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Apollo Back end just made public

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Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#101

Post by charrondev »

malone wrote: post #48
notRobot wrote: post #10

> The goal of making the code for this repo available is to show that despite statements otherwise by Reddit administrators, Apollo does not scrape anything and users purely authenticated Reddit API requests, and does a great deal of work to ensure the Reddit API rate limits are respected.

If this is true why does Apollo need its own server at all? Couldn't the client make requests directly to the reddit api servers instead? Then each user could use their own api key, rather than Apollo having to pay millions for a single key that accommodates everyone.

The main reason is push notifications. A lot of the communication can be direct, but not the push notifications.

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#102

Post by lolinder »

londons_explore wrote: post #76
wkat4242 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder.. The very same thing hardly seems to have hurt Twitter.

Twitter stats show great growth in musk related topics (space, EV's, etc), but a decline in the amount of content posted in nearly all other areas.

Where are you seeing these stats?

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#103

Post by andremedeiros »

Grimburger wrote: post #95
andremedeiros wrote: post #4

Hi all! I wrote this code, and for educational purposes, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. A gentle reminder that the whole history is here for show. This is very vulnerable — you can see the times I was in a rush, or when I took my time. You’ll find my mistakes. Either way, all I ask is please be kind. I know there are 50 things I could have done better, but this is a product of the reality at the time…

Don't be ashamed of code you wrote that wasn't intended for an audience. Most would hate to see what a sausage gets made out of, but nearly everyone will eat that same sausage.

I would demolish a couple hot dogs right about now…

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#104

Post by horsawlarway »

tiffanyh wrote: post #45

Dumb question: why does Apollo need their own backend API when isn’t Apollo just a different view/UX for Reddits own API? https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend

So I do primarily App/Extension development, and I've been doing it for about 15 years now.

The short answer: You must have an interface you control, because app store review times mean there is no "hot fix".

When something upstream of the client breaks - you are DAYS (assume 24 to 48 hours for review, after you fix the bug) from being able to get a new client in front of users, and several weeks out from having all of your users (all being some accepted percentage - I use ~95% for my releases) actually update to the latest version.

If that "something upstream" is you - you can usually plan for it, release the updated client ahead of time, get it rolled out, then pull support for the old feature.

If that "something upstream" is reddit... They break things, and they might (but probably won't) inform you ahead of time. You will have many, many more outages.

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#105

Post by footlose_3815 »

andremedeiros wrote: post #4

Hi all! I wrote this code, and for educational purposes, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. A gentle reminder that the whole history is here for show. This is very vulnerable — you can see the times I was in a rush, or when I took my time. You’ll find my mistakes. Either way, all I ask is please be kind. I know there are 50 things I could have done better, but this is a product of the reality at the time…

Sorry you feel on the defense. Developers can be very aggressive with feedback and I know the feeling. To echo others, "Build something that works first", and you have something that works :)

IMHO the gesture of releasing the code shows how much integrity there is behind the devs, and I could care less if there's not-best-practice in there.

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#106

Post by tyingq »

ayende wrote: post #30
alexb_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPL will ensure that the source is not used by any projects not affiliated with you who are trying to profit off of your work.

AGPL will do that, no GPL GPL on server side software doesn't really matter, that is why the AGPL exists

>GPL on server side software doesn't really matter

That's maybe too general. There are cases where it does matter.

Maybe "GPL on software-as-a-service code has limited usefulness"

Even then, people do sometimes choose it on purpose for SaaS, where they want to ensure any redistributed code, where the entity doing it makes that choice...is bound by the GPL.

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#107

Post by lolinder »

bee_rider wrote: post #99
yosito wrote: post #38

GitHub repo link, in case Reddit deletes the thread: https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend Interestingly, this seems to just be a proof of concept, and the repo is archived. While the developer of the Apollo front end is getting screwed in this whole debacle, this seems to me like an opportunity. He could literally build an alternate Reddit back end (ok, pay someone to do it, if he doesn't want to do it hi…

Running a social media site and handling all the moderation and other legal issues seems like * a giant headache * a totally different skill set from building an app Anyway the code is o̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶r̶c̶e̶ probably going to be open source soon and his company is probably not going to keep working on it now that Reddit has basically wiped out their business model, so we may as well ask why don’t you or I fork the co…

It's not open source yet, it has no license. Upthread the author says they're going to go check with the app dev and decide what they want to do license-wise:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36256596

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#108

Post by bee_rider »

doublerabbit wrote: post #59
gtsteve wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some options spring to mind: 1. All rights reserved - the source is visible but not open. 2. AGPL, to ensure that if someone does take this forward, no part of it can be closed source without your agreement. 3. MIT, which is extremely permissive and effectively you don't care what someone does with it, commercial or not. Depending on your comfort level I would start with the middle option, I don't think people tend t…

All rights reserved feels more the right kick to me Gives those who wish to learn and stops from anything taking the future glory.

Apollo was one of the apps that was basically giving up due the API changes, right? If they aren’t doing anything with the code, might as well let people fork it.

Just not MIT or BSD, I like these sorts of licenses normally, but it would be a bummer if Reddit got to steal their code after all this bad behavior.

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#109

Post by dakial1 »

andremedeiros wrote: post #4

Hi all! I wrote this code, and for educational purposes, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. A gentle reminder that the whole history is here for show. This is very vulnerable — you can see the times I was in a rush, or when I took my time. You’ll find my mistakes. Either way, all I ask is please be kind. I know there are 50 things I could have done better, but this is a product of the reality at the time…

So, too much work to adapt it to hackernews?

Would love to have a decent client for this site…

Re: Apollo Back end just made public

#110

Post by AndrewKemendo »

pbronez wrote: post #54
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #12

What if all the blackout communities move to an open source, community funded, community owned and run version of Apollo? I’d be happy to try and convince my 100k community to Apollo and if the UX is similar for web and mobile then I’m not sure switching costs would be that high during the blackout. I’d help fund it but all my money is wrapped up in my trash cooperative.

I was very confused about why you would tie your money up in a cooperative you think is run very poorly, then discovered it’s literally about waste management!

Ha yes this is a common response when I say "My trash cooperative" sign of the times I suppose

I should probably just say "recycling cooperative"

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