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APIs for content sites must be free

somebits.com

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Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#111

Post by thulesgold »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #62
David_Axelrod wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the time you dont just expose your internal api routes to the world. You need to write curated public facing routes that dont include certain schema or records. Takes time to write and maintain that different set of endpoints

Not really. Your HTML is, quite literally, a degenerate form of an API. The simplest way to offer a content API is to offer an alternative endpoint that serves the same stuff as your normal one, except without all the bullshit (er, beautifully design, interactive frontend).

Any issue with Reddit offering a API only to not maintain it, or uphold any sort of SLA uptime, or not worry about releasing breaking changes every week?

Having a public facing API is not trivial or cost free.

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#114

Post by dvt »

derefr wrote: post #87
dvt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know exactly what a social contract is, and it's always superseded by a legal contract (which the ToS sort-of is, though it would have to go through the courts if challenged). Given that the ToS explicitly says that Reddit et al. can do whatever they want with your data, the idea that there's a social contract there is wishful thinking.

Uhh... I really don't think you do know what a social contract is. A social contract is a temporary state of affairs, where both sides are benefitting from being able to implicitly hold the other side to it; where either side can freely breach it, but where this dissolves the social contract that held until that moment; and where dissolving the social contract will (obviously) cause the other side to rescind all bene…

> A ceasefire during a battle is an example of a social contract.

This is absolutely false. A ceasefire is not a social contract. It's just bizarre to even claim this, as ceasefires are most often enacted in the context of ceasefire.. uh, treaties.

> Not eating your coworkers' food in the office fridge is another example of a social contract.

This is a better example (though still a very poor one, as we have laws against theft), and the key here is that a social contract is implied or implicit. Why would free API access be an implication of using reddit's service? Almost no other social media website does that.

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#115

Post by velp »

fswd wrote: post #98
derefr wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh... I really don't think you do know what a social contract is. A social contract is a temporary state of affairs, where both sides are benefitting from being able to implicitly hold the other side to it; where either side can freely breach it, but where this dissolves the social contract that held until that moment; and where dissolving the social contract will (obviously) cause the other side to rescind all bene…

I have these thoughts about the homeless problem.

Can you elaborate?

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#116

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

zoogeny wrote: post #13

I like vehement arguments even when I disagree with them. Based on this man's logic, if I were to run a web forum then I must provide an API or data dump to download the posts created by the users? How about a comment section on my blog? How about a community Discord server? Why not Facebook posts? Or Instagram stories? I often get the feeling that in these circumstances people derive first principles from specific d…

It would be pretty easy for someone to clone your app and just take out the ads.

If you're required to give access to all data with an API for free, it seems it would be hard to run any of these websites without having a massive loss.

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#118

Post by Havoc »

>simple static dump is the bare minimum to fulfill the social contract

I don't see how that follows? Would be awesome, but I don't see how posting on a platform creates such an obligation to render such a service (which costs money)

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#119

Post by PaulHoule »

I would frame it as "messaging applications should interoperate".

People understand that a T-Mobile customer can send a text to an AT&T customer. They understand that a Samsung owner can call an iPhone owner.

Why do they accept that a Slack user can't send a message to a Discord user? Why do they accept that Google has made 11+ different messaging applications that aren't compatible with each other? Why do they accept that you can't call a Skype for business customer with Skype?

We've had 30 years of stagnation because messaging applications don't interoperate. That's why the story is always "Hey, remember back when ICQ used to work? You should try Skype, it really works..." Once Skype becomes successful at the two-sided market game the honeymoon is over and the vendor has no incentive to keep it working and they figure you'll keep trying to use it anyway.

If there were competition for both the server and the client there would be continuous pressure to keep the products working, and to improve them. So instead of Facebook Messenger being the same as AOL Instant Messenger except for Facebook, we'd have had 30 years of progress and would have apps that look like something out of The Jetsons.

Re: APIs for content sites must be free

#120

Post by thulesgold »

dewey wrote: post #11
lacker wrote: post #6

Good luck lobbying YouTube to make their API free. I'd love to have a version of the YouTube app that didn't cost me any money and also didn't have ads.

> I'd love to have a version of the YouTube app that didn't cost me any money and also didn't have ads. If you don't want to pay with money or your attention how are they going to pay for all that traffic end engineering?

I think OP was using that ironically as an example of how ridiculous the expectations of the free-API folks are.
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