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You're trying to tell me that coupon for a free turkey after purchasing $100 worth of groceries doesn't lure people to the store to spend $100 they may have spent elsewhere or not at all. Incentives work.

Ok so what are you trying to achieve with curation rewards, people curating or people earning more reward? Because your analogy works only for the latter. The free turkey only forces them to buy a specific product ( upvoting a specific post) but it doesn't incentivize them to go to the store to buy food( something they would have done regardless)