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

theverge.com

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

#11

Post by paxys »

jacooper wrote: post #9
paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Its not about the revenue, its about forcing everyone to get ads, with endless tracking.

Says who? They are only pushing the "official experience" to make up for lost ad revenue. If I pay Reddit $50/yr why would they care what app I use? YouTube does the same thing with Premium, and it is working out great.

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

#12

Post by jacooper »

dsm4ck wrote: post #7

I really hope one of the bigger third party apps finds a way to just point their front end to a reddit clone and eat reddits lunch.

I keep hearing this, but how many of reddit users actually use third party apps?

If Twitter proved anything, its that its really hard to kill a popular social media network, no matter how badly managed or drama filled it is.

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

#13

Post by djbusby »

EscapeFromNY wrote: post #3

I don't follow reddit too closely. But I remember there was another big fiasco a while ago and a bunch of clones/spinoff sites were started. Have any of those survived? (and not been completely overrun with fringe political content that's banned everywhere else)

https://tildes.net/

Seems still alive.

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

#15

Post by partiallypro »

mmiliauskas wrote: post #6

Reddit is garbage these days anyways. Even communities that are scientific/technical seem to be toxic these days. If you want to get to a comment that has any substance regarding some topic or article, you have to scroll all the way down.

/r/politics has leaked into virtually every subreddit.

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

#16

Post by valine »

jacooper wrote: post #9
paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Its not about the revenue, its about forcing everyone to get ads, with endless tracking.

That’s a monumentally stupid reason to alienate your most dedicated users.

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

#17

Post by snide »

paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Yes! Speaking as a heavy Reddit, but non-sub user, this is exactly what would have gotten me to pay them $50 a year. Not NFTs, stickers and avatars.

I think the problem is that the API concerns are more around LLMs having easy access points to their data than anything else. Still, this could have been avoided by providing free-use keys to trusted developers. It's not like there are that many of them. Just seems odd how dark they've been towards this user class. It's very similar to the Twitter changes.

The nuke approach they've done will send so many of their important, core users off the site.

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

#18

Post by last_responder »

jacooper wrote: post #9
paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Its not about the revenue, its about forcing everyone to get ads, with endless tracking.

Do you think this desire is out of the goodness of their hearts and they genuinely think that it is the best? I cannot believe anyone would think that.

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

#19

Post by kitsunesoba »

paxys wrote: post #11
jacooper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not about the revenue, its about forcing everyone to get ads, with endless tracking.

Says who? They are only pushing the "official experience" to make up for lost ad revenue. If I pay Reddit $50/yr why would they care what app I use? YouTube does the same thing with Premium, and it is working out great.

It's about ads and tracking sure, but they're also trying to build a TikTok-style algorithm-powered black hole that keeps you sucked in by way of constantly shoving more things in front of you, including posts from subreddits you're not subscribed to. They also want to be able to force whatever new half-baked features they add to work with prominent positioning in their apps.

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

#20

Post by anonred »

valine wrote: post #4

A large portion of reddit contributors use 3rd party apps. Will reddit even be worth using if those people leave? That’s a huge risk, and I’m not confident Reddit has fully evaluated the second order effects of this API change.

Do you have a source for “a large portion of reddit contributors use 3rd party apps”? And what percent are we talking about here?
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