TL;DR - Awards are back. We’re also expanding the Contributor Program and announcing a make-good program for those who lost coins during the last product iteration. Let’s start with the obvious – we tried something new, it wasn’t great (you called it). And now – it’s time for us to do something about it. So we’re (re)launching awards, not-so-new but definitely improved. Rollout starts today on reddit.com and Reddit’s iOS and Android apps.

We messed up – sorry

ICYMI, last year that we thought would make the experience of rewarding high-quality posts and comments even better. To address feedback that awards were starting to clutter posts and feeds, we replaced legacy awards with a simplified experience where redditors could purchase “new” gold – displayed as a golden upvote – directly with cash, rather than having to purchase coins first.

While the golden upvote was certainly simpler in theory, in practice, it missed the mark. It wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards, and it was unclear how it benefited the recipient.

As part of the launch of the golden upvote, we also introduced in the U.S. The program allows eligible users to earn cash for their contributions, as measured by the gold and karma received. (It’s worth noting that although there were understandable concerns about the Contributor Program leading to karma farming or other spam and fraud issues, we haven’t seen an increase in this behavior since the rollout six months ago.) Unlike the golden upvote, interest in the program has grown… more on that in a second.

Finally, as part of this launch, we sunset coins. We gave those with a balance two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium.

Award upgrades

We realized the golden upvote was the wrong direction, and the right one was the one you were advocating for all along: awards. We went back to the ol’ drawing and created a refreshed experience that captures the original spirit of awards, with a few improvements.

We’ve added:

• An award button back underneath eligible posts and comments

• Refreshed designs of some of your favorite awards, and some new ones (shoutout galaxy brain)

• Updated interface designed to minimize clutter on the posts and in your feeds

• An awards leaderboard that shows the top awards and gold earned for a post or comment

• New safety guardrails. Awards are not available in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with mature content

• Reporting so you can report any awards that aren’t being used appropriately for moderator removal

Contributor Program expansion

We want redditors who make the most valuable contributions on Reddit to receive real value; not just internet points.

With growing interest in the Contributor Program, we have expanded the program so that qualifying redditors in 35 countries can now earn cash for their contributions to the community. .

The Evolution of Gold and Coins

Gold has been a lot of things in Reddit history. The term has been used interchangeably in the context of awarding content, Reddit Premium, and more – among other things. With this new version of awards, gold can be purchased to give awards. You can buy it in and spend down your gold balance and/or top it up when giving an award.

Those who had a coin balance when we introduced the golden upvote and sunset coins had two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium. For the most prolific and helpful among you, who’d accumulated heaps of coins a la Scrooge McDuck, this was, shall we say, a not-so-great experience.

We know we did not adequately communicate why we removed coins or what was coming next. It wasn’t cool of us, we’re sorry, and we want to make it right. If we removed your coins balance, you’ll have access to a number of exclusive awards to give for free. We don’t want our past mistakes to get in the way of you enjoying the new experience.

This is all so new (but kinda old? but also new?) and you may have questions. You can find support in a few places:

• FAQs pinned in the comments of this post

We’ll be hanging around today if you have any questions, so feel free to drop them in the comments.

TL;DR As a host, you can now schedule and promote AMAs ahead of time, appoint co-hosts, and announce when your post is done. Attendees can now sign up for reminders ahead of time, get notified when the AMA starts, and quickly jump to questions that the host has replied to.

You can’t throw a virtual rock on Reddit without hitting an AMA (ask me anything), where an . Historically, AMAs have been regular text posts with certain elements that make it an AMA post: a proof photo that shows that you are who you say you are, a brief bio, and of course the iconic “AMA!” in the header.

Now, we’re supercharging these special posts. Using the new AMA tab in the web composer (coming soon to mobile) unlocks a suite of special tools that make it easier to spin up and participate in an AMA post.

Quick note that this feature is in limited release right now, but you can expect it to roll out to more redditors in the coming weeks.

If you’re hosting:

Schedule and promote your AMA ahead of time - No more creating two separate posts for an AMA: one to announce it, and one for when it actually starts. With the new AMA post feature, you can now schedule an AMA up to 21 days ahead of the event, and this scheduled post can be promoted and used to capture questions ahead of time, so you can hit the ground running when it starts. Currently, this new AMA post creation is only available on desktop, but will be available on mobile soon.

Add co-hosts - While there is still only one OP, a host can now bring in up to five co-hosts, from friends to mods to publicists to cats. Co-hosts can reply to questions, and their responses will be highlighted in the same way as the OP’s.

End an AMA with a link and a note - When hosting, you can now gracefully exit with a thank you note that includes a link if you want to share more details to mark the official end of the AMA. No more sad questions wondering “Is OP even still here?”

If you’re viewing an AMA:

Get reminders for upcoming AMA posts - If you come across an AMA that hasn’t started yet, you can now hit that Remind Me button and get a push notification 24 hours before the AMA begins, and right when the AMA starts. Reminders will also go to your Inbox under “Activity,” and the posts will show up in your Home feed.

Filter on answered/unanswered - Viewers can easily switch between three views: one containing all the comments on a post, one that just shows where the OP and co-hosts have replied, and one that shows where they haven’t replied yet. This is a great place to check and see if your question has already been asked– and if not, we hope you jump in.

This is just the start of our journey for giving AMA posts the love they deserve. We’ll be hanging around all day for your thoughts, so let us know what you think in the comments!

TL;DR (this is a lengthy post, but stay with us until the end: as a lawyer, I am not allowed to be brief):

We are, unfortunately, seeing more and more commercial entities collecting public data, including Reddit content, in bulk with no regard for user rights or privacy. We believe in preserving public access to Reddit content, but in distributing Reddit content, we need to work with trusted partners that will agree in writing to reasonable protections for redditors. They should respect user decisions to delete their content as well as anything Reddit removes for violating our Content Policy, and they cannot abuse their access by using Reddit content to identify or surveil users.

In line with this, and to be more transparent about how we protect data on Reddit, today we published our , which outlines how we manage access to public content on our platform at scale.

At the same time, we continue to believe in supporting public access to Reddit content for researchers and those who believe in responsible non-commercial use of public data. This is why we’re building new tools for researchers and introducing a new subreddit, . Our goal is for this sub to evolve into a place to better support researchers and academics and improve their access to Reddit data.

Hi, redditors - I’m , Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer, and today I’m sharing more about how we protect content on Reddit.

Our Public Content Policy

Reddit is an inherently public platform, and we want to keep it that way. Although we’ve shared our POV , we’re publishing this policy to give you all (whether you are a redditor, moderator, researcher, or developer) a better sense of how we think about access to public content and the protections that should exist for users against misuse of public content.

This is distinct from our , which covers how we handle the minimal private/personal information users provide to us (such as email). It’s not our , which sets out our rules for what content and behavior is allowed on the platform.

What we consider public content on Reddit

Public content includes all of the content – like posts and comments, usernames and profiles, public karma scores, etc. (for a longer list, you can check out our public API) – that Reddit distributes and makes publicly available to redditors, visitors who use the service, and developers, e.g. to be extra clear, it doesn’t include stuff we don’t make public, such as private messages or mod mail, or non-public account information, such as email address, browsing history, IP address, etc. (this is stuff we don’t and would never license or distribute, because we believe).

Preventing the misuse and abuse of public content

Unfortunately, we see more and more commercial entities using unauthorized access or misusing authorized access to collect public data in bulk, including Reddit public content. Worse, these entities perceive they have no limitation on their usage of that data, and they do so with no regard for user rights or privacy, ignoring reasonable legal, safety, and user removal requests. While we will continue our efforts to block known bad actors, we can’t continue to assume good intentions. We need to do more to restrict access to Reddit public content at scale to trusted actors who have agreed to abide by our policies. But we also need to continue to ensure that users, mods, researchers, and other good-faith, non-commercial actors have access.

The policy, at-a-glance

Our policy outlines the information partners can access via any public-content licensing agreements. It also outlines the commitments we make to users about usage of this content, explaining how:

• We require our partners to uphold the privacy of redditors and their communities. This includes respecting users’ decisions to delete their content and any content we remove for violating our Content Policy.

• Partners are not allowed to use content to identify individuals or their personal information, including for ad targeting purposes.

• Partners cannot use Reddit content to spam or harass redditors.

• Partners are not allowed to use Reddit content to conduct background checks, facial recognition, government surveillance, or help law enforcement do any of the above.

• Partners cannot access public content that includes adult media.

• And, as always, we don’t sell the personal information of redditors.

What’s a policy without enforcement?

Anyone accessing Reddit content must abide by our policies, and we are selective about who we work with and trust with large-scale access to Reddit content. We will block access to those that don’t agree to our policies, and we will continue to enhance our capabilities to hunt down and catch bad actors. We don’t want to but, if necessary, we’ll also take legal action.

What changes for me as a user?

Nothing changes for redditors. You can continue using Reddit logged in, logged out, on mobile, etc.

What do users get out of these agreements?

Users get protections against misuse of public content. Also, commercial agreements allow us to invest more in making Reddit better as a platform and product.

Who can access public content on Reddit?

In addition to those we have agreements with, Reddit Data API access remains free for non-commercial researchers and academics under our published usage threshold. It also remains accessible for organizations like the Internet Archive.

Reddit for Research

It’s important to us that we continue to preserve public for researchers and those who believe in responsible non-commercial use of public data. We believe in and recognize the value that public Reddit content provides to researchers and academics. Academics contribute meaningful and important research that helps shape our understanding of how people interact online. To continue studying the impacts of how behavioral patterns evolve online, access to public data is essential.

That’s why we’re building tools and an environment to help researchers access Reddit content. If you're an academic or researcher, and interested in learning more, head over to and check out ’s first post.

Thank you to the users and mods who gave us feedback in developing this Public Content Policy, including u/abrownn, , , , ,  , , , , , and , among others.

EDIT: Formatting and fighting markdown.