permissioned and if they don’t like what you do with your virtual goods they can remove them from you. Very immutable, wow, such ownership.

        • Fish [Indiana]
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          310 months ago

          Thanks for this! I was having trouble finding anything with a recent date on it related to Community Points.

          That makes me wonder if Reddit is trying to keep this under wraps until release date, so that their remaining userbase doesn’t have another protest. It’s kind of crazy that they have been working on this crypto garbage for three years, yet don’t have the foresight to see that this is going to backfire. Is there anyone, aside from crypto bros., that are even interested in crypto and NFTs anymore?

          “Failure to follow and comply with the above rules may constitute a breach of the Previews Terms and result in a temporary or permanent ban from Reddit or certain subreddits or removal of your access to Reddit Econ Goods.”

          So they can take your coins at any time if they don’t approve of something that you do.

          “By using any Feature, you understand that the Feature may be canceled at any time for any or no reason, in our sole discretion, without advance notice or liability to Reddit. We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any Feature (in whole or in part) at any time, with or without notice to you…There will be no refunds if any Feature is no longer usable on or through the Services.”

          Also, they can get rid everyone’s coins at any time without reimbursing them. I hope Community Points will be the final nail in Reddit’s coffin. It would be really funny if Reddit was killed by crypto.

          • @Hitchie_Rawtin
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            210 months ago

            Oh there’s a ton of interest but just kept to shitcoiners for now - the subreddits are nothing like they were during the bear market around 2019, back then it was a ghost town even with a subscriber count of 800k but now they’re still very active due to an influx of millions of users (6m subs on the main shitcoin sub).

            It’ll all likely swing back up in the next two years and become a media and scam frenzy again, then another crash, rinse, repeat.

            Reddit shilling decentralisation and ownership knowing how they’ve acted the last few months is hilarious though, they’ve been prideful of saying “nope you don’t own shit,now fuck off somewhere else” and spez bootlickers have been parroting it endlessly too. Seems odd that they’re the people Reddit are going to have to advertise this… Fauxnership to.

            • Fish [Indiana]
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              10 months ago

              I’m not sure if I agree that crypto is going to swing back up, or at least not like it did in 2021. The subreddit may have more than 6 million users, but it doesn’t have any posts in the past week with more than 1000 upvotes. In reality, the crypto subreddit has a smaller userbase than Lemmy. That’s probably not entirely representative of the entire crypto community, but I think that it does indicate that a lot of people have lost interest.

              I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how it all goes down though. Makes me glad I’m on Lemmy now.

              • @Hitchie_Rawtin
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                210 months ago

                It was much worse in 2019, a post hitting over 100-200 was unusual and the comment sections were beyond dead. Most comment sections these days are still filled with hope, in 2019 suicide hotline threads were a weekly occurrence or more.

                We’ll see anyway, the BTC halving has led to a run 3 times in a row so far, just like clockwork. Barring another recession I just see the same pattern forming.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Glanced over it. Complete word salad. Corporate nonsense: baffle them with bullshit.

    You get points from communities. These points are stored on the block chain, because why not? The points themselves come from reddit, but the communities distribute them. Since they’re on the block chain, reddit can’t take back your magic bean points or whatever once you get them. Nevermind that they’re worthless and that reddit controls the only platform that they’re even remotely useful on.

    For now, Reddit will cover gas costs for distributing Points to users and allowing them to spend Points on features such as Special Memberships.

    Emphasis mine. Someone has to pay for it, because that’s how the block chain works. For now it’s Reddit. In the future? Who knows!

    How does this benefit the consumer? It doesn’t, really. Potentially it gives posters more control over a subreddit, but looks like mods will still hold essentially all the power when it comes to a subreddit, which is how it works now.

    How does this benefit reddit as a business? It doesn’t, really. They’re handing out magic beans with the selling point being that they can’t take them away from you once you get them. It costs them money to do this, because it’s on the block chain as opposed to some in-house database. This replaced coins, right? They killed an income stream and replaced it with an expense.

    They get to tell investors that they’re into the block chain when they launch their IPO, I guess. All I can say is buyer beware. Chances are high the powers that be unload their stock options in the IPO hype and then get the hell out of dodge. They might have waited too long, though. The tech bubble deflated, and I don’t know if the books are impressive enough to draw in the big bucks from investors.

    If you want genuine control over your community, start one on the Fediverse and self-host an instance. No admins will kick you off since you’re your own admin and head mod rolled into one.

    • theodewere
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      10 months ago

      its main value to the owners is that it is a more direct means of controlling user behavior… once they get people used to “real” rewards, they can better use the platform as a means of controlling discourse… which is why the Mukser is doing it on the other thing, and where they got the idea…

      they’re trolls… they want to use it to troll harder…

    • @Shelbyeileen
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      4010 months ago

      Thank you for making this more understandable. It really feels like a “the people who pay us more will have a louder voice” and I am grossed out, if that’s the case.

      • @[email protected]
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        810 months ago

        Yeah, I had missed the $5 per month per community part, which does basically boil down to that.

    • @__dev
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      2710 months ago

      They’re handing out magic beans with the selling point being that they can’t take them away from you once you get them.

      And that’s not even true in any practical sense. If reddit decides that the token in your crypto wallet is invalid, then it’ll stop working on reddit. And since they’re the only issuer every possible use is going to be tied to reddit in some sense.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      How does this benefit reddit as a business? It doesn’t, really

      $5/month per community

      You may have missed it, but they snuck in that Special Memberships (subreddit subscriptions, which unlock badges and emojis and stuff) cost $5 a month per subreddit, outside of Reddit Premium. You can also spend 1000 Community Points, but if you don’t have the balance and want the benefits, you’ll be giving reddit money.

      It feels like reddit has come to understand how much closer redditors feel to their communities than reddit as a whole - reddit is hated, but users still cling to their communities. A sitewide Reddit Premium badge is irrelevant, even repugnant and a badge of shame, but special flairs and features in close knit communities are still desirable.

      This is reddit exploiting their users’ relationships with their communities with a stackable 5 buck alternative to Reddit Premium.

      • @[email protected]
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        310 months ago

        I still don’t really get who gets the money from this special membership? I understand people subscribe to YouTube and twitch personalities because they want to support the creator and they get most of the money, but what incentive does anyone have to buy this community membership here? Is it really just the special avatars/badges/whatever?

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          Clout in a community they care about. I can’t relate to wanting it, but people buy clout all the time online and in games. This is basically a more personalized Twitter Blue.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        They also said something about community points being usable for moderation/governance. Does that mean people can come in and save/buy enough Community Points to enact a coup?

        Like, Atheists could get enough Christianity sub credits and ban all the Christians? Or bigots could seize an LGBTQ+ sub? It seems kinda like a nightmare waiting to happen if so.

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      I think this also clarifys the mystery of why they said offering the API was costing the too much.

  • @Kinglink
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    20910 months ago

    As blockchain tokens

    Thanks I read enough.

    • HuddaBudda
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      5610 months ago

      Hey… Hey boss. I got an offer for ya. How would you like a crypto that you cannot take off of reddit! Only exists on Reddit. And gives you “exposure.”

      • Carighan Maconar
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        3810 months ago

        “All the downsides of any other cryptocurrency, and like all the other ones, none of the upsides! It’s redditcoin!” *crowd jeers, C-suites look confused*

      • @okfuskee
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        310 months ago

        Exposure beans! For everyone!

      • @Kinglink
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        610 months ago

        Ok truthfully I read more, but that’s where I was like “That’s not going to fly”

  • @skeddles
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    19410 months ago

    " In order to be truly independent from platforms like Reddit, communities need to be owned by their members in ways that platforms cannot take away"

    WTF!!! They literally just took communities away from the members because they were protesting Reddit intentionally degrading their site…

  • @igorlogius
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    deleted by creator

  • @[email protected]
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    16310 months ago

    Guaranteed that people smarter than the reddit staff will exploit their processes or code to cause mayhem and chaos.

    100% guaranteed.

    • @chriscrutch
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      6110 months ago

      I hope so. It’ll be fun to watch.

    • yukichigai
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      5110 months ago

      I can hardly wait for someone to find a vulnerability in their blockchain implementation that allows community points to execute arbitrary code.

      • @Riccosuave
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        1710 months ago

        After watching the literally insane ACE that speedrunners have been able to figure out, I’m pretty sure you’re hitting the nail on the head. Someone is going to get up to some serious skulduggery with this one.

  • falkerie71
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    12610 months ago

    So it’s basically Reddit NFTs. Let’s just call it as it is.

    It is time for them to take back ownership and control. It is time for a change.

    Lol. You’re still on Reddit. You’re not controlling shit.

    As blockchain tokens that are owned and controlled by communities themselves — not by any app or platform — Community Points represent a way for Redditors to own a piece of their favorite communities.

    You don’t own it, it’s made by Reddit, distributed by Reddit, and only useful on Reddit and not anywhere else. What’s the meaning of decentralization and ownership if it’s only useful in one place?

  • partial_accumen
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    12510 months ago

    So you get points for posting and for moderating. It’s this literally being “paid in exposure”? Don’t we joke about this all the time how worthless it is?

    • @[email protected]
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      8310 months ago

      Oh God, now they’ve actually monetized all the repost bots. It’s like they WANT their site to turn into a bot hellhole.

      • Nepenthe
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        Well, they kinda do. They don’t have to be human to look like users from the outside.

        Looking at this screams that they’re planning to cut and run, though. It’s arson for the insurance money. Nobody would look at this longterm and think it was going to turn out well

    • @jarfil
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      110 months ago

      When you get 100,000 exposure, and there are suckers paying $4 for each, how many USD do you have?

      (Spoiler: none, but if you’re smart, then you may get USD 200K)

  • @[email protected]
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    12010 months ago

    A crypto scam? All this was building to a crypto scam? They burned Reddit to the ground to pump some shitty Redditcoin going into the IPO?

    I expect nothing and I’m still let down.

  • VCTRN
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    11510 months ago

    It is time for communities to break free of walled gardens

    Lmao how can they say that with a straight face

  • @[email protected]
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    10510 months ago

    Lmao

    Today’s online communities are not like this. They are trapped inside apps and platforms, where they do not have independence

    Trapped in apps like the official Reddit app? Because they ruined 3rd party apps? What are they sniffing over there, the trapping of communities is their own doing.

    I’m done with reddit, so either way I don’t really care. Tbh I don’t think this will necessarily be a dumpster fire. It might even be interesting, depending on the specifics of this implementation. It’s probably fueled by higher ups hearing hype words like blockchain. My expectation is that things will mostly just continue as normal, but now the management and CEO’s etc can masturbate to the idea of having a blockchain application.

  • @loki_d20
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    10110 months ago

    It’s time for communities to take back ownership and control says company that just took away ownership and control from communities.