Reddit subreddits are going private to protest API changes.

[nlinecomputers]

Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

Moderators say third-party apps are essential for their work.

www.theverge.com

I use Apollo on my iPad and the program will be terminated on June 30th as they can’t afford the charges per API call. This change will kill all 3rd party apps on Reddit.

 

[HCHTech]

Yeah, it sure seems like there would have been a less disruptive way to increase revenue. I guess I prefer the platform survive over 3rd party app survival, but of course we don't know that was the choice at hand.

 

[NviGate Systems]

It can have the opposite effect as well. While the move may have been done to increase revenue, the question remains if Reddit is worth the price hike and if not, people can and will move to another platform en mass.

Many of these tech companies are feeling the squeeze money wise. It's not easy running a tech company that size (be it users or employees) and some may no longer be profitable at the rate of growth and/or service level they operate at.

Typically making changes like this is a bad idea. I get the fact that money needs to flow, but there are better ways to get money flowing. Alienating your users just gives them that extra push to make the move they have been putting off for convenience sake.

 

[callthatgirl]

I don't reddit, why you use Apollo? What does it do?

 

[NviGate Systems]

Apparently it's used to help moderate subreddits. Because the tools reddit gives are horrible.

Which makes sense in a strange yet sorta bad way. Why put effort and money in a tool if you don't have to. Reddit chose this approach and let others develop solutions, and now seeks to profit from that work essentially.

 

[callthatgirl]

So it's kinda like Microsoft, they offer security but unless someone sets it up right, it doesn't work

 

[timeshifter]

Until this controversy I wasn’t aware that there were 3rd party apps for Reddit.

 

[GTP]

I don't reddit,

Never have, probably never will.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Apollo

I don't reddit, why you use Apollo? What does it do?

Apollo is a 3rd party mobile client for Reddit, that competes directly with Reddit's own mobile client.

The thing is... Apollo is really good, while Reddit's own client is REALLY bad.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what a publicly traded org is going to do in these circumstances.

 

[callthatgirl]

Ok, so now it's like M365 buying direct vs M365 with a vendor

 

[Sky-Knight]

Ok, so now it's like M365 buying direct vs M365 with a vendor

Only if MS decided to make it impossible for the vendors to compete. MS always sells at MSRP, and sticks to their margins. Love them or hate them, they've never screwed the channel.

Reddit just threw the baby out with the bathwater to look good for their IPO.|

Now, given the API supported 3rd party clients allow users to bypass the advertising that pays for Reddit to exist, I have no issues with them monetizing their API. The problem is... they pulled a Twitter to do it... and now there is Musk all over their faces.

 

[britechguy]

Reddit just threw the baby out with the bathwater to look good for their IPO.

And, of course, as anyone with even a passing acquaintance with business history would know, it achieved just the opposite. It makes them look petty, very petty. Never a good look. Ever.

 

[callthatgirl]

So the guy who created Apollo doesn't want to charge more for it to get the API?

 

[NviGate Systems]

Well, Reddit threw mud in his face with schoolground taunts, saying his software was essentially a piece of *&^$ and was using too many API calls.

Chances are that it needs to make those calls, we all know each company likes to praise thier creations and always says how much they work hard for the users they "love" so much. Only the reality is thier system is as much "*&^$" as they say the competition is. Nothing is built well these days.

Pretty soon they will go into damage control mode. It depends if they will double down or aquiesce.

As far as Apollo goes, if indeed it needs to make as many calls that it uses, and for that matter other 3rd party programs, I think somewhere it mentioned it would bankrupt them in less than a month. Millions of dollars.

I honestly wouldn't care if reddit was raked on coals at this point. I have no vested interest in them, each one will be responsible for thier own actions. Essentially, they broughts coals and expected to roast the opponents and propser, but it may be them that gets roasted.

 

[nlinecomputers]

So the guy who created Apollo doesn't want to charge more for it to get the API?

To charge the needed amount you‘d have to pay several hundred dollars a day. It’s that ridiculous, thus the protests.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The problem with Reddit is the problem with ANY online social network. It the only service provider and so it can make the rules after using its user base as the product. In Reddit’s case they got free labor in form of moderators. They are cutting off the tools those volunteers use without providing any in house substitute. They just shot themselves in the foot and don’t realize they will bleed to death. This the end of Reddit. Maybe someone can make a federated version, a la mastodon, that can take up the slack but costs to ru it would fall in hundreds of independent servers.

 

[trevm999]

The problem with Reddit is the problem with ANY online social network. It the only service provider and so it can make the rules after using its user base as the product. In Reddit’s case they got free labor in form of moderators. They are cutting off the tools those volunteers use without providing any in house substitute. They just shot themselves in the foot and don’t realize they will bleed to death. This the end of Reddit. Maybe someone can make a federated version, a la mastodon, that can take up the slack but costs to ru it would fall in hundreds of independent servers.

Lemmy has been around for a while and is now getting quite a bit more activity.

 

[NviGate Systems]

What we need is a social media platform that operates a bit like BitTorrent, where the power is distributed across users to keep server costs down. But there are issues with a model like that. No real solutions unless someone who is rich and feels like giving charity runs it for free.

 

[Anziaty]

This is one of the biggest online strikes in modern (online) history! (don't like Reddit, but its disappearance will be sad)

 

[britechguy]

It amazes me that the owners of social media platforms do not realize that while they do own the name and infrastructure, far more than was ever the case in history it's the users that own "the community." You piss off your users very much at your own risk. Mr. Musk has learned that the hard way, and it appears that the owners of Reddit don't learn even from very recent history.

This is all a "pass the popcorn" thing for me, as I've never touched a social media platform (other than to create a Facebook page early on for my business, which I have virtually never touched since).