Someone gilded one or two of my comments (shitposts), and I felt so grateful to them and so proud of myself that someone thought it was worth spending money to reward a dumb joke I’d made. That stuff makes an impression. But I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw a gilded post because it literally doesn’t mean anything now

As a fellow old.reddit user, you probably also remember when buying/being gifted reddit gold was a big deal. One stupid little gesture, very few actual perks (beyond an “exclusive” subreddit no one used), but the money went straight to reddit and it was so popular it was a staple of reddit’s early culture. Being gilded was a massive honor.

Now it’s just one of a handful of paid reaction trophies you can give, and it’s not worth paying attention to at all. Reddit was so money hungry it cannibalized the process through which people gave money to reddit for basically free