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Apollo will close down on June 30th

old.reddit.com

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Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#391

Post by dbbk »

Panoramix wrote: post #146
dtech wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest it sounded like that to me too. It's very hard to differentiate between some honest clumsy phrasing and fishing for a payout, and the "clarification" doesn't help with that since it could also be an excuse to save face.

Maybe with text snippets, but I don't see how somebody can listen to the conversation and come away with the idea that the dev was blackmailing anyone. https://christianselig.com/apollo-end/reddit-third-call-may-...

I don't really buy the phrase "go quiet" in terms of API usage, it does sound like the developer was backtracking when called out on it

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#392

Post by zamalek »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #280
zamalek wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The angle was " buy Apollo from me": > "If third-party apps are costing Reddit so much money, why don't they just buy them out like they did Alien Blue?" That was the point I brought up. If running Apollo as it stands now would cost you $20 million yearly as you quote, I suggested you cut a check to me to end Apollo. I said I'd even do it for half that or six months worth: $10 million, what a deal! And it would have…

>And it would have been a deal: 6 months of opportunity cost upfront to then turn into real profit. Instead they are permanently lose the [possibly] majority of that opportunity when those users lose access to Reddit. I dont think that is accurate. Reddit doesnt make 20M a year if they buy Apollo in this situation. If something costs 20 million/yr to operate, buying it doesnt reduce that cost. You are just out 10M up…

> Reddit doesnt make 20M a year if they buy Apollo in this situation.

They claim that they would.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#394

Post by s1artibartfast »

jmholla wrote: post #356
Pyxl101 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've listened to the voice call [1] linked in [2] and I interpret it the same way that Reddit staff apparently did -- as a veiled threat. Here's why: Christian is saying during the call that if Reddit wants Apollo to "quiet down", then to "make it easier" on everyone, Reddit should pay Christian $10 million dollars. I agree that there is ambiguity to the conversation, but if you listen to the exchange in context ...…

> What is Reddit buying for $10m? The answer that "Christian will shut down the app and go quietly" is the only answer that makes sense in context. They're buying Apollo. Then they can shut it down and make the app stop making API requests.

They don't need to buy Apollo for it to shut down, that's the point. Apollo gets shut down with or without the buyout, so what exactly is the $10 million payment securing

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#395

Post by PettingRabbits »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #74

I'm not a user of Apollo, and honestly have been perfectly fine using old.reddit.com on both mobile and desktop. That said, while I realize it's just his side of the story, the Apollo developer comes across as imminently reasonable and rational (and he apparently has the receipts to back it up), while Reddit comes across as embodying typical corporate greed. On a related note, I think everyone should understand that,…

I enjoyed the .compact version of old.reddit.com until they recently got rid of it. Since then my engagement has plummeted, which is probably a good thing...

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#396

Post by Zetice »

wolpoli wrote: post #29

> Steve: "Apollo threatened us, said they’ll “make it easy” if Reddit gave them $10 million." Steve: "This guy behind the scenes is coercing us. He's threatening us." I can't believe that CEO of Reddit was telling internal people that Apollo tried to blackmail Reddit for a $10 million payout when that didn't happen.

And you know he's reading these.

Steve, come on. Maybe Apollo shuts down, maybe you figure something out, but this whole thing becomes a lot easier to judge as an outsider if one group starts throwing mud like this. You should know better.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#397

Post by malermeister »

detourdog wrote: post #164
eiiot wrote: post #135

Losing one of the best Apps on the app store is really heartbreaking. Although I'm hoping for Apollo to be open-sourced, it's probably unrealistic.

He should just make a new service and point the app at that.

There's already lemmy, a fediverse reddit alternative!

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#399

Post by moffkalast »

DHPersonal wrote: post #313
bogwog wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this guy didn't handle this situation very well. I don't know if it would've been possible to save Apollo for reddit, but that call didn't help at all. Also, what's the deal with him not wanting to start a competitor? That's like his only bargaining chip in this situation, and he's just throwing it away because he feels overwhelmed and wants to make iOS widgets. I totally sympathize with him and how this situati…

Why don’t we all monetize our hobbies? Why don’t we market our personal lives? Why don’t we each have our own line of branded merchandise? Why haven’t we written a memoir? Because some people don’t want to! And that’s okay.

And frankly it's a failing of society that we would ever need to.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#400

Post by golemotron »

> Six weeks later, they called to discuss pricing. I quickly put together a small app where I could input the prices and it would output monthly/yearly cost, cost for free users, paid users, etc. so I'd be able to process the information immediately.

Spreadsheets.. (cough, cough)

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