“We Messed Up — Sorry”: Reddit Reintroduces Old Award System

Reddit reintroduced its old award system last week, along with other new updates, after users found the “golden upvote” system that was introduced less engaging

“We tried something new, it wasn’t great (you called it),” Reddit said in the May 15th post. It also said that the new golden upvote system “wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards.” As a result, it’s “(re)launching awards, not-so-new but definitely improved.”

The company stated that the new system, available on both its mobile apps and site, will retain most of the mechanisms from the previous award program while incorporating some new elements. The company is also replacing the previously used coins, which were purchased with real money to buy awards, with gold.

An award button is placed under eligible posts, and the user interface (UI) has been updated to reduce clutter. Moreover, the new system also includes an awards leaderboard showcasing the top awards and gold earned for a post or comment.

Despite Reddit’s apologetic attempt to placate its users, many seemed confused with the new award system. “It’s wonderful to see you acknowledge that and try to fix it, but this seems like a mishmash of the old gold system and the one you tried to replace it with… it’s going to be more confusing than ever,” said one user.

Some expressed disappointment, calling the new award system a downgrade from the original one. “Still no free coins anymore? … I think this is still a downgrade from the original system in a lot of ways, other than reducing clutter,” said another.

Reddit also acknowledged the users whose coin balance was removed. The company announced that these users would have access to some exclusive awards to be used free of charge.

Reddit has also added new safety measures to prevent awards from appearing on sensitive, mature, or NSFW subreddits and to allow users to report any misuse of awards.