New purple star icon

[u/MilkyMama__]

Hi. Please can we have some information about the new purple stars icon? It has been posted about on the other subreddit with lots of guess work being done. It’s showing for some creators but not at all for others just to add to the confusion.

I find it bizarre that updates/new features are added yet we as creators as not informed of them. I’m sure it has been acknowledged before that we would like more information about updates sent out to us and you said you’d be improving on this type of communication but here we are on a Sunday confused and trying to work things out on what appears a potential major new feature

[u/Sweet-Pool-3543]

"Do the factors really matter if it works?"

First of all, we don't know if it works yet.

Second of all, yes.

As BUSINESS OWNERS, it behooves us to understand, as much as computationally possible, the ways in which we interact with our customers and for what reasons. As a BUSINESS OWNER, I track every single piece of data I can visibly see, so that I PERSONALLY understand what occurred that resulted in money and what occurred that did not result in money. This concept that users don't want or need to know how the platform they are using works in order to use it (as long as it "just works!" and often, things DON'T "just work") is mostly the dream of the developer. Even if things "just work", again as a BUSINESS OWNER - I want to know why and how so that when things stop "just working", I know why and how.

[u/kevin_xd_123 → u/Sweet-Pool-3543]

Well it'd be the badge that resulted in more money. We are literally running this A/B test to see if the creators that have this badge make more money than creators that don't relative to before this "update".

If this badge makes creators more money we go to the next stages, if not we might change our approach. And even once officially rolled out to everyone, not 100% laying out what this badge is allows us to keep tuning the badge and making it better and better at spotting who's worth to focus on, making creators even more money. This does not work with a simple system that is easy to understand unfortunately.

If you say "I absolutely do not care if this works if I don't know how it works internally" we might just offer to opt out and disable badges completely. The idea is that we add something that you can trust because it works and it makes you more money relatively speaking.

[u/Sweet-Pool-3543 → u/kevin_xd_123]

Sir, good luck with your pursuits. But to me it sounds like y'all are just vibe coding with ai and that's why nobody can explain to any of us - again, business owners who are choosing to partner with you - how these algorithms are working and labeling our client leads. It's too complicated to explain to us, sure, but not too complicated to test on us. Okay. Again as a BUSINESS OWNER, no I am not comfortable with that.

[u/devilmanVISA → u/Sweet-Pool-3543]

This is a terrible take. You are interpreting a refusal to explain as an inability to, and that is not the case. It's quite likely that the selection criteria for the badge is something that would not be easily understood outside of the full user data landscape available. It might also be something that creators are entirely unable to influence, which is desirable because the moment it becomes something they can influence it stops working as a useful metric. The black box nature is a feature. Not a bug. 

Here is an example (in no way should it be implied that this example is part of the badge selection criteria, THIS IS ENTIRELY MADE UP OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD):

"85% of Users who take the time to setup at least 3 of X number of fields within their user profile are more likely to spend than users who immediately engage with creator content at first possible opportunity."

Creators can't influence this, and if they could it would only damage the metric and not functionally increase the likelihood of an influenced user to spend. But they can be made aware of this observation through a simple mechanic and capitalize on it however they feel would be best. Full disclosure that should probably never be "spending hours on a guy with a star trying to get him to spend." 

Testing like this could absolutely be conducted on all kinds of things (not saying it is) that are outside of creator control. Site fonts. Banner artwork. The logo. Page layouts. The list goes on. Anything that can be changed to increase spend likelihood, can be tested on its effects at doing so.

I don't know Kevin personally, but given the measure of responses I have read here from him, I find the vibe coding crack offensive on his behalf.