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Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

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Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#31

Post by drumhead »

edandersen wrote: post #10
Silhouette wrote: post #7

I expect they are going to exempt a lot more than that. I have lost count of how many of the useful subreddits I belong to have already committed to going dark next week but it's a lot of them. This was a terrible judgement on Reddit's part and some kind of mea culpa from a higher-up followed by a rapid climb down looks inevitable if they don't want to be the next Twitter.

Why doesn't Reddit just disable the ability to "go dark"?

And then lose the moderators that make each sub Reddit work, they could do that, but then it would just turn into Voat eventually.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#32

Post by janmo »

I operate https://apewisdom.io/ I think that I can deal with the new pricing, but only at the condition that Reddit improves its current API, ideally adding websocket support, so that I don't have to pull a complete subreddit every x minutes.

Also currently you cannot get all the comments on a thread in one API call, it can take you hundreds to do it, because you can only do so by querying individually nested response when there are many. So it might cost you $1 already just to pull a daily thread under the current API system.

Also, you can only query the 500 last submissions (in new / best).

The Reddit API as it stands currently really sucks.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#34

Post by gremlinsinc »

SilverBirch wrote: post #23

Reddit really is desperate for this IPO isn't it. This pricing decision is a total debacle. They're clearly going to try and tell a story about how their data set is massively valuable for AI (it isn't) and that they've got it under lock and key (it's already been crawled by every major player in AI) so that they can get a totally unrealistic valuation at IPO. It makes sense, imagine how incredible it would be if you…

it's not even like they need the API, they can get all the Reddit data simply by scraping, it's all crawlable by bing bot, if search indexes can index it, that same data can be extrapolated for ai training. you know who can't do that in a meaningful way?

apps that really matter to core Reddit users, they need the API and are the only ones hurt by this.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#35

Post by doix »

yardstick wrote: post #28

Stupid question but I’m out of the loop here. What’s the main beef with the Reddit site and app? Is it just accessibility and moderation tools or something else? I do use RES in desktop, but I mostly use it via the official mobile app these days. I used to miss old.Reddit.com but now I’m rather indifferent.

> Is it just accessibility and moderation tools or something else?

The information density and UX are terrible in new Reddit and the official app (in my opinion of course). I find them completely and utterly unusable. I just tried opening new Reddit and going to /r/all. I can see exactly 2 posts on my screen, compared to 14 on old Reddit. I tried clicking on something, it opens up in a narrow popover. Middle clicking to open it in a proper tab takes a lot longer than in old Reddit.

When it comes to the app, there are similar issues, it's just _so_ much slower than using RiF, the information density is abysmal, comment chains are painful for me to read and it uses _significantly_ more data than RiF. I'm guessing it preloads lots of assets in the background or something.

When they kill off 3rd party access, I will stop using it on my mobile. I already feel like I waste too much time on Reddit, ruining the experience will make it much easier to quit. If they ever kill old Reddit, then I guess I'll finally quit Reddit for good or make an extension that makes it look and work like the old version.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#36

Post by gremlinsinc »

ryanmercer wrote: post #29
yardstick wrote: post #28

Stupid question but I’m out of the loop here. What’s the main beef with the Reddit site and app? Is it just accessibility and moderation tools or something else? I do use RES in desktop, but I mostly use it via the official mobile app these days. I used to miss old.Reddit.com but now I’m rather indifferent.

As a long time user, and moderator, I do everything via old.reddit (and the only additional thing is mod toolbox, which I could live without) on a proper computer. I just can't fathom any meaningful use of Reddit via a phone app. To me that's as insane as trying to read a novel on your phone or watch a movie. Simply does not compute to me.

I've done all these things on my phone, movie, novel, used Reddit, but not the site or the mobile app. I've tried many times thinking maybe it got better, it never did. I use relay and love it. it doesn't have chat but I don't ever use Reddit chat. I'm also not a mod.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#37

Post by gremlinsinc »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #9
Silhouette wrote: post #7

I expect they are going to exempt a lot more than that. I have lost count of how many of the useful subreddits I belong to have already committed to going dark next week but it's a lot of them. This was a terrible judgement on Reddit's part and some kind of mea culpa from a higher-up followed by a rapid climb down looks inevitable if they don't want to be the next Twitter.

Most subs are going dark for 2 days, which is an inconvenience that will be soon forgotten. The subs that try to stay dark permanently will have their mods replaced.

any sub can remain private, and only allow posts from a select few, these subs could simply boot everybody and only let a small core team in and post regular updates so the sub is active, then Reddit can't just give it to someone else, not without an even bigger exodus. plus you can't just get a new mod team, especially for subs like askhistorians. They're very thorough, use many tools themselves that use the API to handle moderation and aggregate posts etc...

I mean, at this point they might as well call up Elon musk and ask advice on running a social network.

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#38

Post by dmix »

SilverBirch wrote: post #23

Reddit really is desperate for this IPO isn't it. This pricing decision is a total debacle. They're clearly going to try and tell a story about how their data set is massively valuable for AI (it isn't) and that they've got it under lock and key (it's already been crawled by every major player in AI) so that they can get a totally unrealistic valuation at IPO. It makes sense, imagine how incredible it would be if you…

> try and tell a story about how their data set is massively valuable for AI (it isn't)

How would it not be valuable?

Re: Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes

#39

Post by brownfox »

Reddit's ideal scenario would involve its users migrating to other platforms while preserving its archived content.

Its community was once thriving, but the mismanagement ruined it.

Despite reportedly having thousands of employees, Reddit's excessive hiring and ambitious expansion led to wasteful spending.

A platform with basic features like Reddit could easily be maintained by a team of fewer than 100 staff members and generate revenue through Google Ads.

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