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Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

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Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#131

Post by EdwardDiego »

LegitShady wrote: post #121
Macha wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first party clients are undergoing the enshittification process https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys They would rather direct users to content that Reddit wants them to see. High engagement content like quick meme pics, short videos or polarised political content that generates time on site and activity that looks good to investors. Profitable content like the awards programs. Not externally h…

the mods also use third party tools that use the api to make modding their subreddits easier. All of those tools will die, given the api costs, making the mods do more work if they want to continue.

Good point. I mod a small subreddit, and the Reddit app interface for this is... bad.

If I use modmail to communicate with a user, it shows up as an unread message for me from me.

I don't get it.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#132

Post by EdwardDiego »

tiedieconderoga wrote: post #14
UpToTheSky wrote: post #2

What is the hard thing about building an open, user-friendly Reddit alternative? Hosting the posts shouldn't be that hard. Storage is so cheap these days. Is it the legal aspects of handling user generated content? Ranking the posts is another issue. Is that where the value of Reddit lies? Maybe one could build some hybrid thing which capitalizes on existing structures? I could imagine a frontend which only shows pos…

Three big issues off the top of my head: * Hosting costs. Reddit was very lucky to have imgur pick up a lot of its bandwidth in its early days, but free image/video hosting sites are cyclical: absent a benevolent billionaire, the costs will rise with popularity, and the site will eventually need a source of revenue, which will introduce friction and start its inevitable decline in popularity. * Moderation. Always a h…

Network effect is the biggest one IMO.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#133

Post by NikkiA »

optimalsolver wrote: post #41
Levitz wrote: post #30

Subreddits are literally controlled by volunteers who get paid nothing. What is stopping them from just going out for a month? It ought to be a month of vacation time, right? You could argue they might lose users, but who cares, Reddit suffers more from loss of users than them anyway.

Reddit can replace the mods at any time, if necessary with their own staff until they get volunteers.

That only works for the top few dozen subreddits, the ones that were once 'default' subreddits, they can't afford to pay people to sit and moderate the other hundred thousand subreddits all day long.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#134

Post by liotier »

ninth_ant wrote: post #52

Can someone explain why this is such a big deal to some people? I legitimately don’t understand why this matters. Third party clients seem to be fairly niche with limited usage, I’m not sure why inexpensive access to an API is a required right for forum software. I don’t expect this to affect my usage of Reddit at all, and wondering who and what it does affect aside from a small number of third party client users. To…

> Third party clients seem to be fairly niche with limited usage

Reddit's "new" UX is so dismal that they keep "Old Reddit" alive so that they don't lose their mature users en masse. On mobile, I would not even try to wrestle with Reddit's own - I depend entirely on the "Reddit is fun" Android third party client.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#135

Post by rekoil »

transcriptase wrote: post #69
londons_explore wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Removing some moderators would probably anger other moderators...

And those can be replaced with what has to be an infinite pool of people willing to volunteer as thought-police for a public company.

I can vouch that it is not infinite. You couldn't pay me to do that shitty job.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#136

Post by dom96 »

rekoil wrote: post #130
dom96 wrote: post #122

I've been following this since it erupted and am currently developing something that I hope will either enable the Reddit community to transition to a new home or force Reddit to abandon its paid API plans. The first step in my plan is to implement a read-only API proxy which does not use Reddit.com's API but instead scrapes the necessary data. This should cover 80% of the API traffic, if it works then third-party ap…

Why not just impersonate the official mobile app and use its API?

That's another option. Scraping the webpages isn't actually that difficult (though admittedly it is likely to be less reliable).

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#137

Post by SecretDracula »

lucb1e wrote: post #124
SecretDracula wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good reddit alternative needs to offer something fun. It can't just be a link dump/political soapbox, because reddit is already a link dump/political soapbox. I know it's not popular here, but look at the success of TikTok. It attracts users because it's fun. People go there to laugh, enjoy themselves, and share stuff they've made. Sure, there is lots of politics on there too that users engage with, but that's not…

> A good reddit alternative needs to offer something fun. It can't just be a link dump/political soapbox, because reddit is already a link dump/political soapbox. Huh? If reddit is a political soapbox for you, you're not subscribed to the right subreddits. They already offer something fun by default: the homepage consists of nearly only funny posts when I open it in a private tab right now. And that formula clearly w…

Reddit has lots of politics on the default front page, even on subs that aren't explicitly political. But my point was that a reddit replacement needs to have all the fun stuff that attracted reddit's userbase. It can't just be the political extremists who have been permabanned.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#138

Post by koheripbal »

dingledork69 wrote: post #35
Levitz wrote: post #30

Subreddits are literally controlled by volunteers who get paid nothing. What is stopping them from just going out for a month? It ought to be a month of vacation time, right? You could argue they might lose users, but who cares, Reddit suffers more from loss of users than them anyway.

Addiction and the fear that reddit staff will just appoint new mods, like they've done before.

Also, the mods don't do it for free at all. They get paid to promote content.

All the primary mods on the big subs also have online social media marketing consultancies.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#139

Post by aeturnum »

germinalphrase wrote: post #103
aeturnum wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the depends on if you think the moderator role is truly impactful in a meritocratic way where better work is rewarded with higher quality communities and content V.S. a largely rote role which involves correctly implementing the community rule set. If the former is true, the moderators aren't really "replaceable" in that way. You can fire them, but the output of your product will suffer as a result. In that…

“ If the former is true, the moderators aren't really "replaceable" in that way. You can fire them, but the output of your product will suffer as a result” Sure - the cost would be higher, but is that cost actually higher than allowing insurgent moderators to retain control over very prominent subreddits and, presumably, shut them down? Doubtful. There’s no way Reddit would allow moderators to “take down” Reddit.

I mean, I think there have been plenty of examples of new moderation teams being able to kill popular subreddits. So I do think there's a good chance that the option is illusory. The subreddit will die if you piss off all of the moderators at the same time and it kind of doesn't matter if it's through a protest you won't listen to or by firing them.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#140

Post by worldofmatthew »

koheripbal wrote: post #138
dingledork69 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addiction and the fear that reddit staff will just appoint new mods, like they've done before.

Also, the mods don't do it for free at all. They get paid to promote content. All the primary mods on the big subs also have online social media marketing consultancies.

Most do it for free. Powermods often are getting paid to promote stuff.
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