Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 217 posts

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#201

Post by WaffleIronMaker »

nbar1 wrote: post #168
thomastjeffery wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people use third-party apps. Reddit's app has terrible UI/UX, as does the website redesign (new.reddit.com, which is the default www.reddit.com). The only good UI/UX is old.reddit.com, which isn't very good on mobile.

> A lot of people use third-party apps. Where do you get this information from? And what is "a lot"? I'd wager 99% of Reddit users (therefor, income) use the official reddit app and new website.

Yes! I think the difference is between people who use Reddit as a feed versus a forum. For a Hacker News audience seeking to engage with forum-like content, the new redesigns clearly do not fit their needs. However, to a general audience seeking to find a feed of content and interesting comment sections, the new redesigns are much more palatable.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#202

Post by jahlove »

beezlewax wrote: post #31
Simulacra wrote: post #8

I presume that going dark means that there will be less traffic on the site, which ostensibly would put pressure on the ad revenue. How long would this have to go on before it was a noticeable effect on read its balance sheet?

I can't imagine it will have any noticeable effect on their ad revenue. We are talking about a handful of subs out of thousands.

We're talking about over 1,000 subreddits (and growing rapidly), including some of the very largest (~6 of the top 10, such as /r/pics, /r/aww, and /r/videos).

It will almost certainly have a noticeable effect, especially if many of these subreddits decide to hold the blackout indefinitely.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#203

Post by brailsafe »

evandale wrote: post #141

I hope something new comes along. I'm getting sick of reddit. They way they allow moderators to run subreddits nowadays is ridiculous. Especially city subreddits that should be completely unbiased and welcoming to all in the region. The r/Toronto city subreddit is absolute garbage now because of what the mods have done. They decided they would have "no-crime January" as a trial to see what the subreddit looks like if…

Don't forget that if you don't like Trudeau, you must want Canada to join the states because you're a truck driving gun-nut bigot who also wants to ban abortion and hates lgbt people.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#204

Post by Eisenstein »

Semaphor wrote: post #200
Eisenstein wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every reddit account gets API access with OAth. No payment needed.

Uh, no, that’s the upcoming change.

Sorry friend, you are incorrect.

* https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13wshdp/api_update...

"If you are using OAuth for authentication: 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id

If you are not using OAuth for authentication: 10 queries per minute"

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#205

Post by Semaphor »

Eisenstein wrote: post #204
Semaphor wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, no, that’s the upcoming change.

Sorry friend, you are incorrect. * https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13wshdp/api_update... "If you are using OAuth for authentication: 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id If you are not using OAuth for authentication: 10 queries per minute"

Wait, what? This is news to me. Why is this not mentioned anywhere? How does this not solve this for almost everyone? I already authenticate through oAuth anyway, wouldn’t this then just require inputting my own API key?

edit: Ah, it also requires applying for an API key on their support website which may or may not be granted to you by Reddit and might take some amount of time. That is not comparable to having proper API access.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#206

Post by Semaphor »

Semaphor wrote: post #205
Eisenstein wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry friend, you are incorrect. * https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13wshdp/api_update... "If you are using OAuth for authentication: 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id If you are not using OAuth for authentication: 10 queries per minute"

Wait, what? This is news to me. Why is this not mentioned anywhere? How does this not solve this for almost everyone? I already authenticate through oAuth anyway, wouldn’t this then just require inputting my own API key? edit: Ah, it also requires applying for an API key on their support website which may or may not be granted to you by Reddit and might take some amount of time. That is not comparable to having prope…

And even worse, it’s not clear you are even allowed to use your own API access with a third party API, the ToS might forbid that as it’s not your (the person requesting the API key) app you are using it for, but someone else. That would make the whole thing completely useless.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#207

Post by ananth99 »

jacooper wrote: post #12
dsm4ck wrote: post #7

I really hope one of the bigger third party apps finds a way to just point their front end to a reddit clone and eat reddits lunch.

I keep hearing this, but how many of reddit users actually use third party apps? If Twitter proved anything, its that its really hard to kill a popular social media network, no matter how badly managed or drama filled it is.

I moved from Reddit's official App to Apollo about 2 months ago because of huge battery drain and haven't looked back since.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#208

Post by stuff4ben »

teaneedz wrote: post #173
stuff4ben wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having tried to use Apollo several times over several years, I keep coming back to the official Reddit app. It works and I'm just used to it. I like the UI much better and it feels normal. Nothing Apollo provides was that much of an improvement over the default app IMO.

Are you a dev for the app or Reddit employee? The official app is a case study in bad UX design. The only positive reviews in the app store are easily identified as bot or part of paid for campaigns. The recent reviews though tell how more average users view the official app…and it’s not very good.

Nope, just a plain average user. And I never leave reviews for apps, positive or negative. Most people complaining are NOT average users. Which is why this is just a bunch of nonsense.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#209

Post by thomastjeffery »

WaffleIronMaker wrote: post #201
nbar1 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of people use third-party apps. Where do you get this information from? And what is "a lot"? I'd wager 99% of Reddit users (therefor, income) use the official reddit app and new website.

Yes! I think the difference is between people who use Reddit as a feed versus a forum. For a Hacker News audience seeking to engage with forum-like content, the new redesigns clearly do not fit their needs. However, to a general audience seeking to find a feed of content and interesting comment sections, the new redesigns are much more palatable.

That difference is important, because it's the first group that actually makes content.

Without those users, there is no platform.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#210

Post by evandale »

brailsafe wrote: post #203
evandale wrote: post #141

I hope something new comes along. I'm getting sick of reddit. They way they allow moderators to run subreddits nowadays is ridiculous. Especially city subreddits that should be completely unbiased and welcoming to all in the region. The r/Toronto city subreddit is absolute garbage now because of what the mods have done. They decided they would have "no-crime January" as a trial to see what the subreddit looks like if…

Don't forget that if you don't like Trudeau, you must want Canada to join the states because you're a truck driving gun-nut bigot who also wants to ban abortion and hates lgbt people.

There is enough variety with wider regional subreddits on the national/provincial scale so that doesn't bother me much. The Toronto subreddit is by far the most dominant and the only general Toronto subreddit worth subscribing to which makes the censorship more aggravating because you can't really get Toronto news elsewhere on reddit.
Post reply on HN