Apple Subreddit Goes Dark in Protest of Reddit's API Pricing Changes

[MacRumors]

Apple-related subreddit /r/apple has gone dark in protest of Reddit's upcoming API pricing changes affecting third-party Reddit apps. The subreddit is now private, meaning that users can no longer view or submit posts, and the moderators behind the community said it will remain that way for the next 48 hours, or potentially longer if necessary.

/r/apple is one of many subreddits that will be going dark over the next few days, alongside /r/videos, /r/gaming, /r/sports, /r/aww, and others. The organized blackout comes after Reddit announced expensive API pricing changes that threaten to put some third-party Reddit apps out of business. Christian Selig, developer of popular Reddit app Apollo, said he would owe Reddit around $20 million per year under the new policy. As a result, Selig announced that Apollo will be shutting down at the end of the month.

Reddit's API provides apps like Apollo with Reddit data like posts and comments, and it has been free to use until now. Selig said it is understandable for Reddit to begin charging for access to the API, but the pricing is prohibitively expensive. Selig also said Reddit provided him with minimal time to prepare for the changes.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the topic in a Reddit post last week, but his comments were heavily criticized and received thousands of downvotes from Reddit users. Despite backlash from the community, Reddit has yet to reverse course on its plans so far, and the API changes are set to go into effect on July 1 if upheld.

Article Link: Apple Subreddit Goes Dark in Protest of Reddit's API Pricing Changes

 

[stephen1108]

Good. I'm team Apollo! It actually makes Reddit usable for me.

 

[Longplays]

A lot of MR articles get submitted on r/Apple. It drives a lot of click traffic.

 

[Think|Different]

I'm quite sympathetic to this – and 'affected,' too, by Apollo, etc – but I really, truly do not see this doing anything. At all. They are soaring to their payday IPO and that's that...After that despicable "AMA," how could anyone think a 48 hour protest will move mountains (billions)? Even the ones saying "indefinitely..." I just don't see it.

 

[jdavid_rp]

Let's hope this works. Everytime a protest like this fails, it make them look more and more insignificant to big companies

 

[BradWI]

Rather than the protest it would be more effective to [REDACTED] Huffman in [REDACTED] while he [REDACTED].

Have fun with that one lol.

 

[filmantopia]

Ugh. Fine, I support it.

 

[eatrains]

Hopefully all these 48 hour protests turn indefinite. The users make Reddit what it is and Steve Huffman is trying to kill it for a quick buck.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I'm quite sympathetic to this – and 'affected,' too, by Apollo, etc – but I really, truly do not see this doing anything. At all. They are soaring to their payday IPO and that's that...After that despicable "AMA," how could anyone think a 48 hour protest will move mountains (billions)? Even the ones saying "indefinitely..." I just don't see it.

That's why they are potentially willing to go longer. If enough subreddits do it, then it will matter--particularly big ones like r/Apple. Plus a lot of this is it is untenable to be an Admin once the third party tools are no longer allowed. So it is not necessarily a matter of winning against the reddit execs, but simply a new reality that they don't want to volunteer their admin time for a subreddit if the tools make it a pain-in-the-....

I mean, r/Videos went private indefinitely. I think reddit is more-or-less done, they just don't know it yet.

 

[KaliYoni]

¡Viva USENET!

Too bad the value of non-commercialized, non-VC backed message boards has only become obvious with hindsight.

 

[mordac]

I'm quite sympathetic to this – and 'affected,' too, by Apollo, etc – but I really, truly do not see this doing anything. At all. They are soaring to their payday IPO and that's that...After that despicable "AMA," how could anyone think a 48 hour protest will move mountains (billions)? Even the ones saying "indefinitely..." I just don't see it.

Well, if the big subreddits extend their blackout until the situation gets resolved, or threaten to move to a different platform if it doesn’t, that could affect the IPO…
And yeah, I would fully support such a move.

 

[haxrnick]

I'm quite sympathetic to this – and 'affected,' too, by Apollo, etc – but I really, truly do not see this doing anything. At all. They are soaring to their payday IPO and that's that...After that despicable "AMA," how could anyone think a 48 hour protest will move mountains (billions)? Even the ones saying "indefinitely..." I just don't see it.

Exactly this. It will have the exact same outcome as all those dumb change.org campaigns where people think it will work.

 

[canadianreader]

I support this. Without users posting content there's no Reddit.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

I’m not a Reddit user, but this sounds good.

 

[saudor]

48 hours seems a bit too short. 1 week would have been better. That's a decent amount of ad revenue lost.

 

[Stefan51278]

Maybe you really shouldn't anger your user-base when running a page a page solely driven by user-generated and user-moderated content, should you?

 

[hoodafoo]

I went on vacation for 3 months and didn't touch reddit.. it's not the end of the world

 

[Naraxus]

Lol. This will mean nothing in the long run

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

After Apollo was eliminated. Who still uses Reddit? 😒

 

[Saturnine]

Well this will go one of two ways. The dark subreddits with either pop back up in a few days, with the talk of third-party clients and API pricing quietening down over the coming weeks, or Reddit will release a statement saying that the changes have been “postponed for further consideration following user feedback.”

Hopefully it’s the latter. Now, I’m not saying I’ll never use Reddit again but, without Apollo, I do find the mobile app and site borderline unusable.

 

[macsplusmacs]

It's like their CEO is related to the doofus at Twitter.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

More of a front page Reddit lurker these days, don’t even have an account, so while it’s great the subreddits are doing this I’m sure Reddit will simply remove the moderators and put some kind of puppet moderator that may or may not even moderate depending on how many subreddits go longer than 48hrs.

 

[T5BRICK]

I won’t be using Reddit without Apollo. The official app is garbage in comparison.

 

[al256]

Maybe I'm more Machiavellian but can't Reddit just take away the "private" feature and flip those subreddits back?

 

[chocoyo00]

I stopped using Apollo and began using the official Reddit app after the similar situation with Twitter happened.

I have now got used to it and use it normally to browse my favorite subreddits as before, I considered paying for pro to turn off ads but once I turned off all “personalized recommendations” it’s been smooth sailing.