Come on, it's web we're talking about here. How difficult is it going to be to scrape the data and present it in a nice format to the user? I bet apps will show up that do just that very quickly.
Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
321–330 of 438 posts
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#322Why should the apps have to pay? Why can't reddit provide a paid version that allows you to access the APIs, which the external apps can then use? You already have to log in to them anyhow so it's not like you'd need an extra API key or anything. $20/year is probably an order of magnitude more then they make on ads served to me. The weirdest thing about the ad economy to me isn't that it exists, but as I've banged on…
That idea came up in the massive thread created by the author of the iOS app Apollo. A compelling reason it wouldn't work is it creates confusion and tension between Reddit, Apollo and the user when things don't work, as well as with regards to who's paying for what. If I have to pay Reddit $10/mo to use it, why do I also have to pay this app developer $1 to use their app? When it fails, is it Reddit who owes me supp…
But are average users the ones who are paying extra to use a third-party client?
I think we've seen with Twitter that third-party clients are not the majority of users, but rather a vanishingly small yet more technical and more enthusiastic group of posters.
That might be different for Reddit, since Reddit's app is broken and stupid in many ways that the official Twitter app was not (though it, too, was garbage), but I think it's still relevant.
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but that symbiosis community stuff is for when you're still growing. Once you're big, it's time to pull up that ladder, put on the corporate mask, and start cranking that ad revenue at all costs. You've got a million rubes doomscrolling past your homogenous r/funny - i mean, r/all - slurry who don't know the difference between an ad and a real post. People who care about things like UX and quality posts are a mi…
I don't understand why they don't either mandate ad display on third-party apps, or waive API fees for third-party apps that show ads in an approved manner. I'm sure there's a reason, but I'd rather be able to use Apollo even if it shows ads as well than to use the official app.
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Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#324I've been a reddit user since 2010. I have over 40k karma points (whatever that means) and I've never once bothered to try any 3rd party app. I was only briefly cognizant of the "old.reddit.com" thing because some subs sidebars hadn't been updated. The official site is fine. I have one or two small gripes about the UI. The official iOS app is also fine. I have a few small gripes about the UI there, too. I guess I wis…
I used the official app for years until I started getting curious about which of my iPhone apps was using like 15 GB of data per month. Deleted the Reddit app and downloaded Apollo and haven’t had that issue since. When I can’t use Apollo anymore I guess I’ll look at HN or some other site more but not interested in going back to the official app.
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but that symbiosis community stuff is for when you're still growing. Once you're big, it's time to pull up that ladder, put on the corporate mask, and start cranking that ad revenue at all costs. You've got a million rubes doomscrolling past your homogenous r/funny - i mean, r/all - slurry who don't know the difference between an ad and a real post. People who care about things like UX and quality posts are a mi…
I don't understand why they don't either mandate ad display on third-party apps, or waive API fees for third-party apps that show ads in an approved manner. I'm sure there's a reason, but I'd rather be able to use Apollo even if it shows ads as well than to use the official app.
Because that is a lot of work to define, manage, and review.
Far more sensible is to charge the apps, and have them monetize with their own ads.
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the problem is really that we need platforms such as reddit on the internet, they are kind of part of its essential infrastructure. But running any infrastructure under the profit maximization scheme will always end up in self destruction. They are making enough money, they can easily go on keeping the API open, but there is no such thing as a sustainable business, they are forced to make more profit than the…
Does Reddit actually make any money though or do they run in the red?
It’s looking like the answer to your question is probably blood red: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/fidelity-...
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#327Come on, it's web we're talking about here. How difficult is it going to be to scrape the data and present it in a nice format to the user? I bet apps will show up that do just that very quickly.
It's true. Especially because Reddit is public. (I think new Reddit isn't public for NSFW?)
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#328The Apollo app lets me use Reddit while signed out. I can favorite some subreddits and browse through them with no fuss. The official Reddit app won't do anything until you sign in. Apollo also has a bunch of life improvement features that the Reddit app will never see such as auto collapsing pinned / auto mod comments, icons that identify newer accounts, and showing who deleted posts.
> The official Reddit app won't do anything until you sign in.
Oh don't worry, that's by no means an oversight.
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the problem is really that we need platforms such as reddit on the internet, they are kind of part of its essential infrastructure. But running any infrastructure under the profit maximization scheme will always end up in self destruction. They are making enough money, they can easily go on keeping the API open, but there is no such thing as a sustainable business, they are forced to make more profit than the…
>But running any infrastructure under the profit maximization scheme will always end up in self destruction. That's why the parts of the internet that are "essential infrastructure" would serve us all better if they were non-profit (or a Benefit Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation ). Watching the promise of the Internet get flushed down the drain, I have developed a healthy appetite for pay…
I still maintain that Usenet was the original 'reddit/digg'. And the webapps competitors have tried to cater, and fail.
I'd rather see a newer Usenet protocol... Say something that also integrates with the Fediverse. But there's no "money" for open protocols, even though companies again and again try to emulate "Usenet, but profitized".
This feels like a longer tail of the image hosting problem, btw.
Re: Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases
#330Reddit is past its expiration date anyway and I'm surprised no one has created a challenger site. Perhaps this was due to Reddit's friendliness toward programmatic access but it seems they are taking that away. This is a good opportunity to create a new community, and essentially take back messaging from the corporations (let's be real about what reddit is) and put it back into the hands of the people.
I think the problem is really that we need platforms such as reddit on the internet, they are kind of part of its essential infrastructure. But running any infrastructure under the profit maximization scheme will always end up in self destruction. They are making enough money, they can easily go on keeping the API open, but there is no such thing as a sustainable business, they are forced to make more profit than the…
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