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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

#81

Post by danShumway »

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…

> alright, we'll let you fix our broken s** site but only if you take a vow of poverty.

I'm so glad someone brought this up. Every conversation I've seen about Reddit's API pricing on HN has had at least one person asking, "well, how are they supposed to fund the site then?" And that's not Reddit-specific, it's a really common talking point whenever a property/platform starts cracking down on fan/volunteer work.

But that question never gets asked about the fan/volunteer work. It's interesting to look at what ventures we as a society think have an almost moral right to make money, and which ventures we almost think of as being morally obligated to not make money. Sometimes it's really arbitrary.

If 3rd-party accessibility services are important for accessing your service, those 3rd-party developers should be allowed to make money off of their stuff. Sometimes "non-commercial" clauses are appropriate for some projects/terms, but sometimes they get really abused and it's worth taking a step back in many situations and asking why they were included in the first place. Community-focused devs like to eat and have housing too.

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

#82

Post by treprinum »

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…

(2022 snapshot of) Reddit might be the last fully human-prepared dataset there will ever be. That might be their main value.

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

#83

Post by hedora »

Jenk wrote: post #15

Given just how awful Reddit's own UI is, one could argue _all_ third party clients are accessibility-focused.

This would be true even if they had a decent UI. They should allow people to innovate on top of their platform if they want to grow their user base.

Cutting off their own path to growth that tells me they're in cash-cow mode, so the business strategy is to auger their way into profitability by squeezing money from an ever-shrinking user base.

If that's the case, they should also be laying off people to juice margins... checks... yep.

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Are there any good reddit alternatives out there yet?

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

#84

Post by chromoblob »

bastawhiz wrote: post #17
edandersen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The feature that mods are using is setting the subreddits to "private" (with no approved members). Disabling the ability to do this will break that function for people who use it, or look really petty.

Reddit could just disable this function on a specific moment, so that the feature cannot be used for coordinated strikes

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

#85

Post by reportgunner »

some_random wrote: post #71
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…

>alright, we'll let you fix our broken shitty site but only if you take a vow of poverty. What a fantastic way to put it, thinking about it so much of the 3rd party tools for reddit are about fixing the site. Bots, because moderation tools aren't powerful enough for the job, RIF in the browser because even old.reddit is kinda crappy, and 3rd party mobile apps because the 1st party one is notoriously bad.

I wonder why people keep going to such a trash website, just leave it to die already.

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

#86

Post by MagicMoonlight »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #50
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…

I think their data set is valuable, it's just freely available for anyone to scrape (or as you say, has already been scraped).

You can’t scrape it anymore. It’s really annoying because I was just scraping individual posts to save them and now I can’t.

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

#87

Post by philipov »

reportgunner wrote: post #85
some_random wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>alright, we'll let you fix our broken shitty site but only if you take a vow of poverty. What a fantastic way to put it, thinking about it so much of the 3rd party tools for reddit are about fixing the site. Bots, because moderation tools aren't powerful enough for the job, RIF in the browser because even old.reddit is kinda crappy, and 3rd party mobile apps because the 1st party one is notoriously bad.

I wonder why people keep going to such a trash website, just leave it to die already.

Network effects. It's the same reason people are locked into twitter, even if they want to leave. They can't leave until the other people they depend on leave, and those people are in the same situation. A social network is a molecule, and your bonds will keep you from moving unless the entire molecule decides to move at the same time.

That's why Going Dark is an effective threat: it forces everyone to go somewhere else at the same time. Whether you want to exercise voice or exit, dealing with corporations requires organized, collective action.

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

#88

Post by wlesieutre »

Jenk wrote: post #15

Given just how awful Reddit's own UI is, one could argue _all_ third party clients are accessibility-focused.

100% agreed. My wife uses Apollo because it handles accessibility (particularly Dynamic Type) better than the official app.

If Apollo development stops because of exorbitant API pricing, allowing "accessibility focused" apps does fuck all for any of Apollo's blind users.

Accessibility should be part of all apps, but clearly that's not a priority for reddit or she wouldn't be having this problem in the first place. This insinuation by reddit that blind users should be corralled into some special "accessibility focused" app is just PR to cover the fact that they're trying to kill the most accessible reddit clients.

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

#89

Post by dotnet00 »

bloopernova wrote: post #69

The way reddit seems to be unable to implement useful and complex new features leads me to wonder what their development practices are like. It's like they can only create simple new things, but more complicated stuff is beyond them. Complex features like moderator tools, rate limiting, accessibility, a working video player, and a rich text editor. Are they only hiring the cheapest least experienced developers? Too f…

Kind of gives me pre-aquisition Twitter vibes. Although I think Reddit is less bloated than Twitter was as an organization.

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

#90

Post by dotnet00 »

jonplackett wrote: post #73

But this wouldn’t make any difference for Apollo right? Pretty much every sub I’m on has decided to strike for at least 2 days and there’s quite a weight behind indefinite

Yeah, I think they're just not saying indefinite because apparently that'd give reddit an excuse to just replace the mods using the excuse of inactivity.
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