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this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Awards are just bespoke emoji. You can still react to a comment with a picture or emoji if you want.
IMO your comment, actually expressing explicit and specific approval, is worth more than, like... a picture of a little whale with money coming out of its blowhole, or whatever.
But it doesn't make your comment glow/move around/whatever the fuck awards did
Awards or any other monetarily focused system inherently balance discussions towards the inclinations of wealthy people. We already have too much of that in the world, that they can buy law, buy awareness, buy support, it is a bad idea to let them buy opinions and discussion. Everyone gets one vote, nobody is special enough to be worth more than any other.
There isn't any truly stopping them however, they can buy users, buy botnets, buy influence anywhere. Fuck it I guess, nothing is sacred, everything is tainted.
I mean, sure. My comment was entirely tongue in cheek. I didn't like awards, especially those that are more than just a glorified emoji (such as those I mentioned)
But, truth be told, the wealthy can just straight up buy discussions and opinions. User farms/bots aren't free, and neither was Twitter currently X. Nothing can hide from the cruel hand of capital. The fediverse isn't immune to this either: it's too small for anyone rich to buy out, but there's very little preventing them from just buying one of the larger instances. And even without that, it still privileges those with money - hosting isn't free.
The most we can do is to stay vigilant, I suppose. Be aware of the inherent biases in the world and refuse to engage with systems that are too strongly captured - Twitter currently X, the zuck platform, Reddit soon (probably).