I used to consider it a way to highlight a comment that I thought others should see. I have no idea if it holds the same power now, since gold, platinum, and a million other little “award badges” are now available. Yet once upon a time, seeing a gold icon next to a comment seemed to draw people’s attention. If a comment got gilded early, you’d see a huge difference in upvotes and replies for that particular comment.
I’ve been gifted gold twice and I never understood the appeal of it either, everything in there was self-referential both times I checked.
I used to consider it a way to highlight a comment that I thought others should see. I have no idea if it holds the same power now, since gold, platinum, and a million other little “award badges” are now available. Yet once upon a time, seeing a gold icon next to a comment seemed to draw people’s attention. If a comment got gilded early, you’d see a huge difference in upvotes and replies for that particular comment.