Reddit announces Contributor Program, making karma actually mean something

Today Reddit has announced the launch of its Contributor Program, which is the latest move in its attempt to bring users back to the platform and grow it following the controversy around its API changes earlier this year. The program aims to reward users who post quality content to the Reddit community.

The amount of karma a user has directly influences how much that can be earned, with accounts that have between 100 and 4,999 karma earning $0.90 per 1 gold, and that increases to $1 per gold once the account goes over 5,000 karma. Users need to earn 10 gold within a 30-day period to be eligible for a payout. Otherwise it rolls over to the next period.

Reddit has provided a short summary of how the program will work, and what the requirements are for an account to be eligible for the Contributor Program on its website:

How it works

1. Contributors apply to the program to see if they're eligible.
2. Redditors give gold to posts, comments, or other contributions they think are really worth something.
3. Eligible contributors that earn enough karma and gold can get paid cash.
4. Top contributors make top dollar. The more karma and gold contributors earn, the more money they can receive.

Requirements

1. Earn gold and karma each month
2. Be over 18 and live in the U.S.
3. Provide verification information
4. Only Safe for Work contributions quality
5. Account age must be 30+ days old

Payments from the program will be paid on a monthly basis in U.S. Dollars, with all participants being required to fill out the necessary tax paperwork to be able to receive money from Reddit posts that they submit under the new program.

Additionally, Reddit requires that users have a verified account with Stripe to be able to receive payments. This is Reddit's chosen payments partner which it states "can be changed at our sole discretion."

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