although good freemium examples like proton mail for example seem too good to be true with free vpn and all the jazz.
always such a shady feeling when using such services
well it would be tied to financing this platform in my suggestion, so I dont see the issue if the upvotes are the only metric for post ranking and on the other hand awards being only cosmetic
u can always ublock them away if you personally have spite against the look of some icon. but yea there surely is a wrong way to implement such features.. as u mentioned a prime contentder for a service gone shady/shill
awards that cosmetically work like upvotes in a sense.
reddit has them, but they link that to nothing or ad free features.
Bound to donations I dont see why this would be a bad idea. Gives a strong sense of community, especially if theres for example special ones bound to each instance
just because its common doesnt mean its justified.
i see youre pirating ok. doesnt make your pro-opinion of increase due to "link from producer to customer" any more true..
the only blatant justification for n-letter company is exploitation. literally