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Does gold affect the ranking of a comment (i.e. where it is displayed on the page)? I guess I never really thought about it, but I assumed not.

If it's all about the icon displayed next to the comment header, I suppose that's a kind of amplification -- but it seems like less of a zero-sum game, because it's not forcing another opinion out of view.

Yes, it does. I think most of the various silly awards they have nowadays don't do it, but at least the original Reddit Gold award before all that other stuff does elevate a post or comment.

> Reddit actually monetized internet arguing.

I never thought about it like this. I always just thought of Reddit Gold as just another weird Internet quirk I will never understand.

I kind of wonder if NFTs for artwork will become the same thing. Like amplifying comments, maybe high NFT prices will be a way to amplify one artist over another in what is a very crowded marketplace.

Sorry I meant it makes no sense for redditers to buy gold for posts that they are specifically calling out Reddit for bad behavior

Sure it does. They want to amplify that opinion. They think that calling out Reddit is worth the negative of paying money to Reddit.