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Apple Subreddit Goes Dark in Protest of Reddit's API Pricing Changes
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I actually started using Reddit with their official app, then switched to the web version when I wasn’t as deep into the rabbit hole as I was before. I never used Apollo but everyone makes it sound like it is so much better than the official app. I’d like to know, what made it better?
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
Oh no! Nerds not able to post on a nerd message board that doesn't matter to real life. What ever will people do.
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
Time to go for a walk I think
Key is to let the platform remain unmoderated, or even better, moderated by AI. Soon Reddit Will choose their political belief and silence other opinions. In the business world, only money matters. If burning the world earns trillions, business will choose to burn the world. Whether the platform is moderated or not will have zero impact on IPO and ad revenue.
Willing to bet that none of these protests/blackout have any impact on IPO value or reddit traffic on the long term. People overestimated how important the interface is and underestimated how addictive the content itself is. 98% of the users are willing to crawl through glass just to have that sweet shot of dopamine injected into their brains.
There is zero way AI can mod the forums. I instead foresee they will try to appease the user base in small ways that won’t work. I think most people have been looking for a reason to spend less time there anyway.
It’s mostly good for really detailed information. Most of the subreddits good for that purpose already have discord communities. That’s what will most likely happen to the users.
A similar issue is going on at stack overflow. All these aggregators for random information think they can press AI companies for API access. The problem is that most of them already had it in the past, so the present and future data from reddit and stack overflow just isn’t worth that much.
The corps in both cases might just be arrogant enough to lose their users in the process of trying though.
You can choose to believe that but I sincerely think you overestimate the amount of dopamine that reddit was providing. It was more like really specific information provided by users. Without the users? Without the third party apps? Most of the people saying this stuff don’t even use reddit or they would see what a crapshow the site is without these third party apps.
Sadly, I agree.
Would love to see Subreddits move people to Discord instead. Discord has threads/posts/live-streaming etc.
we shall see, of course everyone can only speculate at this point. But let's tag this thread for 3 months later
Go for it. But how many subs are you even on? Do you know how much work modding is? Without the tools that make it easier? It will become a cesspool even worse. Myspace still around?we shall see, of course everyone can only speculate at this point. But let's tag this thread for 3 months later
3512/6625 subreddits have gone dark.
I agree with you that subs will suffer without mods. The part I dont agree with is the lack of mods. The ones who chose to blackout will be removed, followed by 7000 applications to be the new mods. New mods arises, reddit resumes.
I don't think most people realizes how many people have a deep desire to be a mod, either for power reasons or monetization
I am on around 25 subs only. And I only use apollo (paid version)
I kinda wonder if Reddit will just not allow subreddits to be turned off tomorrow or turn these back on. The site is acting very glitchy for me this evening, and as a web developer it tingles my spidey senses that something is going on under the hood.
If all the subreddits go private indefinitely. What do you think the users will be going to visit? This is all making an impact.
Clearly a seasoned Reddit user here!
That’s a good way to piss off and lose the *users* of those subreddits as well as generate tons of the kinds of bad press that tank IPOs.
Musk pulled that off *somewhat* with twitter because he was taking the company private while paying more than the company was worth, so shareholders (including, I’ll admit, myself) got a nice payout. This is the opposite, people are less likely to want to buy shares in a user-content driven site if the administration is openly warring with the users.
And how many subreddits have gone poof once the mods that started them leave? The answer is large. And when those mods suck at their jobs? When the best users all leave too? You will be left with much less useful subreddits to begin with. It will be a downward spiral when just the useless mods (who weren't good enough to be mods before) and the bad users that are left try to engage in the subs.
It may be around, but there will be no point.
Great point! What IPO purposely alienates all the content creators and mods right before IPO?
FWIW I appreciated it, I somehow missed it in the article
No doubt if the major drivers of traffic did that it would severely impact their valuation to the point they pull the IPO.
Of course, they could install their own captive mods and hope the users return.
I‘m making my leave permanent. My entire internet usage is now down to That Pedal Show, Pinkbike, Macrumors, & Nature.
If I really feel the need to grind some stupid kids into the dirt there’s always 4chins, which has roughly the same level of ideological ignorance & aggression as Reddit.
Reddit would have more outspoken users evangelising the new API on the rest of the internet, except all the most outspoken Reddit users have already been IP banned for stepping on super admin's toes...
I believe Nothing matters. If ChatGPT’s viral success is anything to go by, Reddit can maintain phantom activity via AI. It could be hard still, but no longer unthinkable.
User is always the loser that can never win.
Heck, Reddit can be a test ground for mass scale AI-generated user activities. In just years, those bots can evolve into countless intelligent enough AI bots that can and will manipulate general public. All that stakeholders need is really just a shell, a brand without the need of any substance.