Why Are Reddit Awards Gone?

The Gist:

• Reddit recently rolled back its awards and coins systems for “reworking”.
• The company claims to be launching in a “new direction” in terms of users awarding other redditors.
• Redditors are dubious toward these impending changes.

Reddit has been through the ringer all year. Not that it’s never faced its share of biannual controversies or has been widely criticized for misinformation and community toxicity, but 2023 has been quite the year for the social discussion platform.

Earlier in April, Reddit announced that it would begin charging for its API usage, which has been free since the site launched in 2008. This move essentially locks out third-party applications for Reddit, which many redditors use for their experience.

The move has been widely criticized by users, who have taken several opportunities to protest and express their disdain for the upcoming charges throughout the year. As of this writing, however, CEO Steve Huffman aka Spez has made no announcements to rescind this new policy.

In fact, even more changes may be on the horizon for Reddit. The platform recently announced that the user awards system will soon take on new form. To that end, these awards are now gone. Here’s what happened to them.

Reddit first introduced its user awards system back in 2010. Through this system, redditors had the ability to grant each other awards based on posts or comments that they enjoyed. Users who received awards could also earn Reddit Coins that they could spend on ad-free browsing privileges and exclusive perks.

Giving awards was simple, too. All one had to do was tap the gift icon on a post or comment and choose which award they wanted to grant.

Awards took the form of custom community awards, medals of varying values, and good old reaction awards for any post that elicited an emotional response.

On Sept. 12 2023, however, awards were removed in their current form. In fact, a Reddit community post posted earlier this July indicates that awards, coins, and premium systems would be receiving a massive overhaul.

In their post, Reddit stated, “It’s become clear that awards and coins as they exist today need to be re-thought and the existing system sunsetted. Rewarding content and contribution (as well as something golden) will still be a core part of Reddit.”