We Deserve to Get Paid for Our Work
Join us at r/MonetizeReddit
Reddit is one of the most popular and influential social media platforms in the world, with over 50 million daily active users and hundreds of thousands of communities. However, behind the scenes, there is a group of people who make Reddit possible: the moderators.
Moderators are unpaid workers who manage and maintain the quality of the content and discussions on Reddit. We set the rules, remove spam, ban trolls, resolve conflicts, and foster a positive environment for our communities. We do this without any compensation or recognition from Reddit, often spending hours of our own time and money to keep our subreddits running smoothly.
However, this situation is unfair and unsustainable, especially in times of record inflation and economic uncertainty. Moderators deserve to be paid for their work, not only because we provide a valuable service to Reddit and its users, but also because we face many challenges and risks that affect our well-being and safety.
Some of the challenges and risks that moderators face are:
– Burnout: Moderating can be exhausting and stressful, especially for large and active subreddits. Moderators have to deal with a constant stream of posts, comments, reports, messages, and complaints, sometimes from hostile or abusive users. We also have to balance our moderating duties with our personal and professional lives, which can be difficult and overwhelming. These challenges can take a toll on the mental health and well-being of moderators, who often feel overwhelmed, frustrated, isolated, or unappreciated. Many moderators quit or take breaks from moderating due to burnout or personal reasons. This can create gaps in moderation coverage, inconsistency in moderation quality, or loss of institutional knowledge among moderators. Paying moderators would reduce burnout and turnover among moderators.
– Harassment: Moderators are often targets of harassment and threats from disgruntled or malicious users, both on Reddit and on other platforms. Moderators must cope with harassment, abuse, threats, doxxing, brigading, and other forms of intimidation and violence from malicious actors or disgruntled users. These attacks can have serious consequences for our mental and physical health, as well as our privacy and security.
– Lack of recognition: Moderators receive no recognition or appreciation from Reddit for our work. Reddit does not acknowledge or reward moderators for their contributions to the website and its communities. Reddit does not offer any revenue sharing.
By paying moderators, Reddit would acknowledge and reward the hard work and dedication of moderators. It would also provide us with more resources and support to cope with the challenges and risks of moderating. This would reduce the stress and pressure on moderators, increase our motivation and satisfaction, and retain us for longer.
Paying moderators would align Reddit's values with its actions and increase its social responsibility. Reddit claims to be “the front page of the internet”, a platform that empowers people to create communities around their passions and interests. It also claims to be “a force for good in the world”, a platform that supports causes such as net neutrality, free speech, democracy, and human rights.
However, these values are contradicted by the fact that Reddit relies on unpaid labor from moderators to run its platform. This creates a power imbalance between Reddit and its moderators, where Reddit benefits from the value created by moderators without sharing any of the rewards or responsibilities. This also creates a moral hazard for Reddit, where it can avoid accountability for the content and actions of its users by shifting the blame or burden to its moderators.
By paying moderators, Reddit would demonstrate that it respects and values its moderators as essential partners in its success. It would also show that it is committed to upholding its values and fulfilling its social responsibility as a global leader in online media. This would enhance Reddit's reputation and credibility among its users, advertisers, investors, regulators, media outlets, and other stakeholders.
How Reddit Benefits from Revenue Sharing
By facilitating ad revenue sharing with subreddit moderators, Reddit can foster a mutually beneficial relationship. As more companies and influencers see the value in advertising their Reddit communities, the platform's overall advertising revenue would likely increase, benefiting both Reddit and its moderators. This phenomenon has been observed on other social media platforms, such as YouTube and Twitter, and could have a profound impact on Reddit's user base and overall engagement.
In May of 2007, YouTube introduced its Partner Program, a significant milestone that allowed content creators to participate in the advertising revenue generated by their videos. This initiative proved mutually advantageous for both YouTube and its partners, providing a compelling incentive for creators to produce higher-quality content. This, in turn, attracted a broader viewership and more advertisers to the platform. YouTube's Partner Program set it apart from other video platforms like Vimeo or Dailymotion, which lacked a comparable opportunity for creators to earn. By recognizing and rewarding creators for their contributions, YouTube cultivated a devoted and diverse community of content producers, resulting in increased value for the platform and its advertisers.
Furthermore, the Partner Program exerted a positive influence on the richness and diversity of content found on YouTube. Creators began experimenting with various formats, genres, and subject matter to cater to a wide range of audiences and niches. Some of the platform's most popular and influential genres, such as gaming, beauty, education, and comedy, either emerged or experienced significant growth thanks to the incentives provided by the Partner Program.
Undoubtedly, YouTube's strategic implementation of the Partner Program was a shrewd move, fueling the platform's exponential growth and solidifying its dominance within the online video industry. By empowering and compensating creators, YouTube established a virtuous cycle of content creation and consumption that benefited both the platform and its user community.
In July 2023, X.com (Twitter) introduced a new ad revenue sharing program where creators are now receiving compensation from a portion of the ad revenue generated within the replies to their posts. Notably, some prominent creators have reported substantial earnings from this initiative, such as Brian Krassenstein, with approximately 750,000 followers, who disclosed receiving $24,305. SK, boasting around 230,000 followers, claimed earnings of $2,236, while political commentator Benny Johnson, with 1.7 million followers, reported $9,546. The payout structure is based on tweet impressions, with creators like Ashley St. Clair, a Babylon Bee writer with 710,000 followers, stated that she earned $7,153 with approximately 840 million impressions from February to July, roughly equating to a rate of $0.0085 CPM (cost per mille), or $8.52 per million impressions. Twitter's decision to monetize ad replies addresses the complexity of compensating creators for ads in the feed. This approach incentivizes creators to create more content. Twitter starts sharing ad revenue with verified creators | TechCrunch
I am asking you to join r/MonetizeReddit and start this movement.