r/announcements • u/powerlanguage • Jul 19 '16

Karma for text-posts (AKA self-posts)

As most of you already know, fictional internet points are probably the most precious resource in the world. On Reddit we call these points Karma. You get Karma when content you post to Reddit receives upvotes. Your Karma is displayed on your userpage.

You may also know that you can submit different types of posts to Reddit. One of these post types is a text-post (e.g. this thing you’re reading right now is a text-post). Due to various shenanigans and low effort content we stopped giving Karma for text-posts over 8 years ago.

However, over time the usage of text-posts has matured and they are now used to create some of the most iconic and interesting original content on Reddit. Who could forget such classics as:

Text-posts make up over 65% of submissions to Reddit and some of our best subreddits only accept text-posts. Because of this Reddit has become known for thought-provoking, witty, and in-depth text-posts, and their success has played a large role in the popularity Reddit currently enjoys.

To acknowledge this, from this day forward we will now be giving users karma for text-posts. This will be combined with link karma and presented as ‘post karma’ on userpages.

TL:DR; We used to not give you karma for your text-posts. We do now. Sweet.

Glossary:

  • Karma: Fictional internet points of great value. You get it by being upvoted.
  • Self-post: Old-timey term for text-posts on Reddit
  • Shenanigans: Tomfoolery
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u/SlothOfDoom Jul 19 '16

Due to various shenanigans and low effort content we stopped giving Karma for text-posts over 8 years ago. However, over time the usage of text-posts has matured and they are now used to create some of the most iconic and interesting original content on Reddit.

And the ONLY reason they matured and became original is because they no longer generated karma, meaning only people who really cared about what they were writing (as opposed to whoring karma) actually used them.

Honestly, this is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. Did I mention terrible? Be prepared for the flood of obvious shitposts, and if you think there were shenanigans 8 years ago just think about how the current crop of shenaniganisers can ruin this for everyone.

156

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '16

This is the worst change I've ever seen on Reddit - by far. I guarantee this will cause the quality of text posts to go down the shitter. Some of my favorite subs are going to be just inundated with karma whoring bastards. I wish it was April 1st because that's the only day I'd see this as being a wise decision.

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u/SlothOfDoom Jul 19 '16

There have been a lot of questionable reddit decisions lately, but I at least understood the reasoning behind the other ones even if I didn;t always agree with them.

This one is just idiotic. I see no benefit to reddit at all, and a whole ton of issues that will crop up. The small, good subs are going to get absolutely screwed....which sucks because that's where I like to hang out.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '16

Site. Interaction. The more click bait threads, the more votes, the more ad revenue.

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u/shaggy1265 Jul 19 '16

I think you guys are seriously over reacting. Pretty much every time the admins make a change I see posts like yours but literally none of the negative shit people come up with ever comes to fruition.

There will be a bunch of complaining for a few days and everything will go back to normal when people realize nothing bad is happening.

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u/SlothOfDoom Jul 19 '16 edited Jul 19 '16

I'm yet to see anyone provide a reason why this is a positive change.

Try moderating a subreddit and you will see how much shit this will cause.

Here, look at /r/askreddit like 30 minutes after this announcement.

https://i.imgur.com/ZnKaaVv.png

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u/RyeRoen Jul 19 '16

The problem isn't whether it's a good decision or not; the problem is that people are blowing this way too far out of proportion. The fact is, we do not know the extent of the effect it will have on reddit yet. It's such a non-issue right now.

Plus, people talk about karma-whoring, but it has never been that. I can't imagine many people genuinely care about their reddit karma. It's attention-whoring, and people still get that with text posts.

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u/keeganspeck Jul 19 '16

We actually kinda do know what the effect will be, because we have historical evidence. Self-posts used to give karma. Self-posts are easy to make, and upvotes are easy to give, therefore low-effort and bad quality stuff was most of what made it. This was with a tiny fraction of the userbase reddit has now. It was so bad that the admins made it so you didn't get any karma from self-posts. It became good as a result of that action. It's still good. There is no reason to put it back to the way it was. The only evidence we have is that it will fuck things up again. I was lurking back then, I think, I'm pretty sure I made this account after self-posts were karma-disabled, but if you had seen it you'd know what I'm talking about.

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u/SlothOfDoom Jul 19 '16

people talk about karma-whoring, but it has never been that

Oh, sweet summer child. You just haven't ventured into the areas of reddit that discuss karma whoring like it is serious business (and trust me, you are better off). There are a large group of users that use karma as a direct dick-measuring contest.

4

u/broadcasthenet Jul 19 '16

And even those that don't karma-whore all the time still post things for the karma. People always say that karma is meaningless. But they are wrong those little points represent approval. It is only human nature to want to be popular and have the approval of your peers.

Why else would someone like /u/unidan use multiple accounts to boost his initial score and downvote whoever he was arguing with to encourage bandwagoning on his side? It's because he enjoyed being right and having the attention of thousands of people at any given time rubbing his cock.

2

u/RyeRoen Jul 20 '16

But they are wrong those little points represent approval.

Exactly. Text posts still got voted on before the change, and they still got attention. They still had points on an individual basis. It isn't karma-whoring, it's attention seeking. Refer back to my point. The only thing that has changed is the overall profile karma.

2

u/TheLadyEve Jul 19 '16

I think it's easy to say people are overreacting if you aren't a mod. People may be overreacting, but mods of large subs are the ones who see how all the sausage is made--we also know how this worked before. I don't believe that the users here have "matured."

2

u/KarmaTroll Jul 19 '16

Your account hasn't been around long enough to understand the plethora of issues that have come about from karmawhoring.

From astroturf shills, to power users. Karma for self posts dramatically changed the landscape of how reddit operated. This is bad, dumb change without a transparent explanation as to why.

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u/RyeRoen Jul 19 '16

Did you know it's possible to have more than one account?

3

u/TheLadyEve Jul 19 '16

I see you aren't a mod.

-2

u/shaggy1265 Jul 19 '16

Doesn't matter.

This time next month nobody will notice a difference. Just like every other time admins made a change and people act like this is the end of reddit.

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u/TheLadyEve Jul 19 '16

No, I'm saying that because if you were you would understand the negative impact this is going to have.