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Apple Subreddit Goes Dark in Protest of Reddit's API Pricing Changes
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This is correct. Spez is correctly calculating that most redditors are addicts, and druggies will only have morals up until the next withdrawal.
Discord is nice, but it sucks your data just like Facebook. Everything you write is monitored for ads in google and other platforms.
Pretty sure anything you type the query through the web is monitored one way or another. To stop this is not to use the Internet at all.
I hope Reddit takes control of the situation and site ban these mods. They have no right to do this.
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
You all did not like the idea of a free and decentralized web (for instance Usenet) and now you have to live with the decisions made by your corporate overlords.
And btw: Who cares about apollo or reddit?
And btw: Who cares about apollo or reddit?
without any whining.
See people: That's how one builds character.
What’s the big deal if Reddit prices themselves out of the market? A new site will pop up and people will swarm to whatever comes along. Just like Kodak, Yahoo Messenger, AltaVista, ICQ, AOL, and MySpace, add Reddit to the list.
UnReddit must be just around the corner.
UnReddit must be just around the corner.
And that sounds great. We got by without it before, we will survive. Thanks Gloria 😂
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I will mainly miss Reddit for keeping track with the Ukraine war. The mega thread in Worldnews was very good for that. In the mean time I'm giving Squabbles a try, but it's a brand new thing so it has some growing to do.
For those saying why Apollo should get to make money and not Reddit, that's not the issue here. It's the insane price Reddit is now asking. Apollo's developer never said he didn't want to pay. But there's a difference between reasonable amounts and 20 million a year. I can't understand anybody who doesn't see what's wrong with that picture.
For those saying why Apollo should get to make money and not Reddit, that's not the issue here. It's the insane price Reddit is now asking. Apollo's developer never said he didn't want to pay. But there's a difference between reasonable amounts and 20 million a year. I can't understand anybody who doesn't see what's wrong with that picture.
I also would like to know what made it better. I have only used the official app and I pay so I don’t have ads. It seems fine to me. What made Apollo better?
Where am I going to get book spoiler free discussion of Silo now?
I quit Reddit last week and deleted my account. My phone is boring now but I’m sticking with it, it’ll probably be good for me in the long run.
I feel these are two separate matters.
No one denies that the dev of Apollo deserves to make any money from his labour. He saw an opportunity, he had the skills to make a great app that people were willing to pay to use, and the rest is history.
Reddit is ad-driven, and while third party apps don't screen ads, the impact on Reddit's bottom line shouldn't be that noticeable given that majority are on the stock app. I think what's more likely is that Reddit feels like they need to IPO now because investor funding is fast drying up, and kicking third party developers off the platform is one way of cleaning up the account books and make themselves appear more profitable than they really are in the short run.
Maybe ad rates aren't so great either, resulting in a double whammy. In short, the root of the problem could be that their business model was never sustainable to begin with, and developers are just the scapegoat.
It's also possible that they were trying to hit paydirt by charging LLMs money, but if you ask me, the move came so late that most companies have likely already hoovered up all the data they needed from Reddit and moved on.
I feel it's shortsighted because you are burning goodwill with the very people who made your website what it is today. Maybe Reddit doesn't care (ie: the major investors intend to dump their stock and cash out on IPO day, leaving investors to hold the bag), maybe they plan to replace moderators with AI (let's see how that works out, if it ever comes to fruition, because of the irony of replacing free labour with a paid service), so maybe they are simply betting that they can retain the majority of their user base and come out richer for it.
TL;DR - nobody is saying Reddit doesn't deserve to make money. They had every opportunity to work something out with third parties since day 1, and they chose not to.
From reading posts from threads on this topic it appears the issue at the heart of this for Reddit is that many moderators of Reddit use the Apollo app because it's use of mod tools is far far better that that of Reddit's own official app and if Apollo is to end, it would put a lot of hardship onto Reddit mod's who volunteer their time to be mods. If Reddit mod's switch their channels to private and keep it that way, it will have a dramatic effect on Reddit in my opinion.
Why not just require users who want third-party app/API access to be Reddit premium subscribers?
This would be a gentler way to push people to the official app. And still monetise those willing to pay.
This is something I think Twitter should have done to widen the appeal of Twitter Blue.
This would be a gentler way to push people to the official app. And still monetise those willing to pay.
This is something I think Twitter should have done to widen the appeal of Twitter Blue.
I don't support everything that's current, and I don't support shutting subreddits down because of one man's supposedly super great awesome app that was subscription based in a time when people scream that they dislike app subscriptions.
Even though the icons made for it were very nice. It couldn't make me pay for Apollo. Stellar for reddit sunset their app as well. I don't mind.
Because subreddits are created by people like you and me, then these things will always happen. As soon as one person who's "in charge of something" or think he or she is, gets an idea, then some suffer. I.e a Discord server, a forum thread or post on MacRumors or elsewhere.
Let's not have yet another protest, because of API charges. Our streets are filled with enough parades and protests as it is.
It's more than likely over for these 3rd party apps, and everyone has to take a deep breath and decide if they are better off gazing over the fjords than being on reddit as a redditor.
Reddit for me is quite good - the app and website struggle a little, but nothing to get your raisins dried over.
Even though the icons made for it were very nice. It couldn't make me pay for Apollo. Stellar for reddit sunset their app as well. I don't mind.
Because subreddits are created by people like you and me, then these things will always happen. As soon as one person who's "in charge of something" or think he or she is, gets an idea, then some suffer. I.e a Discord server, a forum thread or post on MacRumors or elsewhere.
Let's not have yet another protest, because of API charges. Our streets are filled with enough parades and protests as it is.
It's more than likely over for these 3rd party apps, and everyone has to take a deep breath and decide if they are better off gazing over the fjords than being on reddit as a redditor.
Reddit for me is quite good - the app and website struggle a little, but nothing to get your raisins dried over.
I never heard about apollo till now and I have been a reddit user for nearly 10 years.
Don't know what the big deal is.
Reddit has the right to charge whatever it sees fit, however ridiculous the price is.
if both parties want to do business, they must sit down and make a deal , instead of this blackout. This is not how you do business. It makes no difference to anyone if there is blackout on reddit. It's not a mission critical service or app.
However, on the positive side I hope some toxic subReddits die.
Don't know what the big deal is.
Reddit has the right to charge whatever it sees fit, however ridiculous the price is.
if both parties want to do business, they must sit down and make a deal , instead of this blackout. This is not how you do business. It makes no difference to anyone if there is blackout on reddit. It's not a mission critical service or app.
However, on the positive side I hope some toxic subReddits die.
The simple answer is let the users decide what should happen. Reddit should charge a reasonable/ fair just price for it's API usage. Apollo can then factor in that cost into the app and start asking users to pay for the app. If users feel the app is so good that they are willing to pay for it then Reddit wins and Apollo wins. If users are not willing to pay for using Apollo then ultimately it is Apollo that loses.
One might argue that it's more valuable to do what is right whether it succeeds or not than to do nothing while proclaiming "it would never work anyway"
As human beings, we often think the ends justify the means, but in the end, all we truly have are means.
Pessimists (aka self-proclaimed realists) are incapable of changing the world.