Reddit was announced on Wednesday that it is bringing back its rewards system after ending the program last year. The company said that most of the mechanics related to the prizes will remain the same, with some new additions. For example, there’s a new design for awards, a new awards button under eligible posts, and a leaderboard showing top awards earned for a comment or post.
Earlier this month, Reddit talked about bringing back its rewards program during its first earnings call as a public company.
The company shut down its rewards program last year along with the ability for users to buy coins. At the same time, Reddit introduced “Golden Upvotes”, which were purchased directly with cash. In a new post, the company said the system was not as expressive as the awards.
“While the gold vote was certainly simpler in theory, in practice it missed the mark. It wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards and it wasn’t clear how it benefited the recipient,” the social network said.
Users who want to reward posts and comments will need to buy “gold”, which replaces coins. On a support page, the company stated that, on average, Prizes cost between 15 and 50 gold. Gold packs on the Reddit mobile apps currently start at $1.99 for 100 gold. Users can buy up to 2,750 gold for $49.99.
The company is also adding some safeguards to the rewards system, such as disabling rewards on NSFW subreddits, injury and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with adult content. Additionally, users will be able to report awards to avoid being used for moderator deductions.
Last year, Reddit introduced a community rewards program for US users and started paying people for useful contributions. With its latest announcement, the social networking company also expanded the program to 35 countries.
