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Interesting.

While I don't disagree that social media has a lot of drawbacks and is probably a net negative for society, I find - for example - the ability to get multiple informed perspectives on an unfolding real-world event in a matter of seconds to be incredibly valuable.

Even the best expert in the world can only provide you with one perspective, so to easily and cheaply get access to multiple informed perspectives is amazing.
When you say perspective you really should say opinion. And there are not that many different ones because if people disagree with one they will work to be sure others don't see it. So in the end you still only get one opinion and it is just as likely to be a bad one.
 
There is something to be said for the massive negative effects of social media on society, and individuals.
Yeah wasn't there that study specifically on teenage girls and how social media harms them? I couldn't stand FB and left it back in 2016 as it became a political echo chamber for people I knew - and I could tell the platform intentionally promoted divisive and upsetting posts for clicks.

I don't support hacking but a lot of companies I know would rather hire incompetent IT and save $ instead of protect their customer's data. There's really no punishment to getting hacked (aka leaking customer data) so why invest in IT security? Companies need to be held to a higher standard here.

Customers make the company, that's why it is their data being sold. People posting on reddit made reddit what it is. When the company makes a decision that inconveniences a chunk of some of its more involved members and moderators (who spent the last 5+ years making reddit what it is), that's why people are frowning at this. I'm shocked at the number of uninformed posters commenting and the number of those supporting the Reddit CEO and his actions here.

I guess that is why I usually avoid the news threads here.
 
Is there any evidence of this? I've seen it mentioned in a post on a different thread about reddit and no evidence was given there either, just someone saying the same thing you are. I've just spend the last 1hr searching the internet and cannot find anything hence why my question.

The reason of him being a mod is very important given the blackout situation because being a mod/ex mod would give him insight into what it is like to be a mod and yet not a single journalist writing about him has mentioned about him being being a mod of a banned subreddit because given the current public focus of reddit right now, such information is clearly public information worthy but yet I've only seen the accusation of him being a mod of a banned subreddit here in MR. Maybe I am not putting the correct search words into the search browsers.
u might have a valid point here...didn't have much a desire to research into it but this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36294850 thread might have the most pertinent info. I don't think there's any dispute that his reddit username definitely a moderator for that sub, but as many point out in that ycomb thread, this was a time when u could apparently add any user to a given subreddit's mod list so long as u had the permissions on that sub (could be wrong on the logistics of this, but if anyone is interested further I would check out that link I posted above.) anyways, my bad on this. I loathe mis-information/dis-information so much these days and yet I very well could have contributed to that massive problem. gonna try to avoid being so careless here on out. cheers
 
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Just let Reddit shut down the servers, it is inevitable if all Reddit data will be leaked for free and Reddit can no longer try to monetise it with it's paid API.
 
That's great that you've never paid a penny for Apollo, but others have, and Selig has admitted that his net worth is well over a million dollars. Selig has profited from what reddit built, while reddit has never profited at all.

What part of that seems right to you?
The part where he built Apollo as per Reddit’s terms.

They literally allowed free 3rd party access to the API.

No one “stole” it or “leeched” it, or obtained it in any way that wasn’t by Reddit’s design.
 
When you say perspective you really should say opinion. And there are not that many different ones because if people disagree with one they will work to be sure others don't see it. So in the end you still only get one opinion and it is just as likely to be a bad one.
If I, say, watch an NFL game and I am following former head coaches and professional analysts, am I not likely to get more a more complete range of informed opinions than if I just listened to a single person? Sure, they're all opinions trying to explain the facts on the screen, but people that help you think are invaluable.
 
I use some social media (only Instagram, at the moment), but I use it follow people I personally know. I don't use it for news, or to follow influencers or streamers. If they aren't in my contact list (on my phone), I don't want to see them.
Fair enough. Your life, your rules.
 
If I, say, watch an NFL game and I am following former head coaches and professional analysts, am I not likely to get more a more complete range of informed opinions than if I just listened to a single person? Sure, they're all opinions trying to explain the facts on the screen, but people that help you think are invaluable.
I suppose. it is just as likely that they are all wrong though. So you get a bunch of wrong opinions. Did that make you think anymore about something? or did it just lead you to really having a bunch of misinformed opinions? and in the process now make you have an incorrect opinion?
I am not really seeing the benefit of that. Plus I think you would need to argue pretty hard to say that any post on social media is really there to make people think. Most of the time it is to barf out a bad take and then act like how can you think my take is bad.
 
My point was that they weren’t asking Apollo for a penny, so Apollo (like other 3rd party apps) kept sourcing the data.

Not sure how that makes it fair. API was there to help maintain the community. It was never meant for app developers to let millions of users use reddit for free.
 
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I suppose. it is just as likely that they are all wrong though. So you get a bunch of wrong opinions. Did that make you think anymore about something? or did it just lead you to really having a bunch of misinformed opinions? and in the process now make you have an incorrect opinion?
I am not really seeing the benefit of that. Plus I think you would need to argue pretty hard to say that any post on social media is really there to make people think. Most of the time it is to barf out a bad take and then act like how can you think my take is bad.

Considering all that you just wrote, how do reconcile hanging out in these forums? There are very few facts in these comments and a ton of opinions. Some of those opinions are informed, many are not.

And yet... here we both are
 


A ransomware group that hacked into Reddit's servers back in February is threatening to release stolen data if Reddit does not walk back its planned API changes, reports Bleeping Computer (via The Verge).

reddit-app-icon.jpg

At the time of the hack, no one took credit, but ransomware group BlackCat yesterday said that it was responsible. 80GB of compressed data was stolen through a phishing attack, and BlackCat says that the data will be made public unless Reddit pays $4.5 million and withdraws the API pricing changes that will go into effect on July 1.

The group claims to have "interesting confidential data" that includes information on how Reddit tracks users and censors people. BlackCat does not anticipate Reddit cooperating, and says that it expects to leak the data.

At the time of the hack, Reddit said that no user passwords, accounts, or credit card details were impacted, but internal documentation, code, and internal dashboards and business systems were obtained.

BlackCat's demand for an API rollback comes as Reddit prepares to begin charging developers for access to its API. Reddit's fees are putting popular third-party Reddit clients like Apollo out of business, and the API changes have resulted in protests in the form of subreddit blackouts.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has said that Reddit has no plan to change its new API business model in light of the negative feedback, and it is unlikely that the company will change its API pricing due to the data leak threat.

Article Link: Hackers Threaten to Release Reddit Data Unless API Changes Are Rolled Back
once in awhile I do love the internet
 
Can you provide a source on "exorbitant?" My understanding is that what they plan to charge is in line with what other social media companies charge.
$12,000 per 50 million requests, which, for an app like Apollo comes out to around $20 million/year. Apollo currently charges for a Pro version which is $13/year. There are about 50,000 subscribers - so Apollo makes around $650,000/year. For comparison, Imgur comes out to about $3000 per 50 million requests - or 1/4 the price of Reddit. Reddit's API pricing is more comparable to Twitter, and Twitter's decision to start charging API access had less to do with money and more about shutting down 3rd party apps. Reddit seems to be taking the same approach - instead of just saying they no longer want 3rd party apps, their eliminating them in the guise of charged API access.

If you're truly interested in the details of all of this, you can read Christian Selig's (creator of Apollo) Reddit post breaking down all of the issues with Reddit's API pricing:
The real issue here is that people have gotten used to something, and they want that thing to continue, but in reality, they have no right to that. Reddit is about to IPO and will need to become profitable as they'll answer to shareholders. Giving free access to the API so that people can build their own reddit applications that don't show ads is silly, and reddit isn't evil for wanting to end that.
Again, the issue is NOT that Reddit wants to charge for API access. Again, if you really want to know what is going on, just do a quick Google search and you'll find tons of articles detailing the issues. One of the common themes, however, is that both users and developers have no issue with Reddit wanting to charger for API access. If anything, most everyone agrees that Reddit needs to do something to become profitable - whether that is charging for API access or allowing/requiring 3rd party apps to show Reddit ads. Which directly leads to my next point: instead of or in addition to, Reddit could have relatively easily changed how their API works to allow Reddit ads to be displayed in 3rd party apps. This is a suggestion many, many, many people have made. Ads are Reddit's primary source of income, and their biggest issue with 3rd party apps is that they don't display Reddit's ads, by providing ad access via their API this would have basically solved their issues.

Furthermore, Reddit has been extremely opaque in this entire saga. They announced they were going to start charging for API access months ago, but then didn't announce the actually pricing until a couple of weeks ago, giving developers barely 30 days to make the necessary changes to their apps - which simply isn't enough time for the vast majority of independent app creators. In addition, developers have been attempting to work with Reddit since the first announcement, but often times have been met with radio silence.

Again, if you are truly interested in all of this, I suggest you do some research on your own to educate yourself on what is actually happening.
 
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You want to incentivize (encourage) hackers to break into computer systems and release compromised data all because you don't like how someone is running their business?

With all the time, energy and effort being spent to try to get Reddit to reverse course, you'd think everyone would instead work together to create a new platform to replace/compete against Reddit.
A replacement competitor might actually happen one day, but until that time there is nothing comparable to use. A community of Reddit's size and passion takes many years to build...

Truthfully, I hope the hackers do manage to disrupt things and this is coming from a faithful Reddit user of 14 years.
 
Reddit hasn't done anything wrong. They're the ONLY social media company that hasn't been charging for API access. Just because people got used to something doesn't mean they have a right to that thing.
They are in the wrong mainly for not releasing a good app themselves. Apollo was built more or less by one guy. They could just buy it if they can’t get it done with their top tier Silicon Valley staff.
 
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