I think people need to understand the reddit is not a service. Did it start out that way? Maybe. But that has long since stopped being the case. They love to give the image of being 'just like us' and all that but it's simply not true.

Reddit is a business, it makes money. Others have explained this far better than I ever could do, but it's a fact.

Now to be clear. I have no issue with this. I use reddit and enjoy doing so, I'm just not under the impression they are doing us any kind of favor. I'm fine with that, but people should be aware of it.

Remember how gold came about? There was a post about how "reddit is in the red". Everyone made this big call to arms to help give them money... without stopping for one second to go "wait.. how are they still running if they're 'in the red'?". Because they want to be in the red. It works better that way for tax purposes.

After all, reddit is not a public company. Public companies have to make a profit, because they have shareholders. Private companies are often better off ending up 'in the red'. Because you pay tax on profit. It's complex and there is far more to it than that, especially for a bigger company, but it's not at all uncommon for private companies to operate with the goal of making lots of money but then using that money for assets, employee bonuses and benefits etc etc. Because it can work out cheaper for them to do so.

Gold was introduced to simply provide them with more money, which they will then spend on other things and keep their profits either low or non-existent. Especially now that everyone think reddit needs 'support'. What a racket. Do you really think reddit would have been struggling to keep the lights on and never said a word about it until they realised that their user base would actually believe it regardless of if it was true?

Do you all remember that guy who was gilded 400 times in a few hours? I do. Know what the most interesting thing about that was? The shiny little side bar on the side of reddit that keeps track of how much gold is 'needed' to support reddit ever day. Did that bar shoot up suddenly? Hell no. It did what it did every other day, which was quietly tick its way higher and higher, then reset at midnight. That bar is a sham. Oh sure it's fuzzed a little bit, but it's pretty damn consistent.

TLDR: Reddit is a business, they do not need our support. Gold is an absolute racket and complete waste of money. I've been given it twice and never even noticed when I had it nor when it was gone.