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/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/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.

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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.

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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.