Fact is, the Lemmy ecosystem needs money to handle the growing server reqirements as more people migrate as well as the development cost of new features (I know Lemmy is OSS but the devs should still get some compensation for their effort).
Seeing how much some reddit users love awards so much that they cant stop giving money to Reddit to award posts protesting the api change, this could be a great way for users to voluntary support the ecosystem. It can be easily ignored by users not caring about them (clients could even add an option to hide them), but users liking the feature can go wild and this time the money goes to volunteers keeping this alive instead of greedy admins, power mods and investors.
Though there would be some big organization questions attached:
attached:
Which server handles the payment? A centralized one, the one where the post was made or the one where the user giving the award account was created.
How will the money be shared between the Devs and the individual instances in a way that is fair but cant be abused easily.
I only gave awards after getting ones that gave me points to give awards, and then gave them either to sad posts or when someone said to someone else, I wish I had an award to give you so take this emoji! (🎖️) so I’d cover for them, as that was appropriate.
This is to say, I suck at awards protocol, and will write fancy comments whether I’m getting awards or not.
On a serious note, I think the best implementation would be like a “trophy case”(like reddit) , where each instance can give any user an award for any reason that they can display in their user page. Doesn’t get in the way of discussion, but gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment. (heh)
Unlike reddit, these award should be able to be turned off individually , since you don’t want rogue instance admins to give you offensive “awards” for your user page.
You also shouldn’t be able to see awards from defederated instances to prevent trolling.
I hadn’t thought of this trophy case idea. I like it. I still don’t want awards that are in any way desirable. Like, I don’t know I was reading Calvin and Hobbes this morning maybe a “noodle incident” type award. If you have a memorable post like the not pooping dude maybe an admin or mod puts that in your trophy case? I don’t completely wake up for another hour but I like this train of thought you’ve put me on
I think it’s interesting to look into but it might be abusable. The payment system will be so complicated on top of the legal issues that one would need to deal with.
I don’t love the awards from Reddit, but I would like to see something like this (unpopular opinion, I know). Instances need funding.
I don’t care about what the awards are themselves, I care about the way the funding works. I would love to see the funds split in a two tiered system.
Here is a general example of my idea. When a award is purchased it gets split into two pots. One pot is a general pot that gets disbursed to those running the instances based on whatever metrics and intervals agreed upon. The other part gets assigned to the reward itself. So in this example let’s say an award costs one dollar. 90 cents would go to the pool to be split, the other 10 cents would be tied to the award. So if you award a post on an instance it goes specifically to that instance itself. Instances could even set a percent split with community moderators of the 10 cents. That way you could fund moderators (if that ever becomes needed)
You could even split part of the award reward with the commentor assigned to it… but that puts a weird feeling in my gut and I feel like it is a bad idea to monetize the content itself.
There is a lot you could do with this and a lot more would need to be fleshed out, so I am just thinking out loud.
Why don’t server admins open OpenCollective accounts or something similar. It seems to work on Mastodon. I would be willing to pitch in to help finance the instance I’m on.
I pass. Gamifying social interactions leads to abuse and lowers the quality of posts, comments, reports, etc. It’s a streamlined path to enshittification.
Even “user-provided awards” should be kept out.
It provides nothing substantial to the conversation.
It’s like saying “This 👆”, “I agree”, or “Take my upvote!”, all of which can be expressed by simply voting on the comment, which actually has an impact.
I’m really not looking for a Reddit replica. And um, being rewarded for a good comment isn’t really something I need. Or anyone needs. I think getting a cookie for a good comment can be left behind
Edit to add - I should have read the rest of the post more carefully, but I stand by my initial sentiment. Money needs to be funneled into those working hard on this, but I don’t know, I don’t want more and more Reddit features coming out
Yes that gave a lot of people a lot of reddit coins, or whatever it is called, used to buy awards. But their reddit gold shold have expired a long time ago.
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Please no rewards. This is not reddit. I think a donation system would be much better way to go about it.
Let the content and conversations just happen. It’s more organic that way.
I only gave awards after getting ones that gave me points to give awards, and then gave them either to sad posts or when someone said to someone else, I wish I had an award to give you so take this emoji! (🎖️) so I’d cover for them, as that was appropriate.
This is to say, I suck at awards protocol, and will write fancy comments whether I’m getting awards or not.
I’ve never wanted anything less in my life.
I’d like the idea if they either can’t be purchased, or the purchase goes toward your Instance’s hosting fees
On a serious note, I think the best implementation would be like a “trophy case”(like reddit) , where each instance can give any user an award for any reason that they can display in their user page. Doesn’t get in the way of discussion, but gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment. (heh)
Unlike reddit, these award should be able to be turned off individually , since you don’t want rogue instance admins to give you offensive “awards” for your user page.
You also shouldn’t be able to see awards from defederated instances to prevent trolling.
I hadn’t thought of this trophy case idea. I like it. I still don’t want awards that are in any way desirable. Like, I don’t know I was reading Calvin and Hobbes this morning maybe a “noodle incident” type award. If you have a memorable post like the not pooping dude maybe an admin or mod puts that in your trophy case? I don’t completely wake up for another hour but I like this train of thought you’ve put me on
Edit: starting to wake up something about beans
THANKS FOR THE GOLD KIND STRANGER.
I think it’s interesting to look into but it might be abusable. The payment system will be so complicated on top of the legal issues that one would need to deal with.
Upvotes are fine for now.
I don’t love the awards from Reddit, but I would like to see something like this (unpopular opinion, I know). Instances need funding.
I don’t care about what the awards are themselves, I care about the way the funding works. I would love to see the funds split in a two tiered system.
Here is a general example of my idea. When a award is purchased it gets split into two pots. One pot is a general pot that gets disbursed to those running the instances based on whatever metrics and intervals agreed upon. The other part gets assigned to the reward itself. So in this example let’s say an award costs one dollar. 90 cents would go to the pool to be split, the other 10 cents would be tied to the award. So if you award a post on an instance it goes specifically to that instance itself. Instances could even set a percent split with community moderators of the 10 cents. That way you could fund moderators (if that ever becomes needed)
You could even split part of the award reward with the commentor assigned to it… but that puts a weird feeling in my gut and I feel like it is a bad idea to monetize the content itself.
There is a lot you could do with this and a lot more would need to be fleshed out, so I am just thinking out loud.
Why don’t server admins open OpenCollective accounts or something similar. It seems to work on Mastodon. I would be willing to pitch in to help finance the instance I’m on.
Some at least do. The Lemmy backend devs have an Open Collective page and so does the Lemmy.world admin.
Your instance admin has https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tedvdb
You can verify the link here: https://feddit.nl/u/tedvdb
I pass. Gamifying social interactions leads to abuse and lowers the quality of posts, comments, reports, etc. It’s a streamlined path to enshittification.
Only user-provided 🏅🐭 awards here, at most.
Even “user-provided awards” should be kept out. It provides nothing substantial to the conversation.
It’s like saying “This 👆”, “I agree”, or “Take my upvote!”, all of which can be expressed by simply voting on the comment, which actually has an impact.
Fully agreed. That’s why I said “at most” because that’s the worst I’d tolerate, but I still think upvoting is already enough.
I don’t want to see award speeches here on Lemmy. For example: OMG! THANK YOU FOR THE GOLD KIND STRANGER!!!1111
I agree.
EDIT: WOW 1 LIKE??? THANK YOU STRANGER I’VE NEVER GOTTEN THIS MANY LIKES BEFORE!1!!1
I’m really not looking for a Reddit replica. And um, being rewarded for a good comment isn’t really something I need. Or anyone needs. I think getting a cookie for a good comment can be left behind
Edit to add - I should have read the rest of the post more carefully, but I stand by my initial sentiment. Money needs to be funneled into those working hard on this, but I don’t know, I don’t want more and more Reddit features coming out
Much of the awards you see given out on Reddit was free. It was given out I think back when Alien Blue was bought out.
Free awards are the ones ones spammed on random posts so if awards are added, they should be paid only.
Yes that gave a lot of people a lot of reddit coins, or whatever it is called, used to buy awards. But their reddit gold shold have expired a long time ago.
It didn’t. I used the last of mine on the last dumpster fire AMA.
please no!! reddit looked like las vegas with that award system. terrible idea!
Can’t we just stick with normal donations instead of turning this place into a sea of rainbow vomit.